What’s true, pussycat?

I had experienced this phenomenon as well. A colleague and I often joked about it, generally in whispers in the wee hours, when we were waiting for a baby. As I was also interested in alternative ways of assessing labour progress, we came up with the idea that maybe I should write about cats, birth and whether their appearance could help reduce the number of vaginal examinations that were done.

A range of opinions

I decided that I would do that, but first I wanted to test my theory with more midwives. I was teaching workshops at the time, so I shared the ‘cats turn up when women are nearly ready to push’ theory and asked them what they thought. I proposed it as an interesting example of knowledge gained from midwifery experience.

And immediately learned that my experience was by no means universal.

Some of the midwives in that group had very different experiences. They had found that cats are more likely to hang around during the first few hours of labour and then go away as birth nears.

Others said that, as in other aspects of life, they thought cats just did whatever they bl**dy liked, without regard for anyone else.

It seemed I needed to go back to the drawing board as far as that theory was concerned.

More theories

It was also suggested that the degree to which the midwife was a cat (or not cat) person may also have some bearing on the situation!

Cats in the literature

Like any good researcher, I went off and did a literature search. But there wasn’t a lot in the midwifery literature about cats and birth. Their main pregnancy-related claim to fame is their ability to transmit toxoplasmosis, which isn’t exactly fun, but does let pregnant women off litter-changing duty for nine months.

But there were a couple of references. Odent (1992) suggested there there is a correlation between the presence of cats in the house and a fast birth. He speculated that this might be because cat lovers are generally calm people who have the capacity to surrender, or because cats may have bioenergetic properties which influence labour.

Whenever they decide to turn up, cats do seem to quite like pregnant women, and will often head to their bumps, so perhaps there is something in this kind of energy that is worth exploring more.

A lack of research

Despite my chatting about cats for many years now, I’ve not seen any significant research studies on this topic. In one way, that’s a shame, because research data might help confirm or refute some of these possible associations, and maybe we could learn something significant or interesting.

One major barrier to such a study, however, is the fact that the majority of women give birth in hospitals, where cats aren’t allowed.

In fact, this isn’t just a barrier to research. It also raises a bigger question. Why should those opting for hospital birth miss out on the cat-related benefits that home-birthing women enjoy?

Hospital cats

This is where, when I am speaking about the evidence for cats and birth, I am (mostly) joking, but I should clarify this here, because a few people think I am serious. But imagine the possibilities…

For animal lovers who prefer not to use animal-derived drugs to augment their labour, offering the presence of a friendly feline as an alternative might improve satisfaction and outcomes.

Even better, installing cat flaps in labour room doors (which, hopefully, remain a barrier to uninvited human visitors) and allowing maternity cat assistants to roam freely might reduce the number of women whose labours fall foul of the dreaded partogram lines. 

Then, if we did discover which cats turn up and when, we might – as I mentioned at the beginning of this article – further reduce the need for vaginal examination.

Maternity cat assistants

Joking aside, animals are often resident in nursing homes, where they have been shown to help improve people’s morale and even lower their cholesterol (Johnson 2002). Although I realise this is not a possible reality, it’s a bit of a shame. I suspect that a couple of antenatal ward cats could make hospital a more pleasant place to stay, especially for those women who have to take up residence for one reason or another.

Don’t hold your breath

Let’s pretend for just a minute that I am half-serious about this being a proposal which might make a positive difference to women.

I can see three main reasons why none of this is likely to happen – and none of them relate to the fact that some women aren’t as fond of cats as others.

(That’s because women’s views are sadly often the last thing that is considered when policy decisions are made.)

First of all, our institutions are based firmly around policies which tend to give higher priority to order and control (e.g. of infection) than to human needs.

Secondly, the risks (hair, litter boxes and small balls underfoot) will be assessed before the potential benefits are considered, rendering the very idea of hospital cats inconceivable.

Finally, the only evidence for the benefit of cats in labour comes from the experience of those attending births in women’s homes, not from medical opinion or quantitative research.

And medical opinion and quantitative research are given more status in decision-making than other forms of knowledge.

What could we learn?

I do think there is much we can learn from animals, in so many ways.

But many of the things that we might be able to explore are suppressed by the ways in which our culture values some types of knowledge and information over others.

Our medicalised approach to birth also means that we don’t value certain things. I’ve seen women be calmed in labour by their cat, dog or rabbit, but there really is no way that this would ever be considered worthy of attention from the medical world.

The same thing happens with non-medical, non-pharmacological things that can help people feel calm, or that bring certain benefits.

This situation is likely to continue until we can re-establish the social significance of birth, and get people to take a wider view of knowledge. Our institutions continue to embrace only the technological and the complicated, and eschew the simple, everyday things which might make a difference.

But there’s a bit of hope too. In the decades since I first wrote about cats and birth, midwives and birth workers who work with women in their home environments still speculate about whether cats are more likely to turn up or leave at different stages of labour.

Perhaps one day we gather enough data to figure out a working theory on this.

I don’t imagine that we will ever hear the sound of furry paws in a maternity ward, however, which I think this is a bit of a shame. Because I really do think that, if we paid enough attention, cats could teach us a thing or two.

References

Johnson R (2002). Proof Paws-itive http://www.nurseweek.com/news/features/02-11/paws.asp (website sadly now removed, we’re trying to locate another source for the article).

Odent M (1992). The Nature of Birth and Breast-feeding. Bergin and Garvey, London.

The photos that illustrate this blog post feature Vera and Bella Kirkham 😀

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