My eco-warrior husband wants me to refuse gas and air during labour
My husband is a self-confessed eco-warrior and one of the things I loved about him when we met at a festival over 10 years ago was his passion for saving the planet.
While it had never been top of my agenda, I was happy to follow his example – swapping all our cleaning products for eco alternatives, using our bikes to get around and then more recently swapping out the diesel car for an electric one. Now I’m pregnant with our first child and I’m sure we’ll raise our children with the same values.
However, at a recent antenatal class when we learnt about baby delivery options my husband announced that there was no way I would have gas and air during labour because of the impact on the environment.
I laughed out loud when he said it, assuming he was joking. The look on his face told me that he wasn’t. He shoved his phone at me to show me an article about the Scottish Government writing to the NHS about the impact of greenhouse emissions from Entonox, which is commonly known as “gas and air”.
He smugly told me that they were urging for greater awareness of the effect it had on the planet and wanting pregnant women to play their part in tackling greenhouse gases and climate change.
Needless to say you could cut the atmosphere in our antenatal class with a knife. Like me, people assumed he was joking at first. I tried to stay calm as I pointed out that, while I was in labour, I would do anything I needed, and indeed wanted to do, to make the whole process easier. He objected vehemently to this and didn’t back down. In fact he seemed insulted that I would put myself, and indeed our child, before the environment.
He claims Entonox use in Scotland is equivalent to 18,000 transatlantic flights. I lost my cool and stormed out, outraged that he won’t prioritise me, and that he embarrassed me in public.
Later on, back at home, he didn’t relent. And neither did I. I explained to him that while I am proud of him for fighting to save the planet, this is one step too far.
My antenatal mum friends think he’s being ridiculous too and my parents say that I need to ignore him and put myself and our child first.
It’s not like one person refusing gas and air is going to save the planet but he’s refusing to see my point of view. He says that if everyone took my selfish attitude the planet wouldn’t stand a chance.
But I don’t see how it can be selfish to want something to make labour less painful! If it was him in agony with a broken leg, I doubt he would be so keen to go without the gas and air. The truth is I’m terrified about giving birth as it is and now I feel completely let down by his lack of support. At the moment I can’t even stand to be in the same room as him, let alone have him present at the birth.
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