Dilemma - Natural Birth or Not?

The birth of our child has been a hot topic lately in our household and we are facing the dilemma of what is best all round.

I have to say, this is not a debate easy for men to relate to. We watched some program for a bit last night called 'Out of My Depth' where Amanda Holden spent time as a nurse on a maternity ward. She was all laughs and jokes, much to the chagrin of her mentor, until she got a full graphic view with stereophonic sound effects of a live natural birth.

That shut her up.

To be fair it shut me up too. My wife, when suffering badly at week 22 with a fibroid, had to spend time at Watford Delivery suite and we were stuck in a waiting area next to thin wall behind which we got the full, blood-curdling screams of agony of a lady in labour. It sort of focused my mind on why a woman would go through that sort of agony for any price. The only possible thing I could think of as an equivalent would be going to the toilet after a long period of constipation and passing the stool the size of a garden gnome. The mere thought brings tears to my eyes.

My wife has a dilemma. She is 43 and this has been a precious pregnancy in all respects after we have waited so long and so many varied efforts. Then came the massive fibroids which induced contractions which caused my wife to be hospitalised for a few days - to boot she has a great deal of internal scar tissue from laser treatment and operations on her endometriosis and a cyst on her ovary. There is a lot that could go wrong during birth, and my semi-scientific viewpoint would be surely it would be better to have a controlled birth in the presence of a team of medics ready for any eventuality rather than the ad hoc team on hand for a natural birth. To me it just makes sense.

My wife sees the logic of my argument but like most women dismisses the pain as a short term price for a long term gain. She is sort of backed by our consultant who believes that because there is so much scar tissue present that maybe it would be more sensible not to cut as the healing time would be longer and the process subject to less variables. I am not convinced. After all my wife has been through, I cannot see the medical argument at all when based on nothing concrete.

I am sure many husbands understand my views and perhaps those as old as me, who appreciate this is all rather incredible late in life, would believe that a controlled, monitored and painless birth would be the wisest choice.

Or maybe I'm the daft one.