Following on from the previous post about Hippocrates, I have read an interesting thing about child birth and Christians. The bible, that dusty old book of interesting stories, encourages painful childbirth. Well like a lot of things in the bible it doesn't so much encourage as demand a painful childbirth. Presumably all Christians subscribe to this, I mean it is their holy book. The book of Genesis says "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children" and refers to the punishment dished out by God to Eve for eating the fruit of the garden, which incidentally isn't referred to as an apple. She, and all women from then on, were to experience terrible pain in childbirth which essentially meant that anaesthetic was out. James Simpson, the man who experimented with chloroform as an anaesthetic for women during childbirth, and successfully used it on a woman was going against gods will when he did this, so we can all imagine where he ended up. It wasn't until Queen Victoria that the practise gained wide spread acceptance when she herself was given chloroform during the birth of her 8th child, prince Leopold.
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