WOMEN should be made to pay for epidurals during childbirth unless there is a medical need for them, midwives' leaders have argued.
Experts at the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said the move would help stem the growing number of women asking for the injection.
About 20% of pregnant women in the UK have an epidural, which costs about '500 in a private maternity hospital.
The injection relieves agonising pain during birth but the RCM's education and research committee says women having epidurals are more likely to then need some other form of intervention.
This includes using forceps to deliver the baby, or a ventouse pump, which is attached to the baby's head.
Forced
The committee did not say how high the charge should be, but said women wanting one for non-medical reasons should be forced to pay.
The proposal, to be debated at the RCM conference later this year, reads:
"This conference is concerned about the rising epidural rate.
"The conference calls on the UK health departments to ensure that epidurals are provided free to women who have a definitive need, and that a fee is levied for all other women who desire an epidural."
Last October the Cochrane Review of studies of epidurals found that women who chose them were 40% more likely to need intervention.
It also found that women opting for an epidural were more likely to experience a longer second stage of labour - when the baby is pushed out of the birth canal.
Those women also faced a greater risk of being unable to move for a short time after birth and to experience low blood pressure.
SHOULD women in child-birth be forced to pay for their epidurals? Have your say.
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Im sure if it were the chaps that were giving birth there would be no question of daring to charge them.
Typical comment coming from a typical MAN!!
Child Birth = Pain.
If men gave birth it would be routine to give them an epidural 2 weeks before the due date just in case..........
I'm failing to see where my taxes go these days. it seems that everything has to be paid despite almost 1/2 my income going to the government
Yes Chris i agree, mothers who work are the ones who will suffer as we will pay but for the individuals who dont work they will prob get it paid by social security! As per usual we the working people lose out!!
my wfe gave birth 18 months a go and she had a epidural and if it was me i would off need a few keep them free
Katie..I am a woman, I meant that if men gave birth, they wouldn't be asked to pay for an epidural.
before we know it, they'll be charging us for a general to have a hysterectomy or any other procedure. its 2006, we dont NEED do endure pain. damn cheek suggesting we pay extra bearing in mind all taxes we pay!!
I find it hard to believe that ordinary midwives would agree to such a short sighted and counter productive measure, on every level this is a bad move for midwives, and those in their care, can you imagine "Oh, I have money so I can afford an epidural "I don't have the money so I have to suffer???" and if epidurals are not medically necessary, why are they giving them in the first place?
I think this is ridiculous! My mum has an epidural every 3 months not for pain relief during birth, but for her narrowing spine that is fading away - there is no other pain relief that works. Would she have to pay for the treatment? As for all the women who go through childbirth, they need this pain relief, has any man tried to sqeeze a watermelon out of a hole the size of a lemon, no, didn't think so, it could only be a male that could suggest such a thing! Don't you just love the way the taxpayers have to pay more for nothing!!
Alot of midwives haven't even had children so some have got no idea how painful childbirth can be. I've got a little boy and i don't know how i'd of coped if i hadn't had the epidural.
Without the epidural I would've been in serious pain. I was able to enjoy my son being born. To pay for the jab is horrendous. I think you have enough to worry about without another worry trying to find extra cash. It would seriously make me re-consider having another baby as I wouldn't be able to afford the epidural and I don't think I could go through childbirth without one!!!!
I wonder whether this suggestion was put forward by a person who hasnt had a baby - man or woman. Child birth is a beautiful thing and should be an enjoyable event. Being in hurrendous pain, as I was with my first baby, does not make it an enjoyable experience. We pay enough money in taxes so each individual woman should have their say in what way they want their labour to proceed. Lets stop being pathetic, keep it free!
I think that having to pay for pain relief for the "agonizing pain"of child brith under a state funded health care system is no less than misogynist and not too different from treatment of women in Afghanistan, what ever the ideological bias that is presented as the rational for this barbary. If women in child birth are supposed to endure agony, an agony that can last for hours on end, then no man should ever be allowed to have his tooth frozen for dental work, after all, filling a tooth takes less than 20 minutes and a tooth can be pulled in less than three minutes and anaesthetic is hardly "medically" necessary. Having had teeth filled without freezing and going through labour and childbirth - I know that the dental work hurts less. What a bunch of baloney to deny (poor)women in child birth relief from agonizing pain, because any woman who needs pain relief and has the money to buy the epidural will do so.