The editor of Grazia magazine has described how she is still traumatised by the birth of her daughter, after being ‘failed’ by a bias towards having a natural labour.
Natasha Pearlman, 35, said she ‘hurt for months’ after her daughter Rose was delivered using forceps.
She described how she had to beg a doctor for morphine while having contractions, after being refused a bed on the labour ward.
Grazia editor Natasha Pearlman, 35, admits that she is still traumatised by the birth of her daughter Rose, now three (pictured together)
Writing about the birth in The Times, she said: ‘It seemed as if they had made the decision, without consulting me, to push me to the absolute limit to deliver the baby naturally.’
Describing how she felt after the arrival of the daughter, who was born in March 2014, Natasha said: ‘I tore. I was cut. I was stitched up. I couldn’t sit down without a rubber ring supporting me (so utterly humiliating) for at least four weeks.
‘I had haemorrhoids. I bled. I hurt for months. Physically and emotionally. I wasn’t depressed. I was in shock. I felt, I suppose, like a failure. I also felt I had been failed.’
The magazine editor said the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) antenatal classes left her fearing all medical intervention, including an epidural, and said the classes were ‘fundamentally no longer fit for purpose’.
She described how she had to beg a doctor for morphine while having contractions and said ‘she hurt for months’ after her daughter was delivered using forceps. Natasha (left) is pictured with former Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman and Glamour editor Jo Elvin
She said there was also an assumption by midwives that she wanted a natural birth, with no other options discussed.
Sarah McMullen, head of knowledge at the NCT, told The Times it was ‘not acceptable’ for someone to leave an antenatal class feeling ‘uninformed’ or ‘fearful of birth’.
MailOnline has contacted the NCT for further comment.
It comes as the Royal College Of Midwives announced that it was backing down on their decade-long campaign for natural childbirth earlier this month, because they say it makes women feel like failures.
Natasha said the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) antenatal classes left her fearing all medical intervention, including an epidural
This means pregnant women will no longer be told that they should give birth without medical intervention.
The organisation said it wants to avoid giving the impression that interventions such as caesareans and epidurals are abnormal.
However, Cathy Warwick, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, denied that the ‘campaign for normal birth’ which has run since 2005, has compromised the safety of women and unborn children.
The magazine editor says she was left feeling like a ‘failure’ following the birth of Rose (picture). However, she says she also feels that she was failed