Alternet has an article discussing a survey which shows women in childbirth not being properly informed about medical interventions, and being given medical interventions without their consent. All bad, I agree completely. But there’s a trend running through the piece which suggests that if women were able to have skillful helpers for natural childbirth everything would go according to plan. Take these quotes for example:
unless you are willing to research in depth, shop around for care providers and advocate stubbornly for what you want, you probably won’t have the labor you expect.
Despite the relative health of women in the United States, many women are not getting the uncomplicated births they might expect.
The fact is that childbirth is inherently unpredictable. Telling women that if they shop around hard enough for the right midwife, and work hard enough on their relaxation techniques and positions they’ll have a great uncomplicated time is SERIOUS misinformation. It’s the sort of thing that makes women blame themselves if something goes wrong and they end up desperately needing an intervention, or if they change their minds and decide they really would like pain relief after all. I’ve read far too many stories of women who feel like failures because of these things. Frankly, I am the only woman I know whose first birth went exactly according to plan, and that was because it was a planned caesarean. (And I have lots of friends who had midwives and doulas.) I strongly believe that women should be given natural childbirth as a real option, and given all the assistance they need for it. But suggesting that if they make this choice everything will be just as they plan is wrong.
I see where you’re coming from, but I think that what the article is getting at is that doctors do not always have the laboring woman’s best interest at heart. They give drugs without telling the woman, they do ce-sections far more often than necessary, they do unnecessary episiotomies, and having a doula or midwife will not stop any complications, but they may help prevent unnecessary medical intervention.
Sadly, at least in the US, natural childbirth is not even a real option for many women. Obstetrical practices don’t meet the conservative guidelines of ACOG, much less standards of evidence. “Routine” epiosiotomies, for which there is no supporting evidence, are still common. And C-section rates range from slightly over 5% for some hospitals and practices to well over 50% at others. “Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care,” a well-documented book by Jennifer Block, quotes a study of C-section rates which found that “geographic variation in the number of C-sections performed is driven by mostly nonmedical factors, such as provider density and local medical malpractice pressures, and is mostly unrelated to the mother’s medical condition.”
Yes, childbirth is unpredictable. No one should feel guilty or “bad” if one’s plans don’t work out. But one should find peace of mind in knowing one did all that they could to try for the birth experience they wanted. There are too many factors that one can’t control..do the best you can with those you can control…like choosing your birth place and/or attendant.
I was so fortunate to find a midwife with a similar philosophy to mine…that gave me an edge in getting as undisturbed a birth as I could get, given my unexpected circumstances.
I agree, birth is unpredictable. We can’t go around preaching to women that if they just do ‘these things’ they will be lucky enough to have the birth they want. Instead, we need to support women in their INFORMED and EDUCATED birthing choices, be their for them while they journey into birth, and help prepare them for all possible outcomes.
I say this is as someone who personally choices medical-free home births (planning my third in a few weeks). I am lucky enough to have found real information regarding our birth culture and the way women become high-risk objects in the hands of the medical , despite the fact pregnancy and birth are for the most part normal experiences in life. So for me, I chose to go to a more female/mother/baby centered experience instead of a male dominated hospital experience.
On the other hand, the choice that both exist is good. We need to just spread as much information as possible so women know they HAVE the choice.
Thanks.