PETITION FOR ACCESS TO EPIDURAL DURING NATURAL CHILDBIRTH IN HOSPITALS IN POLAND ''GIVING BIRTH WITHOUT PAIN'' To All Sensitive People We, Polish women have prepared this short petition to ask all sensitive people all around the world to sign and support our call for one of the most basic human rights – the woman's right for access to epidural during a natural childbirth. In Poland women giving birth to their babies are being constantly refused to be given epidural to relieve their pain, although they are prepared to pay for it. The situation is horrible both in city and town hospitals. It is worth noticing that in Poland free epidural is rarity – it is accessible in merely a handful of Polish hospitals. The National Health Service of Poland are claiming not to have a sufficient amount of money on epidural for women giving birth in a natural way. It fact, it is not really true that the National Polish Health Service do not have enough funds for it, but they just claim so. What is more, the Ministry of Health of Poland is not interested in pain relief for women during their child birth. Polish women from all walks of life, irrespective of their financial situation are indeed prepared to pay for the epidural and still they come upon refusal, ignorance, many a time arrogance, irony or even sarcasm of medical staff who happen to say that ''...in fact, every woman is created to give birth and is biologically prepared for an extremely painful labour...'', or, ''...we have a princess here in our ward giving her birth who is asking for pain relief – what a shame'', or ''the pain that comes from your back will be twice as much during your second child birth as you are experiencing now, so be ready for the next time...'', or even ''...why did you f... if you knew you would be suffering now...?'' There are far more despising and humiliating comments printed on the Internet by Polish women who have given their birth in hospitals in Poland that could be cited here, but they would need hundreds of thousands of pages to be copied. (By the way, can you imagine that Gas and Air, Tense Massage and Child Birth with the use of Hypnosis are just being introduced in Poland – now that we have the 21 st century?! The methods which have been successfully applied in other parts of the world for many years, especially the Gas and Air. It should be so embarrassing for Poland). If a woman giving birth in a terrible labour pain is refused epidural, why aren't patients having their teeth extracted refused any anaesthetic?! Why isn't anaesthetic refused in other really minor surgeries?! It is shocking that in the 21 st century when medicine is so highly developed that it can not only save millions of lives but also relieve patients' pain to a great extent, women in the heart of Europe, in Poland, are continuously being refused to have this pain minimised during such an important event as childbirth is. Great numbers of women have had trauma for many years after their child birth and it is still hard for them to get rid of this. We ask you, we beg you, we call and cry for your support. Just one signature in the petition a day will mean so much for us. We hope that Polish women will be able to give birth without being refused this basic human right – the right to minimise the pain. Thank you in advance We - Polish Women