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Recently there has been a huge debate on Chinese social media about whether or not women should use anesthesia during childbirth, and if the mother has the right to choose between a C-section or vaginal delivery.The debate was triggered by a tragic event: Ma Rong Rong was a 26 year old first time mother. She was in the hospital waiting to give birth. During her prenatal examination, the doctor discovered that the fetus' head was too big. There was a risk at attempting a vaginal delivery, and they suggested a C-section. However, believing that “natural birth" was the best option, Ma and her entire family (her husband and in-laws) had signed the agreement that the hospital would perform a vaginal delivery regardless.Ma's labor started at 10 am on August 31st. The labor lasted 12 hours and Ma was in excruciating pain for the majority of it. She had repeatedly asked the hospital to perform a c-section, but her family (husband and in-laws) refused to sign the liability form. During this entire time, no anesthesia was given to relieve her pain. Ma eventually couldn't take the pain and jumped from the window of the 5th floor, where her room was located. She died soon after due to massive injuries.This incident had started a national debate on a few different issues, asking who has the right of women's bodies? If a mother wants to decide how she's going to give birth, why must her family sign the form for her? What makes vaginal birth better than C-section and should a woman choose how she wants to give birth? Last but not least, relating to our topic at hand, should women use anesthesia during childbirth?Doctors do give anesthesia during childbirth, such as epidural analgesia and spinal analgesia, but a lot of mothers choose not to take it because it's not natural. During this debate (which I mostly observed, since I never intend to have children), I read a lot of comments from mothers who advocate “natural" birth without anesthesia or god-forbid c-section:The babies are healthier.The pain is a rite of passage for a woman to be a mother,Their mothers and mothers’ mothers had done it just fine, why did we suddenly become so weak?Women are strong, we can take it, for our children.It didn't hurt that much for me, those women must be faking it.All that… ALL delivered with quite a lot of pride and sense of superiority. That somehow being able to give birth without complication is an accomplishment that makes them better mothers than those less fortunate. It’s because of this mentality, that delivery must be excruciatingly painful to be natural, that a lot of women refuse to take anesthesia, that a lot of women don't know there is anesthesia available, and that a lot of hospitals do not have anesthesiologists for labor. It is exactly this kind of mentality that pushed that poor woman into ending her life.I'm not a mother. I never want to be a mother. I have no stake in this discussion, but I don't think anyone gets to say “natural born mothers are better because they can take the pain and women using anesthesia are cowards!”Childbirth is already difficult and dangerous enough. Perhaps as a society we should be more sympathetic to women's pain. Just because most women experience it and just because some women handle it better than others, doesn't make it less horrible, and if some women choose various methods to reduce that pain, it doesn't make them any less “badass". All mothers who went through pregnancy and childbirth are pretty badass to me.Her body. Her choice.Many people commented on anesthesia, vaginal deliveries and C-sections. I did mention this in my answer, but I think it needs a bit more clarification:In China, anesthesia for labor is not as common as it is in the West. A lot of women don't know that there's pain relief for labor, and hospitals (especially local, rural clinics) often don't even have anesthesiologists on-call for labor. As a result, the common impression for many many people is that c-sections (which are performed under general anesthesia) are the only way for women to have a “painless" delivery. That's why the young mother in the incident mentioned, Ms. Ma, begged to have a C-section because of the pain. I suspect if she knew she could have anesthesia, she'd probably have asked for that instead of a c-section.In general, the doctors do have the final say on delivery methods if there's a health risk involved. I think in this situation, the doctors believed, from a medical standpoint, that it was possible to have a vaginal delivery even with the fetus' big head. They did raise the risk, and recommended a c-section just to be safe, but the family chose to have a vaginal delivery instead.In this case, the family did try to sue the hospital and lost. The hospital had very clear documentation saying the risk was clearly communicated, and release form was signed; the mother was healthy without medical problems. The delivery, while long, was normal and without complication… All in all, the doctors believed that she was almost ready to deliver, and the tragedy… The saddest part is that things like this are totally avoidable.

Some do, some don't. Certain clubs and facilities require it due to insurance and liability issues.My understanding is that if I ride helmet less on somebody else's property it's their fault if I get hurt, UNLESS an adult (or myself if I'm 18+ years old) signed a medical release form.I heard it was illegal for minors to ride helmet-less on public land… not sure if that's true or not.

Sorry for the long lead up but the background to this comment is needed.Not to me but about my husband (boyfriend at the time), and she was supposed to have been my best friend(will call her Jo, not real name). In fact, she introduced us!Early hours of January 4th 2004 my husband (Kev) was rushed into hospital due to no circulation to his right lower leg due to Peripheral Vascular Disease. By 9 am that day he was in surgery for 8 hours to try and restore the circulation. He was then taken to ICU because they were having trouble getting him breathing independently again.By the following Wednesday (7th) he is still Intubated and unconscious in ICU when I was pulled aside by the surgeon and advised that the surgery had not worked and thhey needed to amputate his right foot (maybe more) because Gangrene had set in. Unfortunately, due to his condition he only had a 50/50 chance of surviving the surgery and as next of kin I was going to have to make the decision as to whether to go ahead (not much choice really) and sign the release form as Kev wasn’t able to. Thankfully he survived, albeit minus his foot, but was still in ICU.By Friday (7th) I was informed the Gangrene was back and a further amputation was needed to below knee. Once again, against the odds, thankfully he survived and by the following Tuesday was breathing for himself (although highly medicated and not on this planet) and moved to the HDU ward.About this time I managed to find the time to speak to my Jo (my supposed friend) and update her on the preceding events and how Kev was doing…her comment to me (not verbatim but pretty close):-“Well, you might as well leave him now, after all he is no use to you now he is disabled!”There were many things I wish I had said to her after that comment but I was just in shock so put the phone down and didn’t speak to her again for many years (ended up being friends with the wonderful man who became her husband).There is more to the this story regarding Kevs care in hospital and Jo and her husband (our friend) but that will be for other questions