Instead there was a
birthing chair. The only other furniture in the room was a bed.
I had no drugs, no shave, no enema, minimal time on the external fetal monitor, and use of the
birthing chair (except that it was tipped so far backward as to be an effectual lithotomy position - for the doctor's convenience).
Atthe plant-filled rooftop bar, tiki cocktails are served beneath emerald lighting pendants, which were custom fabricated by Studio Mai, and on the terrace, where African
birthing chairs have been adapted as coffee tables.
We were, as a consequence, encouraged to insist on ample access to
birthing chairs, 'Tens' machines and whale music mix-tapes - all designed to naturalise the process, with all the attendant extra pain that involved.