In this series we’re going to explore natural childbirth (home birth) as an alternative to industrialized childbirth. Industrialized childbirth could also be called “disturbed birth”, which Australian family physician Sarah J. Buckley, MD defines as follows:
Anything that disturbs a laboring woman’s sense of safety and privacy will disrupt the birth process. This definition covers most of modern obstetrics, which has created an entire industry around the observation and monitoring of pregnant and birthing women. Some of the techniques used are painful or uncomfortable, most involve some some transgression of bodily or social boundaries, and almost all techniques are performed by people who are essentially strangers to the woman herself. All of these factors are as disruptive to pregnant and birthing women as they would be to any other laboring mammal – with whom we share the majority of our hormonal orchestration in labor and birth.1
Buckley embraces an evolutionary perspective on pregnancy and childbirth. Such a perspective affirms the natural process of gestation and birth and recognizes a woman’s genetically inherited capacity to give birth without medical intervention.
In the same way that we evolved to eat a species-appropriate diet (i.e. paleo), we evolved to give birth in an undisturbed environment.
This innate system of birth has been refined over 100,000 generations. It involves a complex, finely tuned orchestration of hormones that prepare both the mother and baby for a successful birth and catalyze profound neurological changes that promote the bond between a mother and her new baby.
And just as we experience health problems when we stray from the evolutionary dietary template, women are more likely to experience complications and difficulty in labor when they stray from the evolutionary template of “undisturbed birth”.
Natural childbirth is in our genes
Even now, babies are still born at home in most places around the world. And although the move from birth at home to the hospital began in the 18th century, home birth was the norm even in westernized countries until the 1950s.
Think of it this way: humans have been giving birth at home for 999,998 generations, and it’s only in the last 2 generations that hospital birth has become common.
This means that women have given birth at home for 99.998% of human history.
Yet in the U.S. today, fewer than 1 percent of births happen in the home. This abrupt and almost complete transition from natural childbirth toward industrialized childbirth has had profound repercussions on mothers, babies and the culture at large.
My wife Elanne and I have chosen to have a home birth with our first child (who is, as of this writing, due in about 2 weeks!) It has been fascinating to watch people’s reactions – outside of our close friends, who have almost all had home births – when we tell them this.
Some come right out and say “that’s brave!” Others are more suspect, using words like “interesting” or maybe even wondering out loud if it wouldn’t be a better idea to use a hospital midwife. Still others are more direct in their opposition to our choice.
Doctors and the medial have also managed to convince most people that hospital birth is safer than home birth. But is that really true?
Another myth bites the dust: hospital birth is not safer than home birth
In the Netherlands, where 1/3 of babies born at home under care of midwife, outcomes for first babies are equivalent to those of babies born to low-risk women in the hospital, and outcomes of second or subsequent babies are even better.
A UK analysis found that birth at home or in small family practice units is safer than birth in an obstetric hospital for mothers and babies in all categories of risk.
Other studies have shown that modern obstetric interventions have made birth more dangerous, not safer.
A landmark study by Johnson and Daviss in 2005 examined over 5,000 U.S. and Canadian women intending to deliver at home under midwife. They found equivalent perinatal mortality to hospital birth, but with rates of intervention that were up to ten times lower, compared with low-risk women birthing in a hospital. The rates of induction, IV drip, episiotomy, and forceps were each less than 10% at home, and only 3.7% of women required a cesarean (c-section).
Other studies have shown that women who plan home birth have around a 70-80% chance of giving birth without intervention. And because of low use of drugs, home-born babies are more alert and in better condition than those born in the hospital.
Contrast this with the 2002 and 2006 Listening to Mothers surveys which examined 3,000 births in conventional settings. They found “virtually no natural childbirth” in either survey.
In the 2006 survey, around 50% of women were artificially induced; almost 75% had an epidural; and 33% gave birth by c-section.
Finally, in a review of the safety of home birth by the esteemed Cochrane collaboration, the study author states:
There is no strong evidence to favour either home or hospital birth for selected low-risk pregnant women. In countries where it is possible to establish a home birth service backed up by a modern hospital system, all low-risk women should be offered the possibility of considering a planned home birth…
I agree with the author’s conclusion that hospital birth is no safer than home birth. But if you consider the statistics above which suggest that having a natural, undisturbed birth in a hospital setting is exceedingly difficult, I would argue that there is strong evidence to favor a home birth.
