The Ordeal of Childbirth Certain facts cited by Sir Julien
Cahn at the annual meeting of the National Birthday Trust Fund for the extension of maternity services last week should not pass unnoticed. The subject was the use of chloroform capsules for the relief of pain in childbirth. Investiga- tions carried out in a number of hospitals showed that in 98 per cent. of cases substantial relief had been effected. This bears out the experience of Queen Charlotte's Hospital, where the method has been extensively tested and where no death of mother or child has been attribu- table to the use of chloroform. Not less than two-thirds of the confinements in this country are conducted by midwives, without a doctor's co-operation. ' Midwives may not administer anaesthetics in the ordinary way, but in such cases the chloroform capsule can be crushed by a second attendant and the contents inhaled by the patient, with very beneficial results. The amount of chloroform in each capsule is small enough to be cow. pletely safe if properly administered, and experience has, in fact, shown that the risks are negligible. • Pain is an evil, not a good, in itself, and if the pain of_childbirth can be thus simply and safely relieved, it unqueStionably should be—and on as wide a scale as possible: - -
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