In the middle of the XIXth century, the queen Victoria de Inglaterra was the first woman of the history in being sedated during a childbearing, which in his case corresponded to his eighth son. As a major number of births took place in the hospitals, the anesthesia turned into a habitual practice.

The general anesthesia, which leaves the completely unconscious mother, at present is used in rare occasions, even if we speak about Caesarean interventions. If he wishes it or needs, the woman receives local anesthesia, but he can observe and take part in the process of the birth and embrace his baby immediately after being born. The local anesthesia blocks the routes that transmit the pain to the brain. It is an agent that happens across the afterbirth and can imply therefore risks for the baby.

The alternate birth methods developed to minimize the use of medicines and to maximize the active participation of both parents. In 1914, a British doctor, Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, suggested that the pain in the childbearing was provoked principally by the fear. To eliminate the last one, he encouraged the natural, consistent childbearing in educating the women on the physiology of the reproduction and preparing them physically in skills of respiration and relaxation during the work of childbearing and the birth. In the middle of last century, Dr. Fernand Lamaze used the method of the prepared childbearing. This skill replaces the ancient answers of fear and pain before the perception of uterine contractions with others learned.

In the Method Lamaze, the woman learns on the anatomy and physiology involved in the childbearing. It receives training to pant and to breathe quickly to the rhythm of the contractions and to concentrate on other sensations. He learns to relax his muscles as an answer determined to the voice of his trainer (generally I handcuff or friend), who accompanies it in the classes and it will take part in the childbearing.

The defenders of the natural methods argue that the use of medicines implies risks for the baby and deprives the mothers of what can be an experience of strengthening and transformation. In some initial studies, the born childbearing babies with anesthesia seemed to show immediate poisonous defects in his physiological answers and shaken motorboats and a slower motor development throughout his first year. Nevertheless, the later investigation suggested that the medicated childbearing cannot produce damage. On having compared the force, tactile sensibility, activity, irritability and bosses of sleep of the mothers' babies who had been medicated or not, no pharmacological effect became clear.