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Birth complications are more likely to occur in a hospital environment
A common defense of hospital birth by medical professionals and laypeople is the assertion that it’s necessary to be in a hospital during birth in case something goes wrong.
In other words, the distortion of the process of birth – what Buckley calls “disturbed birth” – has come to be what women expect when they have a baby and in a way has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
As Buckley states:
Under this model women are almost certain to need the interventions that the medical model provides, and to come away grateful to be saved no matter how difficult or traumatic their experience.2
TV shows almost always depict birth as some kind of medical emergency, with the woman being rushed down the hallway on a gurney or connected to machines and wires in the delivery room surrounded by medical personnel. Since most people have never witnessed a home birth (or any other birth) before having a child themselves, their impression of what labor is like comes almost entirely from television.
It’s easy, then, to understand why people are afraid of birth and feel the need to be in a hospital setting in case something goes wrong. But that doesn’t mean giving birth in a hospital is safer. The studies I’ve presented in this article demonstrate that it’s not.
I want to be clear: no matter where birth takes place, complications may arise that require medical intervention and I am 100% in support of it in these cases.
When the mother or baby’s life is at risk, we are fortunate to have access to surgical techniques that can save lives or prevent serious complications.
The point I am making in this article, and will make in more detail in the articles to follow, is that the scale of medical intervention in birth today is not only far beyond what is necessary, but is contributing to the very of the problems it attempts to solve.
If you’re interested in learning more about natural childbirth, I highly recommend Buckley’s book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering. I’d also suggest checking out her free eBook called Ecstatic Birth and her eBook/audio package Giving Birth At Home.
Note: this series will very likely be interrupted by the home birth of my own child. Elanne is due on the 17th of July, so the baby could be coming anytime. When that happens, I’ll be taking some time off to spend time with my new family. I’ll pick this up again when I return from paternity leave.
Articles in this series:
- Natural childbirth I: is homebirth more dangerous than hospital birth?
- Natural childbirth IIa: is ultrasound necessary and effective during pregnancy?
- Natural childbirth IIb: ultrasound not as safe as commonly thought
- Natural childbirth III: why undisturbed birth?
- Natural childbirth IV: the hormones of birth
- Natural childbirth V: epidural side effects and risks
- Natural childbirth VI: Pitocin side effects and risks
- Natural childbirth VII: Cesarean risks and complications
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- Buckley, Sarah J. Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctor’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices. Celestial Arts, 2009. pp. 96 ↩
- Buckley, Sarah J. Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctor’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices. Celestial Arts, 2009. pp. 96 ↩
Chris,
Have you seen this course? Looks quite similar to yours, but of course yours looks way better!
http://nutritionforpregnancy.com/
I love this post. Thank you and Congratulations!
I’m proud of your decision to birth this way! The truth is, most “birth emergencies” are completely fictional, created by hospital personnel (and I’m an experienced medical professional working in a hospital environment). Very rarely is there a true emergency. Women are created to birth and every aspect of birth serves a purpose. As a woman who has given birth 3 times in a hospital and 1 time at home (the last), I cannot overstate how much easier the unmedicated home birth that was allowed to proceed at its own speed went compared to the hospital births.
All of my hospital births were induced, 18+ hours of horrible discomfort, people constantly poking you or sticking their fingers somewhere, a Dr announcing to me how I should be birthing and telling me to stop making noise, after birth being woken up every hour for something, being told what i can and can’t do with my baby. Recovery of weeks before feeling like human again.
My home birth…my body and baby went into labor on their own, very mild labor from 3 am to 8 am, a little tougher from 8-9 and some harder labor from 9-10:20. Baby was born then, in the water, midwives cleaned up while I crawled into bed. Midwives were gone a few hours later and despite thinking I should rest, I couldn’t stay in bed, I was up and doing things, nearly no recovery time at all because my body was allowed to adjust at the speed it needed to.
We were designed to do this without interference and although I once would have gasped at the thought of home birth, and I once would have felt the same way as many of the others do, that it would be a “stupid” thing to do; once I educated myself, I saw the light. Having birthed at home, i would NEVER EVER EVER go to a hospital to birth. Not unless there was a true, forseeable emergency that required it, and being overdue is not an emergency.
Which brings me to my last point. I’m sure you know this already Chris, but not every baby comes before 42 weeks, so if yours doesn’t, don’t let them push you into going to a hospital. Babies come when they are ready, not by a calendar.
