Letters

Not a pretty picture

I am writing to you regarding the cover that was chosen for your June issue. There are a lot of wonderful things to do in Rhode Island in the summer, and staring at a girl in a bikini is not one of them.

Rhode Island has the most beautiful shorelines, the best sunsets, challenging fishing tourneys, world-class music, chowder festivals and WaterFire (to name just a few of the wonderful things to do here). These would have been a much more appropriate display of what Rhode Island has to offer in the summertime.

I would expect this cover picture on Cosmopolitan or Maxim, but not on a magazine created to enhance the cultural experience of this state. Don’t lose touch with who your base readers are: educated, culture-seeking, middle-aged. Half-naked girls is not where it is at for us.

Kelley Brophy
Taunton, Massachusetts

I found your article “Last Call for Sin” [June] about prostitution in Rhode Island both informative and disturbing. The objectification and use of (mostly female) human beings for (mostly male) sexual gratification has a long and sad history in our world. I was glad to see the magazine tackle such a difficult subject; yet at the same time, I wondered who designed your cover this month. At the top right is the banner for the article on prostitution while the model on the cover is barely clad. I wish someone on staff had looked at that and wondered, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

 

Debra Benveniste
Holland, Massachusetts

Labor dispute

Ms. Braccidiferro’s comments on the increasing use of epidural analgesia (pain relief) for labor in the article “Birth Control” [May] does not fully reflect the documented benefits of epidural analgesia and in two instances makes representatations that are inconsistent with current medical knowledge. Pain relief from epidurals does not put “babies at risk for abnormal heart rates and cesarean delivery.” In fact, in the best unbiased studies, epidurals do not increase the rate of cesarean delivery and actually improve parameters of fetal well-being (i.e. heart rate and acid base status). Epidurals have been shown to increase maternal blood flow to the baby’s placenta. Epidurals are a safer option compared to intravenous narcotics, even in early labor.
On published pain scales, the pain of labor has been equated with the pain of cutting off a finger. Epidurals are a victim of their own success. Women request epidurals because nothing else comes close to the complete or near complete pain relief most women desire. Other modalities for pain relief do help women in varying degrees and may suffice for some.

Over the last twenty years, anesthesiologists and obstetricians have worked successfully to make access to “labor epidurals on demand” a viable choice for women nationwide. Epidurals are a safe, and the most effective, pain relief option for mothers and babies during labor.

References for the scientific research quoted here will be available on.

LoriJean Reed, M.D.
Director of Obstetric Anesthesia,
South County Hospital

Brett Arron, M.D.
Anesthesiologist

South County Hospital
Educational Coordinator
Rhode Island Society of Anesthesiologists

Gail Braccidiferro responds: After speaking with many mothers, midwives, physicians, doulas and nurses, it seemed the differences in opinions about birth and birth practices were divided into two categories: those who believe and are trained to view birth as a medical process and those who believe and are trained to view birth as a natural process.

To augment much of the anecdotal information I was told, including information about epidurals, I used specifics cited by Lamaze International (lamaze.org). One of the organization’s six “care practices” is that there should be no routine interventions in birth. Citing numerous studies to support the organization’s beliefs, it names the possible outcomes of epidurals cited in my article. 

Further, Lamaze’s philosophy of birth contends that labor pain actually plays an important role in the birth process. The organization calls labor pain protective and says that when women respond to the pain with movement and other methods, this promotes the progression of labor. The position paper also states that labor pain has been associated with other forms of pain that accompany physical challenges such as climbing and running, and that conquering such pain often results in feelings of euphoria and heightened self-esteem.