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From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Re: Natural Childbirth by Dave Barry
Message-ID: <925@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Jun-84 18:15:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: eosp1.925
Posted: Wed Jun 13 18:15:52 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Jun-84 01:04:35 EDT
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 29

References:

I hope Dave barry grows up quickly so that his child will have the
benefit of a mature parent as soon as possible.  Most of his
historical data is inaccurate, and most of his attitudes toward
mess, etcetera, are typical of children ages approximately 9 to 13.
One point of information:

The primary reason that doctors today prefer not to fill the woman
full of anesthetic drugs is not, as Barry says, so that she can
share the great moment with the child, but so that the child is not
heavily doped before, during, and after it is born.  An undoped
child is less likely to die in (difficult) childbirth, and may have
some advantages at the beginning of its life.

The second reason is that the undoped woman can control her muscles
and assist in childbirth.  There are a number of medical benefits
associated with this, including, I think, less chance that the
doctor will have to use forceps.  There is a danger of disfiguring the
child when forceps are used.

I took a wonderful photograph of my daughter, 15 minutes old,
focusing both her eyes together to look at her mother.  She was
alert and awake from the start, and those early moments together
for the three of us WERE wonderful...
					- Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
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