Congrats on the new addition, I can’t wait to read your posts after baby is born!
Hi Chris
If a baby has to have antibiotics after birth, would you recommend using a probiotic designed for babies, or is it better for mum to use them and pass it on in the breast milk ? (we planned a natural homebirth, but my partner got an infection after her waters broke and needed a c-section as our baby girl was in distress) . It is a bit dissapointing to not do the natural home thing but we are glad for the hospital in an emergency situation. The difficult thing is once you are in hospital there are so many interventions they want to do and it is hard to work out which ones are absolutely necessary. For instance, our girl had an increased respiration rate which was getting worse which could be a natural process but also could be from infection so she was put on antibiotics. She is doing great now, but I am a bit concerned the antibiotics could lead to problems with allergies and autoimmunity if we dont address it. All the best, its an amazing feeling to be a dad even though everything we didnt want to happen with the birth process did
I would do both. Ther-biotic Infant is the brand I use here – not sure if it’s available in NZ, but you can check the strains it has in it and try to find something similar. For mom, a good multi-species probiotic like Ther-biotic Complete plus a prebiotic like Biotagen would be good.
Sorry to hear about your difficulties with the birth. The reality is we don’t always have full control over our circumstances, and sometimes things don’t turn out as we would have wished. In that situation we do the best we can with what we’ve got – which is exactly what you’re doing. The good news is that human beings are remarkably resilient, and I’m sure with good nutrition and a healthy environment your girl will live a long, happy life.
Hi. Thanks for the kind words. Mum and baby are home now and doing great, so good to get away from the hospital although everyone was amazing there. Overall, it was still an amazing experience and has changed my perception about medical care- they do a good job at risk management in emergency situations.
I will see if I can get those supplements shipped over, I found a probiotic with similar strains but it also contained rice maltodextrin,silica and short-chain oligosacchrides which I am not too sure about.
thanks again for all your help.
PS: on the day she was born it was 6foot and offshore here which must be a good omen : )
Hmm, when my son was born 32 years ago *no one* was talking about home births! I was born in a hospital in the 50s, my parents were both born in hospitals in the 20s. Home birth seemed so 19th century to me at the time, LOL. But I guess I was pretty lucky as hospital births go. I only had a 5-hour labor from start to finish. No IVs, no drugs, no episiotomy. My son just popped out and the doctor caught him despite his being nearly 9 pounds! After a quick once-over by the medical staff he was laid on my stomach, still bloody from delivery, and the entire medical staff left the room and left me alone with him for some 60-90 minutes to give us “bonding” time. I did have a 4-day hospital stay (standard at the time) but I enjoyed it. I loved being waited on and having meals brought to me, LOL. Since I was breast-feeding I was allowed to have my son with me as much as I wanted. The nurses were all great at giving me, a first-time mother, tips on care and feeding and diapering, etc. 🙂
My son was also born almost 3 weeks after his supposed “due date”, but my obstetrician merely said, “You don’t think their’s anything magical about that due date, do you?”
Things do seem very different today though. When my grandson was born 2 years ago my DiL was induced because she had gone 10 days past her due date and the doctors refused to allow her to go longer than that. She did deliver vaginally at any rate – and she is a tiny woman and my grandson was nearly 9 pounds at birth, so who knows what size he would have been if he had come at his appointed time. But he was one of about 20 babies born in the hospital that day, and was the **only** one not born via C-section, and that only because my son and DiL fought against it – as her 18-hour labor exceeded the hospital’s standards.
My sister delivered her first vaginally and her second via emergency C-section, and to this day says if she’d know the difference she would have demanded a C-section for the first too! Said it was far less painful, far easier, and her recovery was so much easier and so much faster. She says a C-section made all the difference in the world to her with how easy and painless it made the experience. So funny how we all differ. 🙂
Chris,
You say 100,000 generations, but then you count up to almost 1 million in your mathematical example. Simple error, but I think you meant to put 99,998.
-JK
I am pregnant and I am also a federal government employee. We are getting ready to move back to Colorado, where my husband and I are from, and because my HMO here does not cover that area I get to switch insurance policies (yay!). There are many different options and I was just wondering if anyone had a home birth that was covered by your insurance. If so, I would love to hear the details (insurance provider, whether they covered the hospital transfer if there were problems with the delivery, mom, or baby, etc.).
