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…