Why I Birth At Home

or "Ignorant Obstetrician Alert"
Read this article.

Now, tell me how that made you feel? If you are like me, it made you hair pulling mad!

I could rant about nearly every sentence in that article. I won't rant about that much in this blog post, well at least I'll try not to.

"Not fear of childbirth, despite the fact that is is inherently dangerous..."

Childbirth is NOT inherently dangerous. Yes, there are things that can go wrong, but a knowledgeable woman who knows her body and herself or a good care provider will know when a woman needs care. The idea this OB has comes from her education. An education that stresses and highlights the dangers without the knowledge about how birth happens in the absence of 'management'.

"evidently only losers, the weak and the unempowered, fear pain"

No. No one likes pain and, yes, we even fear it. Pain does not have to be part of labor, not always. NCB advocates do not think women are 'weak' for needing pain relief or fearing pain. We just know that the risks often outweigh the benefits. Simple risk/benefit analysis.

" who is going to buy the services of someone who hectors you to avoid pain relief when you are in agonizing pain (a doula)"

Obviously, this OB has no idea what a doula actually does. And it is likely that the 'agonizing pain' is due to AROM or pitocin or being forced to lay in bed instead of moving around as a woman will when in labor if left alone.

"And who is going to let her precious baby be delivered by a high school graduate who knows nothing about science and thinks gems have "energy" and flowers having healing "essences" (a CPM, a certified "professional" midwife)"

I don't know any midwives who believes that. And the derogatory way she uses, "high school graduate" as if a midwife gets no other education is just disgusting. My midwife is a CPM and is excellent and very knowledgeable.

"Who is going to waste hundreds of dollars on goofy ideas "

I've had three home births and not spent a dime on any 'goofy ideas'.

"Craig Thompson, professor of marketing at University of Wisconsin wrote about this tactic in Consumer Risk Perceptions in a Community of Reflexive Doubt the in the September 2005
Journal of Consumer Research... "Advocates of natural childbirth seek to inculcate reflexive doubt by countering two common sense objections to their unorthodox construction of risk: (1) medicalized births would have never gained a cultural foothold if they were so risk laden and (2) the medical profession would not support obstetric practices that place laboring women at risk"

Medicalized birth gained a foothold by powerful and expensive lobbies to outlaw midwifery and promote medical licensure. Ever heard of the damage caused by the routine x-rays of pregnant women? Scopolomine? Thalidomide? Dorsal lithotomy? Routine episiotomy? Constant fetal monitoring? Mr. Thompson is obviously glaringly ignorant of obstetrical history, but then, he is only a marketing professor.

" That's why it is absolutely imperative for natural childbirth advocates to hid the fact that in the 100 years after its advent, modern obstetrics dropped the neonatal mortality rate 90% and the maternal mortality rate 99%."

And even so the US has just about the highest infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the industrialized world! What an accomplishment! What sets us apart from those countries with better birth outcomes? Numbers of midwives.

OBs can't even claim responsibility for much of the decrease in mortality. Antibiotics have had an enormous impact. So have other technological advances that are not attributable to OBs.

"such as forceps deliveries—as unnecessary intrusions whose primary function was enabling physicians to display technical skill."

Forceps deliveries would be much less necessary if OBs did not require women to birth lying on their backs. I will acknowledge that there are time when they could be necessary, but not always necessary as was purported by some OBs.

"The message, integral to natural childbirth advocacy is clear: Obstetricians can't help women because their technology is useless (except in the rarest of circumstances)."

I don't know of any NCB advocate that would say OBs are useless. We all know that things can, and sometimes do, go wrong and we are thankful that there are those that are able to help in those instances.

"You need to buy books and visit websites"

I've bought very few books and while I do visit a good many websites, that is free.

"And for the truly committed, you need to pay a high school graduate who is "trained" in normal birth (kind of like a meteorologist who is trained in forecasting only good weather) to do basically nothing except call 911 and disappear if things go wrong."

The insane hegemony is getting tiresome. This OB has no idea how midwives are trained. If a woman has to go to the hospital the midwife will go with her.

