Research on birth and homebirth

So after my first birth experience I began reading everything I could get my hands on about childbirth and that led way to reading everything I could find on homebirth. It became painfully obvious that my doctor either got his MD at K-Mart or just plain didn't care. My daughter was turned posterior, she was facing up when she came out and babies should be facing down. Painful back labor, what I had, is a classic sign of posterior baby. Every book I read stated this very clearly, AND that the mother should be on her side, hands and knees or some other position that gets her off her back! My doctor didn't want to be inconvenienced with such positions. I have no doubt that I could have trimmed at least a full hour off of my pushing phase if I had been allowed to get off of my back.


During this time my very good friend told me her birth story and it made mine look like a walk in the park. Her doctors told her she was overdue, the baby was too big. They tried to induce her by various means. The end result was an emergency cesarean. What was really frightening was that every scenario that she described to me during her threes days of trying to have the baby, was text book. It was like reading Shiela Kitzinger's "Childbirth". Each time the doctors use fear, tell you you can't do this, your late, your baby is too big, they cause stress hormones to be released. These shut down your body's hormones that help labor progress. Even women who are having relatively easy labors but choose to have a "routine" epidural, so they don't have to deal with labor pains are risking cesarean. The epidural drops the baby's heart rate, or the mom's blood pressure, and there you go, another excuse for the doctors to intervene when a little support and patience would have done the trick. 


The entire hospital birthing process is managed like a medical condition. The staff operates based on fear, the worst case scenario and so it becomes very much like a self fulfilling prophecy. Why are women allowed to eat or drink during their labors? Because they might aspirate? Why would they do that unless they were given anesthesia for cesarean? Everything is geared towards that.

Knowledge is power. Know what your body can do. Know what the effects of the decisions that the doctors and nurses make for you are. Make informed choices. When you do this you will be empowered to do the right thing for you and your baby, even if that means choosing a cesarean. It should be your choice, not make for you.


Coming next…. What a little information can do…

How it at all began

I have to confess, I have been an accountant for the past twenty years, so you may ask, "How ever did you come to be a Birth Doula?" It's a good question and goes back quite a ways. I had my first baby over 17 years ago. When I found out I was expecting I went to the local OB/GYN and that was about it for my reseach on what was about to happen to me. Unfortunatelty many young women do exactly the same thing. You just assume that the doctors have your best interest at heart and will do what is best for you and the baby. Then I remember back to when my dad told what assuming does, ~ it makes an "ass of u and me."

Truth be told I was very lucky. I had an easy pregnancy and very easy labor, that is until the doctor got involved. I arrived at the hospital at 6:30 am and when the doctor checked me at 7:30 I was seven cm dialated. So far so good. My only trouble was the constant back pain. The nurse let me lay on my side and I had pressure on my back and all was well. But the minute the doctor came in he wanted me flat on my back. I instictively just wanted to put my hands down and push up so there wasn't any pressure on my butt. But again, that wasn't convenient for him. This back and forth dragged my pushing phase out to 2 and a half hours. At this point the kind doctor in his infinite wisdom decides it is time for a forcepts delivery. Forget that I have had no pain medication at all. In goes one and my eyes fly open , I bolt upright and scream at him like something out of the "Exorcist!" Needless to say he backed away and let me do what I needed to do on my own. The baby was born 15 minutes later. I don't know if it was because I was finially in a more upright position, or if I needed to get that mad to push or a combination of both. What I do know for certain is that everything that he did to me caused me more pain and slowed my progress. I went home from the hospital very disappointed in him. Then I began to read everything I could get my hands on to figure out what had happened. And that is where my journey began.........




Melanie M. Neumann, LMT
Certified Pregnancy Massage Therapist
Doula
http://www.tampabaymassagetherapy.com/