When I was 12 I was given (or so they said at the time) the opportunity to watch my mom give birth to my younger sister. Although this was pretty traumatic for my older sister and I, it really was in retrospect an experience of a lifetime; as well as more than a decade of free birth control for two pre-teens. I never quite understood why women would choose to give birth in a sick house such as a hospital, being brought up by a very worrisome mother who would have you at the doctors office in a jiffy if you started to sniffle I couldn't understand why delivery was considered to be an ailment. Because that's why you go to the hospital right, because your sick, whoever said hey I'm feeling great today lets stop by the hospital.
I have always been very sensitive to energies and I don't know about you but walking through hospitals I get this eerie vibe, I feel sick. The sounds of faint beeping, the smells, the sterile look of everything its all just very cold and uninviting. I've always found them to be as equally creepy as funeral homes, but like I said this was no hard evidence. After all there was not a single person in my family or friends who had ventured down this path of delivering at home with out an OB/GYN, I found it to be almost a taboo thing to talk about. Any one I would talk to about this would get the normal shocked look on their face and generally went to one of two areas of conversation; Pain management or Emergencies.
So I found out I was pregnant and started digging for information. I have never been one to willingly walk into a doctors office, nor do I like sitting on a table with this awkward paper gown on, feet in the air and all my lady parts enjoying the A/C. So I am admitting right now, my research started with the intentions on receiving as little interventions and embarrassing check ups as possible. And I do have to say being 8 months pregnant at the moment I've been successful, but on more of a healthy serious type level than I imagined when I started.
I am not sure if you have ever heard of The Business of Being Born and their second video More Business of Being Born. http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/ . Executive Producers Ricky Lake and Abby Epstein created these documentaries all about birth. Over the course of both of these movies they follow a few celebrity births, they dig into midwifery care in the United States, Obstetrical Care in the United States, VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean), Hospital Births vs Birth Center vs Home Births and typical interventions in our care system in the US.
(Continuing below I just want to touch points on a few topics in their movies, but I highly recommend you watch it for yourself, there is so much more to this movie than choosing natural methods vs hospital methods.)
The first movie blew my mind and I had honestly made up my mind at that point that a homebirth was where I was going to be most comfortable. I am a very private person and I am definitely a home body, I don't prefer conventional medicine, and I want to be in my own space with my own fridge full of food.( YES you can eat during labor) I received so much scrutiny for my decision to birth at home with a midwife that I decided I needed to gather more information so I can be well informed and be able to defend my self against those people who shake their heads at you. In the first movie, they go over incredibly concerning statistics regarding our medical system in comparison to others across the world. Here's a few to get you started:
- The US has the second worst infant death rate in the developed world
- The US has the highest maternal mortality rates among all industrialized countries
- In the US very few doctors actually get to see a un-medicated natural birth prior to practicing.
- Hospitals are businesses they want to serve as many people as possible for the best profits, 90%of women in a hospital have a facilitated birth. The hospital wants your birth to be within a certain amount of time, which often time leads to unnecessary interventions and often times C-Section.
- Midwives attend over 70 percent of births in Europe, while they attend 8 percent in USA, Europe's statistics for healthy births is exceedingly better than USA.
- In the 1900's 95 percent of births occurred at home. In 1935 half of all births took place at home and Today less than 1 percent of births occur at home.
- Breech births account for 4-5% of births and most times they do not teach incoming/new doctors the practice of delivering a breech baby. "When in doubt cut it out"
So the question begs to be asked, if women have been giving birth naturally at home since the beginning of time, Why now is it so detrimental and life threatening that we give birth in a hospital? In other parts of the world they too believe that a hospital is a place for the sick, is that where America has gone wrong?. With all of the great medical advancements why are our infant and maternal death rates so high? These medical advancements are so important for the 2% of mothers/infants that are considered high risk I agree but why are we imposing them on the rest of the 98% of perfectly healthy pregnancies. It seems to me that they are treating pregnancy as a ailment, which is so not the case.
Going off the theory that the body was created perfectly (By whoever or whatever is not my concern at the moment)... Lets start off with the miracle of creating life, This video shows all the complexities of Conception to Birth.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexander-tsiaras/pregnancy-anatomy_b_2499945.html Our bodies build humans naturally, on their own with no direction, no forethought. Our bodies do the same thing with Labor and Delivery. Very rarely do our bodies require assistance in birth.
When we decided to opt out of a doula, Really for no other reason than financial reasons Matt actually found this book "The Birth Partner" by Penny Simkin. so he can be informed about what is going on with my body and how he can help me during my journey.
