Push It: Music for labour and delivery

A couple of days ago now I asked my facebook community a question. I do this regularly and it usually yields fascinating information (or at the very least some good laughs). I’m often surprised by how much people know (or appear to know) about the most obscure topics and how widely opinions can diverge among my friends.

A month or so ago, for example, I asked my facebook friends the following question: “To circumcise or not to circumcise – that is the question. Thoughts?”

I wasn’t at all sure anyone would touch this topic with a ten-foot pole so I was floored when this status update was the recipient of not just a couple, but several dozen comments. These ranged from the laconic and wildly funny, “At his age, I’d say Mike shouldn’t bother”, to more than one diatribe that basically equated circumcision with crimes against humanity. There were also a variety of stories about botched circumcisions or infections in the teen and adult years that were the result of not being circumcised as an infant. Some of these stories were so graphic and horrifying they belonged in book entitled True Life Stories of Controversial Medical Procedures.

Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the entire discussion thread when I was trying to remove some nude spam video from my profile. I took this as a sign that my next book should not be True Life Stories of Controversial Medical Procedures.

This week’s baby-related status question was this: “Thinking about music for a labour-playlist. Did you play music during labour and birth? Any good suggestions?”

Well over half of my own interactions on facebook trend towards flippant or sarcastic, so I’m not exactly sure why I expected people to take me seriously and flood me with advice regarding soothing cello concertos and celestial orchestral pieces. Perhaps because when you’re the one who’s staring down the line at this aforementioned “labour and birth” experience in less than two months it doesn’t look much like a laughing matter. Whatever the reason, I was honestly surprised at the recommendations I did receive. When I could actually bring myself to read them, however, I did laugh. Sort of. A little.

In no particular order, here are ten of the most outstanding (or egregious) recommendations I received for a labour playlist:

1. Push It (Salt n Pepa)
2. Gotta Get Out of This Place (by Barry Mann and Cynthis Weil)
3. Hold the Fort (by Billy Bragg)
4. The First Cut Is The Deepest (by Cat Stevens)
5. Hurts So Good (by John Mellencamp)
6. Bleeding Love (by Leona Lewis)
7. Only Women Bleed (by Alice Cooper)
8. Give Me Novocain (by Green Day)
9. Take Away My Pain (by John Petrucci)
10. This Party Sucks (by The Slicky Boys)

Thank you, facebook friends.

Now, for everyone who may actually be looking for something along those cello or orchestral lines I recommend the following:

1. Suite No 1 in G Major for Solo Cello BMV 1007 (The Essential Yo Yo Ma)
2. Thais: Meditation (The Essential Yo Yo Ma)
3. The Lady Caliph – Dinner (Yo Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone)
4. Amazing Grace (Duane Funderbunk)
5. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor (Classical Chill Disc 2)
6. Pachabel: Canon (Classical Chill 1)
7. Haydn: String Quartet in C Major Op.76 No. 3 (Classical Chill 1)
8. Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2 in C Minor Op.18 (Classical Chill 2)
9. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor Op.16 (Grieg: Greatest Hits)
10. On Earth As It Is In Heaven (Ennio Morricone, The Mission)

What about you? Did you play music during labour and delivery? What? Got any recommendations to add to either one of these lists?