11 MARCH 1960, Page 19

UNNATURAL CHILDBIRTH

Stn.--Isabel Quigly has missed the point of my article on childbirth. Of course the experience may be one of enormous happiness, but my argument is that this is diminished rather than increased by people Who try to persuade mothers in advance into having all sorts of special feelings. (The natural childbirth school are the worst in this respect.) In putting the emphasis more on the birth and the mother's sensa- tions than on the really important thing, the baby, they encourage a pompous kind of introspection which is anything but natural. It is time, I think, to see childbirth as only one of a number of other Physical functions, all of which proceed best with the minimum of self-conscioosness.—Yours faith-