Fear, Tension, Pain - The Only Thing “Wrong” With Birth, Is Fear.

The only thing wrong with birth, is fear - Now hear me out…

Dr. Grantly Dick-Read was a British obstetrician in the 1930s who although starting out was a very questionable obstetrician, he went on to be a huge natural birth advocate and he laid down some of the very important groundwork for us birth workers today. 

Starting out however, hmmm well… lets just say I’m glad I wasn’t having babies in the 1930s. Basically he thought he would be oh so kind to help labouring women deal with the pain of childbirth by masking them with chloroform until they were unconscious, and then pulling their babies out with forceps….. Yep, he was clearly VERY nice and we should be so lucky to have men doing such wonderful things for us... 

In his defence (I know, defending him – yuck!) he believed he was helping women and making the experience much better for them since it was such a “painful, horrible” thing that women had to go through. Ugh, can I air quote any harder?!

Anyhow, one day Dr Dick was called to the slumps of London where a woman was labouring in a dark room, moaning and groaning, moving around and acting a bit like an animal. She was making deep primal noises and so Dr Dick though he better act quick and get the chloroform, this poor woman is clearly in pain! (Bless his cotton socks). He holds this mask up to the woman and she refuses, tells him to piss off and leave her alone. (Yassssss queen!).

So old mate stands back and watches on as this woman moves around the room, squatting, stomping and swinging her hips. Her intuition was on fire as she breathed deeply through the surges. Dr Dick fought the urge to stand back, he was sure she needed help but thankfully he was a good little boy and stood back to observe (hats off to him, not many OBs are able to do this!)

The woman eventually goes on to birth a healthy baby with no dramas. Once the ‘show’ was over, Dr Dick goes and asks the woman why she refused the chloroform. “Weren’t you in pain?” To which she responded. “No. Was I supposed to be?”

Oft… shocked! And so began the turn of events that actually has us liking Dr Dick…

He spent the next few months studying women giving birth and they all appeared to be in excruciating pain and were so fearful of birth they were begging for the chloroform.  Come WW1, a woman in labour was sent to him in the trenches and she too birthed easily and without a fuss. She had a healthy baby whom she just scooped up and went on her merry way.

What was so different from these women, compared to the ones screaming in agony?

After lots of observation, Dr Dick noted that women who felt safe, supported and comfortable actually birth a lot easier and simpler. He could see that women who were in private, intimate spaces, who were left on their own without distractions to move freely how they needed to, actually pushed their babies out with ease.  

Finally, Dr Dick put it together that it was the women who feared childbirth who had long and excruciating labours, compared to those who were safe, confident and intuitive.

If a woman feared birth this would create tension in her body. You can imagine when you’re tense about something your body somewhat stiffens, you clench your jaw and raise your shoulders, tightening the muscles. After a while this tension turns into pain, your body gets sore, your muscles become tired. This pain intensifies because you’re so scared of it, you fear this pain which makes it worse. So fear creates tension, tension creates pain and pain creates more fear. A vicious, vicious cycle.

So dear old Dr Dick submitted his findings of the fear tension pain syndrome, and was laughed at by his peers. (Poor old doc). Luckily he was a bad ass and didn’t care very much for his peers, he actually went on to publish multiple books and became an advocate for birth without fear, but unfortunately his work didn’t get much recognition until after his death just before the 1960s.

He did however work hard for 35 years trying to change obstetric practices, so thank you Dr Dick.. you did try.. although, you did still drug women with chloroform and yank their babies out with a pair of tongs so, ya know.

What we now know is that when you’re anxious, stressed or fearful during labour, your fight or flight hormones are triggered too early. This means your body does not labour as effectively as it should or could. When there is tension in the body, it limits the oxygen flow down to the uterine muscles and so they do not contract strongly enough to dilate the cervix and push the baby down into the birth canal. Generally, this then becomes failure to progress (a medical term used when labour stalls/stops or doesn’t progress any further), and in most cases ends up in a cesarean section. 

Eventually he realised that mental relaxation techniques actually helped to prevent that fight or flight hormone being released too early, which was inhibiting the release of endorphins which are the bodies natural pain relieving hormones.  So, there is nothing wrong with birth only the fear surrounding it!

Overtime women have forgotten that pregnancy and birth is such a natural, normal process that has just become so medicalised. Fear has been instilled into us through generations of trauma, body image issues and distrust that we often forget that our bodies were built to birth. They were designed to make babies, grow babies, birth babies and then nourish and feed babies. Our bodies were literally built to do this, we do not need help to birth our babies, but it is there if we were to need it, and sometimes we do, absolutely. But for the average, low risk healthy woman birth is almost always safe.

Let go of fear, let go of nerves, let go of any tension you may feel. You were built to birth, you can birth simply, you are a queen who can do anything!! Doing the work during your pregnancy by working on your mindset is such a crucial step when walking into this new life. It’s important not just for the birth, but sets the path for your motherhood journey. 

I'm Tasmyn, I’m a birth and postpartum doula in Perth, servicing far north of the river. I am here to guide you to birth confidently and enter motherhood feeling nourished, honored, and supported. I can teach you how to love and appreciate your birthing body by learning how to trust and work with it during labor and birth.

You can find me on Instagram as @tasmynbeasy_doula, or click HERE to head to my website.