Basically no one in my family or any of my friends know the first thing about natural birth. So this blog is to inform and educate all of you. If you did not have a natural pregnancy or delivery, or didn't breastfeed--This is not to call you a bad parent. This is information, take what you want and leave the rest. But remember, this information is NOT just my opinion. It is my professional and educated opinion, and also my experience. This is my job. It is my job to know and educate women on these things and its mostly for people who are going to have children, not those who have already delivered. You can't go back. So don't take offense. I am educating everyone so those who actually care do not find out too late.
That being said, lets begin. The term "Midwife" means "with woman." It is my job to provide prenatal care and exams, to prepare and educate her and be there when the baby is delivered, and to perform the exams after delivery and post partum care. These women have made a choice to stay out of hospitals, who are only set up for "medicalized" births. Here is the difference between a home birth and hospital birth.
Obstetricians are surgeons. Plain and simple. That is what they are trained to do. Many Obs never see a natural birth. And if they do, they don't know whats going on. Not to mention the fact that they are with several laboring women at once and all of the tracking and charting is done by nurses. Even CNMs (certified nurse-midwives) are under the supervision of a doctor and under hopital policy and regulation. In a hospital, unless you literally fight tooth and nail, sign waivers left and right and get nasty looks and treated like crap, you will be experiencing several of these "necessary" procedures. An IV line. You don't need to be hooked up to and IV! you are perfectly capable of drinking water. You are even allowed to eat during labor. Most women don't know that, because the hospital says no. Its an easy line to add drugs such as demerol, pitocin, and other things that will make your life miserable. It also is required if you choose to have and epidural, and I'll get into that later. You will be hooked up to monitors. Incredibly painful, (if you don't have an epidural) restricting and also unessesary. Intermittent checking of heart rate and observing contractions works just as well allowing a woman to move around. You can do that too, by the way. As a matter of fact, its the best thing you can do in labor. Laying on your back is not condusive to progressing labor. Hospitals like to induce. The correct time to go into labor is a four week window. Two weeks before the due date, and two weeks after. They induce as soon as the day after you are due. That is not safe! We delived a baby a few days ago that the momma was at 42 weeks. When we preformed the newborn exam and examined the placenta, she turned out to be 40 weeks gestation. Dates are not absolute. The drugs they use to induce are not good either. Pitocin is a synthetic form of oxytocin, a natural chemical the body makes when its time to go into labor. Pitocin makes unnatural contractions that distress the baby and are extremly and unnaturally painful for the mother. Here comes the epidural. They like to really push those bad boys. Because when the mother isn't in pain, they can go about doing whatever and not have to attend her constantly. Here is my beef with epidurals: First of all, epidurals are a cociane and opiate based drug. It does pass through the placenta and affect the newborn, studies have proven this. It also drops the blood pressure of the mother and drops blood flow through the placenta, which is why IVs are required. Epidurals also completly inhibits the hormones naturally produced as part of labor. These are vital and yet over 90% of women are having epidurals. You can't walk, so you are slowing labor. Sometimes women gets so anesthisized they cannot feel their perineums and cannot push effectively. Most women who reciev epidurals end up needing pitocin. Ceserean rates in hospitals have risen over 70% since 1996. Women aren't becoming less capable of delivering a child correctly, I'd say something is wrong with our medical system. This is only a brief summary of whats wrong with hospital births, over time each will be explained in detail.
newborn and postpartum care are another big issue in hospital. Right after the baby is born the umbilical cord is cut. This can cause hemmoraging from the mother, Inadequete blood supply to the infant, hormonal imblances and problems nursing. The cord needs to stop pulsing. Any question to that? look at the pictures of my son, and then look at another newborn picture. My son was beet red and most infants are slightly purple, pink with blueish extremities, etc. They also take the baby away soon after to preform the newborn exam when really there should be at least an hour before any of that is performed. Eye ointment is used to prevent infection in the babies eyes from bacteria in the birth canal, but unless you have an std, getting that ointment has proven to actually CAUSE infection instead of preventing it, and it also blurs the babies vision when its the most accute that first hour for the bonding process. All sorts of vaccinations are 'required' i'll get into that at a later time as well. Cosleeping is generally not encouraged in post partum, and some women send their babies to the nursery. If a mother has problems nursing or the baby has a high billiruben level they give you formula. Ridiculous. My milk hadn't come in, Richie was jaundiced and I refused the formula. I kept nursing and my milk came in, and he was fine. There are many other things, but lets move on.
Home births allow a mother to give birth. Midwives are only as a sort of "lifeguard" We will only interfere if there is a problem. Funny how the transfer rate of homebirth mothers and c section rate is tiny. Babies are born into a welcoming, peaceful environment and are left with their mothers the whole time. No ointments, no injections (they are available, but most opt not to) No antibiotics. Women who have delivered naturally and especially at home are found to be much closer to their children, and much more mentally and emotionally balanced as a result. Women have been delivering naturally for all of time.
Why do women all of a sudden think that they "can't do it" . If it is'nt natural, there is risk. Why would someone knowingly risk their child or even themselves just to be more comfortable. It is doable. It isn't hard. Your body knows what to do and it takes over. Trust it, Trust yourself and trust birth. We were made perfectly. God doesnt make mistakes. Every part of birth is vital. The pain has purpose. He wouldn't have made it so if it didn't. Todays society see the pain as a mistake, as something wrong and fixable, and it isnt. Animals who deliver under anesthesia or csection abandon their offspring. That is purely instinctual. Of course humans are much smarter and we can reason and have common sense, But if an animal naturally refuses her babies on a purely instinctual level, what does that have to say about what happens to us? Sure, you love your babies. Sure, they turned out fine. But think back. Did you get pitocin? Did your labor stall at any point? Did you need forceps or vacuum? How long did you push? Did your bag of waters have meconium in it? What was your childs APGAR score? How did they nurse? have any problems that first 24 hours? All of these can be directly linked to the way your labor was. Sometimes not, but generally, almost everytime. So labor DOES matter. Just because you have a healthy baby now does not mean the way in which you had them doesn't matter. It does on a basic, natural, emotional and physical way, not only for the infant, but for the mother. The bible says "and through child-bearing she shall be saved" (1 Tim 2:15) And we really are. Women who go through the process of natural labor are more stable, have less postpartum depression, and are truely more balanced as a whole.
Again-- This is not a "shame on you" but information for those planning on having a first or more children. This is what I do, and Why I do it. I am a guradian of natural birth. I will like I said get copies of studies, delve into things much extensively later, this is just a summary. So now you know what I do, and why it is so important. And I love all of you and want you to know because when I was pregnant, I didnt know until I was having to fight for my choice birth in the hospital. I thought it was safer, and man was I wrong.
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