**SIDE NOTE: Honestly its a good book to read for all first time parents regardless if your going to a hospital or birthing at home because it is so informative from pre-labor to post-delivery there is no stone unturned no questions left unanswered.
Midwives and doctors are there simply to watch for red flags and to educate us on what we are doing and good pain management. Childbirth isn't an ailment and 9 times out of 10 does not require a surgeon (OB/GYN). After speaking with friends who have had babies recently, they've explained how it went and how their doctor really didn't give them options or they weren't made aware of their birthing rights. They felt like they were more or less shoved through this process which is supposed to be an amazing life event. They were told things like "We are putting you on Pitocin if you don't progress in the next hour" (While being hooked up for it) What is that going to do, That is going to stress the mother out and slow down her progress. I have also heard "I am doing an episiotomy otherwise you will rip" without trying any alternative options. Or worse forcing them into C-sections by telling them their babies are too big... (coming out at a whopping 7lbs afterwards) or that the baby's heart rate isn't doing well anymore which is a very real possibility between all of the interventions. Doctors use Pitocin or other such harmful/dangerous medicines to speed up something that will run at its own pace regardless, and add an epidural to ease the mothers pain and discomfort due to the Pitocin, to turn around and require more Pitocin to counteract the effects of the Epidural... Yeah I'd say it's safe to say the baby is in distress. Had that snowball effect not been started in the first place I'd say there's a great chance you could have had a vaginal delivery. And what's even worse, for those mothers like a few of my friends who wanted a natural birth at a hospital (just in case) but didn't get the opportunity the chances of them having a VBAC is slim to none.
More information about the different types of interventions: Choices in Child Birth- Interventions
Some women will say I would have died or my baby would have died if we weren't at the hospital and for some cases that's true, but for most cases you would have delivered that baby at the baby's and your bodies pace just fine. These insanely high C-Section rates (1 out 3, in case you were wondering) wouldn't be what they are if doctors wouldn't have intervened in the first place there wouldn't have been an issue. If you take a low risk mother and let her go through the process or "marathon" there are VERY good chances she will deliver naturally and have a healthy baby with out any complications. If you were to take the same low risk mother and add in all of these interventions which are seeming like standard procedure now a days of course your going to run into major issues and most likely C-Section.
"A study of home births assisted by the midwives of The Farm (Durand 1992) looked at the outcomes of 1707 women who received care in rural Tennessee between 1971 and 1989. These births were compared to outcomes of over 14,000 physician-attended hospital births (including those typically labeled as high risk) in 1980. Comparing perinatal deaths, labor complications, and use of assisted delivery, the study found that "under certain circumstances (low risk pregnancies), home births attended by lay midwives can be accomplished as safely as, and with less intervention than, physician-attended hospital deliveries.".[7]"
What I like most about a midwife is they are for the most part very hands off, they just flat out have faith in the process. But when you have the success rates that midwives and birth centers do I can understand it and respect it. Kimberly Williams-Paisley gave a really great analogy on midwifery care in the More Business of Being Born Eps.1. That if you go for a walk at night its really tempting to take a flash light with you, but you can actually see more with out the flashlight. With out all of the tools you can actually see the big picture better.
"The rate of teen pregnancy in the United States is the highest in the industrialized world," Gaskin points out. "We have the highest maternal health care costs, yet our infant mortality rate is high, millions of women don't get adequate prenatal care and our rate of breastfeeding is low. Education and care by midwives in the neighborhoods and communities could help avoid these problems." -Ina May Gaskin
Over all the benefits and philosophy of a home birth with a midwife made more sense to me than that of the traditional medical system. Giving birth is hard work, its running a marathon I applaud all mothers from all walks of life and birth stories. It was not my goal to put down any ones birth story or make anyone feel less than. I just wanted to provide why this made so much for sense to me. Regardless of what you choose Midwife, OB/GYN, Birth center, Hospital, or Home Birth just know you have rights and a responsibility to know what they are. When looking at what doctors or Midwife you will be using look around on the internet there are tons of questionnaires (see below) out there with all of the important questions to ask. Finding a good doctor is more like going shoe shopping you need to try a few on for size.
A few things to look at when choosing your birth place.Choices in Childbirth- Choosing your Environment
50 questions to ask your midwife
Having a birth plan is so important regardless of where or how you want to have your child.
Free Birth Plan tools:
I believe birth should be an enlightening and empowering experience. Not stressful and full of unanswered questions.
-Ashley
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