Igros Moshe (YD II #75 p140) His wife wants to be a awake at the time of her birth because they say that the labor pains will be a little easier by distracting her from the pain. If you were to ask me, I would not advise doing this because the birth pains are so great that the distraction will not be of any use and it is only a matter of tricking the mother. However if the woman wants it there is no prohibition in doing it. And if she does have natural childbirth, How long is the husband permitted to touch her when she is lying on the bed since it is not possible to ascertain when she can no longer to walk which is the time she is prohibited to him because of Nida? The prohibition of Nida is from the time she sits on the birthing stool. In such a case she is prohibited as nida from the time she is told to lie down in bed because of the birth pains and requests the doctor or midwife. The husband therefore needs to treat her as a Nidah since it is not sitting on the birth stool that causes the womb to open but rather the closer it is to the actual birth that makes her want to sit on the birthing stool there is a greater possibility that she will be a Nidah. Therefore the husband needs to be concerned for this and the possibility that she can no longer walk and thus is prohibited as Nidah.
I once asked Rav Moshe Tendler about claiming that natural childbirth just tricks a woman into thinking there is less pain. I said, "that since you are Rav Moshe's adviser concerning science and medicine how could he say this is just a trick?" He answered that he was not the sole source of Rav Moshe's knowledge and that he was unaware of the existence of this tshuva. But in fact he agreed with it.
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