Thanks!
Please, please remember that not everyone lives in California or other metropolitan or forward thinking areas. Can a home birth be safe? Yes. Can a hospital birth be beautiful, serene and natural? Yes. I have had 2 births in the hospital, one with no interventions one with pitocin and epidural (labor had to be induced because water broke and did not start after 2 days). I noticed no difference in either child at birth, both calm and alert both nursed immediately and are very healthy and intelligent. Bonding was actually easier with the one born with epidural because I was not hindered by the pain of labor and tearing. I know the medical system in my area having worked in it for 13 years and if anything had happened (living 30 minutes from a hospital) I know that our paramedics rarely encounter a newborn in need of advanced resuscitation or airway management. I also know that the midwives who will assist with home births in my area have little to no medical background and minimal education. How is the lay person to know this? It can be safe to deliver at home but take advantage of the good the medical community has to offer. A skilled and talented practioner will facilitate the kind of delivery you want (or think you do – hey things change in the heat of the moment) but they also know every possible scenario and are prepared to deal with it.
Great post Chris. I have recently discovered your blog and love the topics and insight that you provide for your readers. My wife and I are also planning a homebirth, which should be happening literally any day, and are very excited about the opportunity to start our family and welcome our baby in that setting. One of the most influential pieces of literature, not the whole book but some very well presented theories, I have come across is Dr. Grantly Dick-Read’s book “Childbirth Without Fear.” This book was published in 1949. Specifically the presentation of the Fear-Tension-Pain cycle that speaks to the “distractions” and “disturbances”. From a perspective of an expectant father I am amazed at the capability of the human body and more importantly the brilliance of a pregnant woman’s body. Pregnancy is unknown territory for most people, even if you have had previous babies, and the current medical system capitalizes on that unknown and, unfortunately, justifies many of the procedures based on the risk, real or perceived. Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing the rest of this blog series. The world needs more people like you supporting the natural biological process of childbirth.
Congratulations on your upcoming joyous event!
I just wanted to say that the natural birth of my son was the most beautiful, serene event of my life. I experienced no pain at all–just a sense of pressure. In fact, it took me a couple of hours to even realize I was in labor. Once we got to the birthing center, while I was walking around and around outside the building, I entered a trance-like mental state. My son was born after about 10 hours of labor, where I spent much of the time in a big, comfy tub and my husband, my sister, and my mom in the room with me. My doula was wonderful and made me feel completely safe. I knew that she knew what she was doing, so I could just relax. I did end up with an episiotomy and a third-degree tear, but I didn’t feel a thing and that healed right up after a couple of weeks, so it was no big deal.
I ascribe my glorious experience to big hips, excellent health, fantastic care, a reassuring location (birthing center right across the driveway from the hospital ER), and positive expectations: All of my life my mother told me that my (natural) birth in a hospital was like a religious awakening for her, so I was predisposed to think positively of childbirth.
My experience makes me wonder if the fear of childbirth causes pain, but the rational side of me points out that fear is more likely driven by the pain. I just got lucky. So on the one hand, I am reluctant to tell other women about how easy and painless my birth was, because I don’t want to sound like I’m judging or bragging or telling them they “did it wrong.” On the other hand, I want other women to know that childbirth isn’t always a painful event to be endured, and I hope that openness to the possibility might allow them to experience something beautiful.
Chris –
Another GREAT post!
I’ve taken your Healthy Baby Code course (AMAZING!) and wanted to see if you have a good book recommendation for pregnancy. Preferably something more in tune with your philosophies than I’d find on a mainstream “best sellers” list….
thx! Kari
Birth & breastfeeding by Michel Odent.
Another one would be Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering by Sarah Buckley.