"NCB advocates must convince you to spend tens of dollars on books, hundreds of dollars on classes, and thousands of dollars for the company of women who are incapable of doing a blessed thing if complications occur."

Again, I don't spend much on books, and in any case, no one convinced me to buy them. I wanted them so I bought them. I don't spend anything on classes. And my midwife is very capable in the event of complications.

"They must fill women with misinformation about childbirth and keep those same women ignorant of what science actually shows. "

I love it! Obstetrics, the profession that uses evidence based methods less that any other I am aware of, saying the the NCB community is misinforming women! What a joke!

"NCB advocates must create an alternative universe entirely unmoored from the reality of childbirth dangers, unmoored from scientific evidence,"

Yes, because there is so much evidence for constant fetal monitoring, excessive use of ultrasound, the use of pitocin and epidural and those interventions have been thoroughly researched. Ma'am, you are ignorant about NCB and its advocates.

" or pay thousands of dollars for what are essentially lay companions with no particular knowledge of childbirth"

Your pedantic hegemony is nauseating. Really.

"When it comes to natural childbirth, follow the money. Without fear, NCB advocates won't make money."

Yes, follow the money. Know what you'll find? That birth in hospitals with OBs in attendance is the reason that the US spends more that any other country in the world and we still have some of the worst outcomes.

This article made me so angry and just plain sick that OBs like that can practice and influence women.

Pete Eyre arrested for wearing a hat.

Pete Eyre arrested for wearing a hat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynoUudh20A8

First reaction was to blame the one wearing the hat. Then I thought about it. Does failing to adhere to some custom warrant the treatment the man received? Without question the man was trying to cause trouble. Or was he? Why should there have been an issue? Is it really that important? It is not the law, it is just etiquette. Older people will say it is just good manners, and maybe it is, but not having good manners doesn't justify the wrongs and the bullying that is going on in government.

The fact that the police believed violence was an acceptable response to a breach of etiquette is disturbing to say the least. It is sad that our first response is always to side with the 'authorities', at least it is mine. Why should one cooperate with authorities that are violent without cause? Why should one give up rights and enable our government to get its power fix? Our government is intoxicated with power and uses things like this to assert its authority and subjugate the population.

So I think that we need more people like this who are willing to go through this to prove a point. We need to push back or we are going to be trampled.

Here are a couple more links about the same kind of thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHCkAk0WrPQ&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GskOXEX2wk&feature=player_embedded

Birth

I know I've posted about this before, but I have more to say. ;)  

It saddens me how little confidence women have in their bodies, that are made to give birth, and themselves to birth a child. It is especially disturbing how Christian women who rail against 'science' when it attacks creation blindly follow the dictates of the 'scientist' obstetrician.                                        

A woman's body has an amazing capacity to carry and grow and birth and then sustain that new life. God made her that way. Sure, sometimes things don't go perfectly; but those times are much more rare than the doctors would have a pregnant woman believe. Birth is not 'an accident waiting to happen' it is a normal biological function and a woman's body knows how to do it.   

 

 

I have heard so many women say how they wouldn't even try to birth without drugs, usually the epidural. They would not say that if they truly understood the mechanism of birth. All that intense sensation has a purpose. The hormones and chemicals released by a mother in labor signal the baby to release sympathetic hormones and chemicals that get baby ready to breathe and eat and survive. Those things don't happen if a woman is induced or drugged.                                                                                  

I don't want to sound like a self-righteous birth snob, but I know that's how this is going to sound. Oh well.

I have birthed 8 babies. Yes 8. Two inductions, two posterior (one of those an induction), three homebirths, five with no drugs at all. With my induced posterior I didn't have any pain meds. That was a monster of a labor! I am not a masochist. I am really quite a wimp. I don't have easy labor, as someone once suggested. And no, the babies don't just fall out after having so many. I have labors that last days, weeks even. And even my transition phase is a bit of a marathon.

I know from all of that experience is that a woman's body needs time and rest and to be left alone to birth. Labor, contrary to what the books will tell you, can start and then stop and then pick up again right where it left off. That 'stop' is a necessary rest that mama needs to get the hard work of labor done.

