In the last month or so we have been absorbing all sorts of information on labor and birth.
It started with the desire for a doula, a professional support person who could advocate for me during birth. Everything I had read pointed to the benefits of a doula, but this article really drove it home, and was a good resource to direct the husband to: The Doula Business printed in Seattle Woman Magazine. And so began my search.
The second doula I interviewed suggested we take her childbirth class so we would have a better understanding of what we were in for. As I mentioned in my previous post, our first class was amazing. She began introducing us to the Bradley Method of coping and relaxing through labor, and was more informational than any of the hospital birth classes we had attended to that point.
We spent the second week too sick to leave the house. The third week one of our classmates went into labor 6 weeks early, thus class was canceled (our teacher was attending the birth as her doula). In the meantime, my sis told me about the documentary on natural childbirth, Orgasmic Birth, which we rented and watched, and I worked on my required reading for the childbirth class.
Boy was all this an eye opener!
Take a few minutes to watch Birth by the Numbers, which was an extra on the Orgasmic Birth DVD. About the same time I read a Mothering magazine article about an Amnesty International report on rising US maternal mortality rates. Combined with my reading of The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer, and I’ve learned that one intervention preformed in a now traditional hospital birthing setting leads to another and another, and so on.
One example, if your water breaks and you go to the hospital, they’ll preform routine internal exams to check for dilation. The more internal exams they do after membranes rupture, the higher your risk of infection. If you are not dilating or contracting, they’ll start you on Pitocin, an artificial oxytocin to try to get things moving along. Apparently too much Pitocin can cause increased pain, which leads to an epidural. An epidural can lead to fever, which is generally a bad sign, so they jump to a Cesarian section. This, of course, is not without its own risks of infection and complications like any other surgery.
Nevermind that apparently they’re starting to link increased sustained use of Pitocin in labor to the increase of Autism.
Then there is that Orgasmic Birth video, where they looked at the pros of labor and delivery in the place where most people are comfortable, home. Home and unmedicated with a loving midwife, doula, the dad to be, and maybe another supporting family member. I’ve always wanted a home birth and this video (filmed completely in New Jersey, stress capital of the world, in my opinion) showed me that it could be done, even in the NY metro area.
So, at 34 and a half weeks, with only six weeks to go, I’m re-evaluating the professionals I want attending my birth. I don’t want to make the same mistake of others I’ve read about. Who have terrible first births for lack of knowledge that there is something better. I don’t want to lose control by stepping foot in a hospital, then having to fight with nurses and doctors to make sure no interventions are preformed against my will. I want to be comfortable and to feel safe in my surroundings during this rite of passage. Pregnancy and birth are natural processes of life, and I feel like I shouldn’t be placed under a microscope as long as baby and I are doing well.
After all, my family will be impacted by the birth of my baby and we will be paying the bill. Might as well be comfortable and happy with the where and how choices we’ve made to bring the new little person into the world.