Kris, I enjoy your podcast and posts very much and am learning so much. This one really resonated with me as I was going to have a home birth 28 years ago after participating in both of my sisters home births with their children. I didn’t have to be convinced, I just instinctively felt that it was the right thing to do for mother and baby. But dangerously high blood pressure and no progress in dilation forced us to the hospital for an emergency C-section. I was glad my midwife had insisted on a doctor back-up but at that time not even my husband could go into surgery with me. Except for a very compassionate nurse who missed her son’s little league game to stay with me through the whole ordeal, I felt so completely alone. I had to fight for the doctor to let me stay awake to greet my new son and was heartbroken to not be able to hold him for almost 4 hours! After they brought him into my room, I had to fight to keep him with me and let him nurse as he pleased. Yes, I was glad we were both alive but the psychological damage was long lasting and took me by surprise. It took a bit of therapy and 5 years to have the courage to try again. Longer story than we have room for here, but my second and third were also C-sections but planned so the experience was a bit better. Still, I couldn’t wait to get home and have my babies to myself despite the pain and long recoveries. Your last comment about the infant’s gut flora hit me like a ton of bricks since my first son born so traumatically has been a type 1 diabetic since he was 5 with absolutely no family history and a fairly good diet with what I knew at the time. I will look forward to reading your future articles as you go into more depth. Sincere best wishes for you and your wife to have the home birth experience you all deserve. I still believe it is the best way to welcome your most precious gift.
I had one child in the netherlands, and one in the US. The baby in the Netherlands was a planned home birth with a totally excellent midwife. I pushed for half an hour on a birthing stool before the midwife called a halt and proceeded to drive me to the hospital for a vacuum extraction (baby was 9lb 9 oz and I could not push it ’round the corner’). She stayed with me the whole time, and was the one who visited the next 10 days (Dutch perinatal care is very good). I was grateful for the hospital, but I would have opted for a home birth again with the second, as I thought my midwife was brilliant.
However, with the second one we were in the US. I had to fight very hard not to get a preemptive IV, the nurse told me to push in the wrong direction, (resulting in a bruised sacral nerve which took 12 months to heal – the midwife in NL had indicated in which direction to push by touching me in the correct place), the doctor was at lunch when it came time to deliver so there was panic in the room when push came to shove (heh), it was not a great experience. (I also don’t get the insistence on rough cotton open-backed, short-sleeved hospital gowns designed to freeze many parts of the body here, what is that all about?)
Overall though I agree that people have to go where they are comfortable and feel safe, but then they have to be prepared for the environment they choose.
BTW the perinatal mortality in NL could be higher due to a different policy on the very very early preemies. There is not an automatic “keep it alive at all costs” policy. The parents are told the risks of serious disabilities of various kinds with these barely viable infants, and I believe that many parents choose to let the child go. I’d have to look up the reference on that, heard it during a lecture on preemies and developmental disabilities.
Thank you for sharing your perspective! great comparison! And good point about the premies…
Chris, I really love your research usually, but it seems to me you dropped the ball on this one. You sound as if you have swallowed the homebirth propaganda without your usual skepticism. You say if there’s a problem, “just transfer to the hospital” – it is really not that simple! If you are with a laboring woman with a catastrophic problem (for example, placental abruption) you have to get her into the car, drive to the hospital, get checked in at the hospital with paperwork, be examined by an OB and nurses there, and finally transferred for a c-section. Even if you live 5 minutes from the hospital, transport can be a very time consuming process and unfortunately can end with tragic consequences.
I highly recommend you check out the blog “The Skeptical OB” – the web site is http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/ – her tone is unpleasant but the information there is invaluable. She addresses so many of the exact homebirth lines you throw out in this article, and backs them up with studies too, for example, the claim the Netherlands statistics show it’s safer to homebirth.
No, the Netherlands has, and has had for some years, the HIGHEST perinatal mortality rate in Western Europe. It also has a high and rising rate of maternal mortality. The Dutch government is deeply concerned about these high mortality rates and a variety of studies are underway to investigate.
The most recent study published in the BMJ is early November 2010 revealed and astounding finding. The perinatal mortality rate for low risk women cared for by midwives is higher than the perinatal mortality rate for high risk women care for by obstetricians!
Her “10 things” article rebuts many of your claims point-by-point:
http://skepticalob.blogspot.com/2010/11/ten-things-you-shouldnt-say-to-dr-amy.html
But there is a lot more to read than just that snarky summary. Please get past her tone, because the information is important, and I think you are doing women a disservice by downplaying the risks of complications, and the ease of solving problems during homebirth.
I started to write a point-by-point rebuttal to Dr. Amy’s ridiculously biased and myopic post, but after scanning the comments found that someone (Ellie) had already done that. So I’ll reproduce it for you here:
On top of that, I will be explaining several other ways that “industrialized birth” can negatively impact not only birth itself, but the baby’s health during infancy and for the rest of his/her life. As an example, we are now beginning to understand that early changes in the gut flora of an infant can predispose him/her to lifelong health problems like obesity, diabetes, asthma and allergies. These changes are far more likely to occur in a hospital environment. The comparison of hospital vs. home birth goes far beyond perinatal mortality rates, as I will demonstrate in future articles.
