20 Births Later: My Thoughts on Being a Doula →
Interesting perspective after 2 1/2 years of helping other women through a range of birth experiences.
Interesting perspective after 2 1/2 years of helping other women through a range of birth experiences.
Nothing is free at hospitals. Nothing. They charge you for drinking water, diapers, gowns, and maxi pads. The only thing that’s free to a birthing woman at a hospital is formula, which many women don’t even want. And it’s not free because the hospital is concerned about the well-being of hungry babies. It’s free because formula companies pay for it — out of their marketing budget — and give it to hospitals. Because they know that babies who have formula during the first few days are much, much more likely to become long-term customers. How is that ethical? How is that choice?[…] In New York City, 90% of women walk into the hospital stating they intend to breastfeed. But only 39% of newborns are exclusively breastfed. That means around 50% of mothers are not succeeding in their chosen plan. They’re not formula feeding because they want to — they’re formula feeding because something went wrong.
I want women and birth to be as safe as it can be, while allowing freedom of choice in birthing location. I loved my homebirth and felt comfortable with my midwife’s experience and training, but want to know midwifery care is a safe option on a national level.
This:
Right now I stand for more strict standards across the board for CPMs. More education and experience requirements, and apprenticeships with multiple midwives, if possible. A national standard so that the term CPM can actually mean something.
Love this idea that our children might take on our own beliefs when it comes to birth and parenting, but love also the tolerance, which I hope to have one day as a grandmother.
Turning my head a little, I wonder… is it a bad thing to have wishes for your children when it comes to birth? Is it wrong to want my future daughter-in-law to have a (what I consider to be a pretty) great birth? Is it wrong to hope she nurses her babies? Is it wrong to hope they don’t circumcise? Are there aspects I can wish for that aren’t intrusive on her choices? Can’t I be a resource for my children without seeming to try to brainwash them? Wasn’t watching moms labor at home “brainwashing” enough? Wasn’t seeing happy nursing toddlers a lesson on its own?
Meghann had a hospital birth-turned-cesarean. She struggled with nursing for a few weeks… a nasty case of thrush and then oversupply that mangled her nipples. And while she took some of what I knew, she needed help from outsiders because I didn’t have all the information she needed. On her own, she has found Babywearing and clean eating and La Leche League… and now, it seems, cloth diapers (something I did briefly and hated). She is following in her mother’s footsteps without my saying a word. Is that bad?
As a birth nerd, I’m supremely interested in subjects like how the placenta detaches and leaves the uterus, and what happens after. And as a former sufferer of postpartum hemorrhaging, I love knowledge that can keep it from happening again.
I thought her conclusions were very interesting: In a hospital, you’re unlikely to have a completely hands-off third stage of labor (i.e., the time you birth the placenta); therefore, so-called active management might be best for avoiding PPH, based on studies. However, in a relaxed environment where the birth can be purely physiological, then a physiological birth of the placenta can also be safe and effective. My second birth was like that: low lights, low noise, low stress, skin-to-skin just after birth — and no PPH this time around. I know of women who’ve had serene home births that ended in PPH, however, so I’d love to see more studies on the topic to tease out which method is preferable in terms of maternal safety.
Love this article by a home-birthing obstetrician covering her own fears of homebirth and her reasons for choosing one, and the pros and cons of homebirth vs. hospital from an OB’s perspective.
