Hard labour would sort Doc out

by Eilis O'Hanlon ©Independent.ie
NOT since Merlin tried to instruct his pet owl on the mechanics of flying in Disney's Sword In The Stone, and got an indignant flea in his ear for his troubles, has there been a more foolish example of someone trying to pull rank on the real experts.
Dr Denis Walsh should have known what he was letting himself in for. As associate professor of midwifery at Nottingham University, he has presumably spent his life surrounded by women. So when he argued, in an article for a journal published by the UK's Royal College of Midwifery, that women in labour should endure the pain of childbirth because epidurals interfered with the development of the mother-baby bond, he must have anticipated a vigorous response from those on the distaff side of the human race who had actually experienced the delights of childbirth rather than just studying it dispassionately from an academic viewpoint.
The response wasn't that slow in coming. Evidence Based Midwifery might not be as prominent on news-stands as Hello! magazine, but bad news travels fast and, by the time word got round about Dr Walsh's infernal cheek in daring to express an opinion about childbirth without ever having endured it personally, women had a new Public Enemy No 1.
So he thinks the pain of childbirth is "natural" and shouldn't be regarded negatively, eh? Here's a red-hot poker, Dr Know-It-All. Bend over, there's a good boy, and let's see what a positive and natural experience we can devise for you too.
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