To use your example of a dire emergency, placental abruption is rare and can happen before labour even gets going, whether or not you are booked into hospital. But some placental separation can easily be picked up long before harm is done and midwives are trained to look for signs. Also, smoking and drug taking are risk factors and I personally would not attend a woman at home who did either of those things. Homebirth planning takes into account how far away the nearest hospital is and the midiwfe builds trust with the parents so that if she says “We need to go” they go. Birth in itself is actually a fairly low-risk activity – 7 billion people on the earth and most of them are born out of hospital to mothers who typically have a lot of kids (because they have no control over their reproductive rights) and have not necessarily had the best nutrition and perinatal care. We Westerners are so wrong-headed about it all – giving birth is what women are designed to do and, in an otherwise healthy woman, what gets in the way is fear and interference for the most part. BTW if you look closely at the Dutch demographic, their immigrant population (who have the most babies) are also the least well-off, young mothers or grand multiparas and are often poorly educated and not well-nourished. These women are often the ones who are having (unplanned) out-of-hospital births with poor outcomes – a very different propostion to a planned homebirth with a midwife.
I had two hospital births – I am obviously very comfortable in hospitals having spent many years in them. Decent hospitals nowadays really focus on you having your choices, I was asked about a detailed birth plan prior to the deliveries, skin to skin contact right at birth and immediate nursing were highly encouraged. I spent quite a lot of labor unmonitored, the rooms included a birthing tub if you wanted to go that route. My only issue was a pushy nurse after the delivery of my first who kept critiquing the breastfeeding. After my second the nurses pretty much left me alone, which was fine by me – I was out of the hospital kid in hand about 36 hours after each one. We were strongly encouraged to room in with the baby also. Neither child had complications (knock on wood) – mostly I was glad that after a hospital birth I wouldn’t be the one doing the laundry 😉 (I’m hopeful laundry is arranged for a home birth – I’m sure it is, oddly enough that is what I think about though!) In medical
school I participated in the delivery of many babies so was very familiar with the hospital process. Having also seen many complications (I worked in an inner city southern hospital where many of the mothers were ill or had no prenatal care at all when they showed up in labor) – that it obviously a skewed sample but that sort of training does bias doctors against home births. It is not a fair sampling or a cochrane review by any means. Even in that hospital there was a midwife ward and a doctor ward – there are over 15,000 babies a year born there so everyone is exceedingly experienced and of
course there would be complications with so many… but when I had a child I was glad to be minutes from a NICU though more glad it was never needed. However, hospital germs were a concern of mine as well!
I fully support hospital birth if that is where the birthing woman feels safest, assuming she understands her options and has made an informed choice. Just wanted to say, though, that here in Australia, trainee midwives complete their course having never even witnessed a natural birth (unless they are one of the few who train with an independent midwife). So what are they learning exactly??? How to interfere and then how to mitigate inevitable complications (usually more interference). They do not learn what a natural, unhurried, unintervened birth (and labouring woman) looks like. They do not learn to sit back and observe, they do not learn about the hormones etc. Their training is medical in nature, which, as we know, ignores the very nature of birth.
I can fully understand your comfort with hospitals. It’s a good thing you’re comfortable there 🙂 But as a doula witnessing births and hearing lots and lots of birth stories from other women, I know that OBs may be comfortable with hospitals but not many of them are comfortable (or familiar) with natural childbirth where interventions aren’t used unless necessary. And by interventions I mean all of it, heplocks, gowns, birthing on the bed, routine vaginal checks, intermittent monitoring (10-20 min of each hour) vs. doppler monitoring for a few minutes, limitations on eating and/or drinking, etc. A friend just recently had her fifth baby, unmedicated, and her midwife decided not to break her water this time. She just sat back as mom had her baby (born in the caul). Nurses kept coming in and looking at her because it was so unusual. Afterwards her midwife said something to the effect of, “It’s really good sometimes to just sit back and watch what a woman’s body can do if we don’t interfere.” Amazing to hear and yet a little scary that that sentiment comes from a midwife, implying the truth that we too often meddle (and I know she does, I’ve attended births with her) instead of patiently waiting and watching. Another friend gave birth without medication and her nurse, who was pregnant, said, “You know, I think I could do that.” We don’t see enough normal to know what normal really is.
