Possible Relationship of Post-Partum Psychiatric Symptoms to Childbirth Education Programmes

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Abstract
Following the publication of Lamaze's ‘Painless Childbirth’ in 1958 [1] and Le-boyer's ‘Birth Without Violence’ in 1975 [2], pregnant women and their partners have become increasingly interested in ‘natural childbirth.’ The term natural childbirth is a popular and highly emotional concept that means different things to different people, but it is increasingly coming to mean that the pregnant woman and her partner assume maximum responsibility during normal labour and delivery, with medical intervention being kept to an absolute minimum. It often includes the presence of the partner and parent-infant contact immediately after delivery. Many women and their partners interested in natural childbirth enroll in prenatal classes, whose primary focus is to maximize the woman's participation and minimize medical intervention in the normal birthing process. There is now a vast and rapidly growing literature describing the positive effects of pregnant women maintaining control over their pregnancy, labour, and delivery and one cannot help but feel enthusiastic about the overall positive effects [2,3,5,6]. However, we have recently had cause to wonder if there are negative sequelae for some women and their partners [7].

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