The most striking example of that from my personal experience was with babe #3. I woke to contractions at about 1 am. They slowly got stronger and closer. I went and ate breakfast and lunch, did some walking. Then about 12 pm the contractions slowed down to about every 30 to 45 minutes and during that time I got some much needed sleep. When I got up at about 3:30pm the contractions picked up again at about every 4 min. It was still 6 hours before that baby made her appearance. If I had been in the hospital and the contractions had slowed that way they would have wanted to give me pitocin. My body would have been shoved into overdrive and I would have been exhausted and probably sectioned for 'failure to progress'. So praise God I stayed home as long as I did.

Women, we must change the way birth is viewed. We must stop telling 'horror' stories. We must objectively consider what happened to us in labor and birth and be honest with ourselves and others. So, stop justifying the interventions that were unnecessary. If the OB induced you with no clear medical reason (and no, a 'big' baby doesn't count as a good reason, nor is being 40 weeks or even having 'low fluid') it was wrong. If the OB broke your water without a good reason, that was also wrong. If you were sectioned for 'failure to progress' and were stuck in a bed with an epidural that was most likely unnecessary. If you were sectioned because of a breech most likely that was wrong too. If you were sectioned after a previous c-section and no other reason it was unnecessary. If you were forbidden to eat or drink they were torturing you. Okay, so that last one is slightly hyperbolic, but you get the idea.

THINK ladies! PLEASE! For the sake of yourselves, your babies, your friends, your sisters, and your daughters. Let us stop the fear-mongering in birth.

My Token Christmas post

That is my favorite 'Christmas' song.

Nanny State Gone Mad

Drop-down side cribs banned.

"'These products are deadly'

In all, drop-side cribs have been blamed in the deaths of at least 32 infants and toddlers since 2000 and are suspected in another 14 infant fatalities. "

This is utterly ridiculous! For fewer than 4 deaths per year they are banning a very useful product. Insane. If we were to outlaw every thing that could potentially kill a child there would be precious little left to do in the world.

Let's put some perspective on the 4 deaths per year.

Statistics on accidental deaths per year

We need to outlaw swimming and bathing because over 3,000 die from drowning each year.

We need to outlaw every chemical cleaner and pharmacuetical because over 9,000 die from poisoning each year.

Electricity should be done away with because over 400 are killed each year from electrical shock.

Modern medicine should also be banned because complications from medical procedures kill nearly 3,000 each year.

And above all motor vehicles should be banned, they kill over 45,000 each year.

Vaccines kill as well. According to this page, in two years over 70 infants died within a day of vaccination. And the controversy surrounding Gardasil is growing.

I am sorry for those who lost children because of faulty parts, truly I am. The loss of a child, no matter the reason, is sad. This over zealous effort to make the children 'safe' however, is not the way to handle it.

Americans have been seduced by the idea that bad things will never happen to them. They somehow think that it is possible to never have an accident happen. Life is fraught with peril. There is no guarantee that one will live to see the sun come up tomorrow or even go down tonight. Accidents happen. They are always sad, but they will happen.

So what will happen now that the evil drop-side cribs are done away with? Well, there are plenty of them still out there and I doubt those who use them will be wanting to give them up.

For those who will have no choice but to use a stationary side crib they will do one of two things. They will not put the matteress down as far as it should be so they will be able to reach to put their child in it safely or they will use some alternate sleeping arrangement.

For the first option, that could be dangerous once the baby starts pulling up (as early as 7 mos). The baby could fall out of the crib and then end up with a broken head, neck, or extremity and perhaps even die.

For the second, while I am an advocate for cosleeping (have with all eight of my kids), not everyone does it correctly and it can be dangerous in certain circumstances. People might choose to use playards/pens instead. That would be okay, that is what we use for Edward when he isn't in bed with us.

The point is, the alternatives are not perfectly safe either, accidents can, and will, happen. There will always be dangers. And putting our energy into removing a very minor danger as the drop-side crib is wasteful when there are so many other things that kill far more.