I never saw a soiled twoel, sheet, nightgown etc. My midwife whisked them all away before I was ever aware of their existance
My second daughter was just born at home last weekend, and subsequently rushed to the community hospital, and then airlifted to another hospital (where she is now), because of a variety of lung-related issues (number one: not breathing on her own). Definitely not the original plan!
Was it scary? Yes… incredibly. Would we do homebirth again? Yes… not because we’re crazy and “committed to the cause” but because we’ve gone over and over everything during those long hours watching our child fight determinedly as we stood helpless, or driving back and forth to the hospital that’s an hour away…
We believe that we did the best we could have for our child – that she wouldn’t have received better care anywhere else. We are grateful for the midwife who helped provide the best birth environment and immediate care possible, as well as all the skilled doctors and nurses who provided the best emergency and intensive care possible.
I wasn’t worried about the “what-if” before this birth – I knew that there was a 99.5% chance we’d have a safe homebirth and stay at home. Well, we hit the 0.5% – but it was still not only “OK” but as good as it possibly could have been.
I pray that your experience is what we wanted for ours… and for what it is worth, though it is hard to think of now, the 4-hour labor (yes… just 4 hours) that my wife had went EXACTLY as she wanted, and it was truly an awesome (in the full sense of the word) experience rather than an awful experience.
This is one of the best approaches to healing incontinence. It’s an excellent program. Also good for general recovery after childbirth. http://www.learningforhealth.com/pelvichealthcds.cfm
Through her own experience Deborah Bowes has become one of the leading authorities in the functioning of the pelvic floor.
The way incontinence statistics are presented varies. There is a lower rate of incontinence with c-section. You might find that the way you feel about it depends on your problem and how it progresses as you get older.
Women are expected to bear the pain and be silent about it.
Fecal incontinance is higher with csections. Some urinary incontinence is due to genetics, and if you were told to push for an extended period of time, or you aren’t a walker or don’t spend time squatting, you could end up incontinent anyway. A csection is by no means a fool proof way to avoid that.
@ LC dieter – sorry to hear about your experience. I had a vaginal birth and have no incontinence issues whatsoever. I even had a 2nd degree episiotomy but was downhill skiing 3 weeks later. Everyone is different, but most vaginal birth recoveries are much less heinous than a c-section recovery. Then again, some people recover from c-sections quickly too. You can never know which you’ll be. I guess I’d just rather go through that pain again than have my abdomen sliced open and baby ripped out of me, but that’s just me.
That’s the thing about childbirth. No matter how much you prepare for and educate yourself, it is so totally unpredictable. I knew from the beginning of my pregnancy that I really wanted a natural, unmedicated childbirth. I checked out every book from the library on the subject, spent countless hours researching online, practiced the Bradly method exercises, kept working out and eating healthy while being mocked for not just indulging in cravings because I was ‘going to get fat anyway’, etc. . Well…I won’t go into the full story, but I did end up getting medical interventions, and the moment of her birth was more of a drugged up fog with a room full of NICU staff and others than the moment of love I had really dreamt of. I don’t know how it would’ve gone had I tried a home birth or birth center, if it would’ve been alright and the hospital staff were just making it more dire, or if I would’ve been one of the emergency hospital transfers. In the end, I guess I don’t believe it’s fair to say any one birth choice is ultimately ‘safer’ or ‘better’. Whether you’re the type to schedule your c-section in advance to work for your life, or have a homebirth with a doula + midwife attending, the safest birth is the one where mom and baby both end up healthy. You just have to decide what is right for you, but also be open to the possibility you may get a wild card.
To Elanne and Kris – I think your choice is an awesome one and I can’t wait to read your birth story. Hopefully you will post about it. =) It is really such a beautiful experience.
My random thoughts
In preparing for the birth of our first of two my wife and I really enjoyed reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth. Birth in Four Cultures by Bridgette Jordan is also very interesting.
The most alarming thing to me related to this whole topic is the growing rate of c-sections. At our local hospital it’s nearly 50%!
Despite our prejudice towed natural childbirth, we know plenty of mothers who had perfectly acceptable birthing experiences at hospitals.
Bear in mind that in industrialized countries the average age of first-time mothers is increasing which means those moderate to high risk pools are growing too.
One thing we really liked about the birthing center we used is that we didn’t have to clean up after the birth!