Katie Hopkins: You're 'more of a woman' if you say no to pain relief in labour
Motor-mouthed TV presenter has no time for mums-to-be who 'wimp out' with an epidural...
Oh dear, Katie Hopkins has been mouthing off about motherhood again - but this time it is not about baby names, mums' weight gain or even hairy babies (we still can't get over that one). Nope: it's about how you are more of a woman if you have endured the pain of labour. Yes, really. Sigh.
Well, we know what we think about it (er, your body, your choice), but here's what Katie, who says she had all three of her children 'naturally', had to say on the topic on her If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World chat show:
"What I see is a lot of women, you know, 2nd or 3rd contraction, screaming for the epidural," she said. "You've got to say, 'No, it's gonna hurt; you've got to man up, grip it, and take the pain.' And, if you take the pain and give birth vaginally, then you are more of a woman.
"I do really believe if you give birth naturally then you are a stronger, more powerful woman."
Er, right...
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A guest on the show, Ava Vidal, a mum-of-two, was quick to disagree with Katie, though."The painful thing is the parenthood," she said, "so why should I go through all that squeezing them out when it's painful enough? The stress that you go through: why do you want to make it any harder?"
The Twitterati were also immediately up in arms over her comments, with Tweets of rage being fired off in Katie's direction by women astounded by what they had heard.
"Have you felt the pain of pelvic bones splitting when your unborn child is too big to come out normally?" tweeted one, while another raged, "No pain relief going through labour?!?! Let's take drugs away from people having operations, too, shall we?!?!"
Amazingly, a few women did side with Katie though – with one mum claiming she 'loved' the pain and that labour had been a 'walk in the park' (hmm), while another chided mums who 'made a big deal' out of giving birth.
There were a couple of tweets-of-reason amidst the fury though, with this one probably being our favourite (and the most sensible):
"Katie, Katie, Katie! Everybody has a different pain threshold. And every pregnancy and labour is different. #just saying"
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