OB-GYN-L Messages for May, 2006: Re: Fish can't see the water

Re: Fish can't see the water

From: Barbara Nicol

blnicol@ix.netcom.com

Thu May 11 00:04:49 2006

Yes, I've read lots of birth stories, including some of those in Ms. Gaskin's excellent books, and they leave me quite impressed by the randomness of what is claimed to start and stop labor in all the various circumstances! Favorite birth attendant arrives, favorite birth attendant leaves - both are said in various stories to stop labor and get it going (as in Anna's and your stories). Similarly: getting into the shower, getting out of the shower, walking, rocking, backrub, partner arrives, partner leaves, going home, going to the hospital, having the car break down - all have been associated with labor starting and with labor stopping in various individual experiences! I've seen my share of this kind of thing personally, in both directions, of course.

To me this suggests the human tendency to see patterns where there are none. I submit that labor starts and stops a lot, and we as humans tend to attribute the starting/stopping to whatever just happened. It's the old "post hoc ergo propter hoc" logical fallacy, the epidemiologists' demon. For every story like Anne's (and I have similar) where the baby seemed to wait for the right person, there's another where the baby didn't wait, or waited until the right person stepped out for a minute! I think that if we really studied it, we'd find that it's all random, and not under any control at all. Haven't you seen lots of women say "I just don't want to do this anymore" and labor just goes right on anyway, to balance the ones who got breaks when they wanted them, as your obstetrician-patient did?

Skeptically but respectfully -

Barb Nicol, M.D. San Francisco

>>
> I agree that women do not start labor through an act of will. But about
> not being able to start labor by an act of will (don't know too many
> people who can defecate on schedule either) doesn't mean that our
> attitude/emotional state while laboring doesn't affect our performance.
> Both of my books are full of descriptions of such instances.
>
> On the other hand, I've had the experience of stopping a woman's labor
> simply by walking into the room where she was laboring. Has anyone else
> had this happen? She started up again about 15 minutes later, but she had
> to get used to me first.
>
> I did help an obstetrician give birth to her first baby. At one point she
> said, "I don't want to do this for a little while." Then she made a
> horrible-looking face (for a second), her labor subsided, and she got a
> ten-minute rest before active labor started up again. I'm always learning
> things that some women can do that teach me something that I didn't know
> was possible before.
>
> I'm off to Italy tomorrow to talk to midwives.
>
> Ina May
>

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