Now just to let you know, I am not someone you would call "granola", but when it came to my birth experience and care for my child I wanted that personal attention. Most of the time an OB does not have time to give you that personal attention (b/c they have tons of patients) and you often see an nurse at appointments. So when Craig and I were planning for a family, I decided to change from my OB to a Midwife. I needed someone covered under our insurance, so I started to look at the hospitals in our area and the practices that delivered there, specifically looking for a practice with a Midwife. I knew from research that a Midwife sees you at all your check up appointments and almost always attends and conducts the delivery, baring any complications. At the time, I did not think about finding a Midwife at a Birthing Center or one that conducts home births. I just knew that I wanted to see the same person the whole pregnancy and someone that would not rush me when I had questions, I mean we all have tons of questions on our first baby, right? Luckily I did find such a lady, and she was a great Midwife. But since her practice was tied to the hospital, not all things played out the way I wanted when I had Lincoln. The most important thing what that he was healthy, but just like they teach in birthing class, one intervention leads to another, and man I had a lot. More on that later.
This film was produced my Ricki Lake who seemed to have a similar first birth experience to mine, in that she wanted to go all natural and the hospital just kept offering her interventions to get the baby out. She said that for her next child she wanted to take control of the birth and have a knowledge of what a normal birth looked like (she had a successful water home birth with her second). "I believe more than anything that a woman's body is capable and wonderfully made to birth a baby..." In my opinion this is such a true statement, but most women do not trust their body enough to get the job done without some sort of help from drugs. I know, I have been there. You are stressed and hurting and you just don't feel like you can do it. You mind is telling you that you can do it and then the person that is suppose to support your wishes tells you time and time again to get the epidural, that was me. I love my midwife, and maybe in my case that is what needed to be done, but she told me time and time again to get it, and sadly I finally gave in. Not that this is an excuse, but I had been in labor for 39 hours at that point and was just dog tired.
That kind of brings me to my next topic, intervention. Among the many interventions you can have, one used on almost all births now is a type of induction drug to get your contractions going. I had two types, cervidil and pitocin. I did not want either of these, but since I was PIH they told me that I had to get the baby out soon. To this day I don't know if I really needed the induction drugs or if I could have just taken it easy and hoped for my blood pressure to go down. Another intervention that is used a tone is a c-section. Did you know that 40% of woman get c-sections now? That is a very high rate, especially when our body was built to deliver a baby vaginally. Of course there are many medical reasons why people really need a c-section, but did you know a lot of people schedule them just because of the convenience? Sorry to get too opinionated, but that is so strange. It is like they want to bypass the most important part of the pregnancy experience. They also stated in the film that some OBs will push for a c-sections b/c they have a lower rate of being sued and it is much faster than waiting on average 12 hours for someone to delivery vaginally. I want to state here that I am not trying to bash OBs, I love them. My best friends husband is becoming one, and will be a very caring one. They are trained surgeons, so when it comes to a c-section they are the experts, midwives do not perform them. They are also great for high-risk pregnancies and for when something might go wrong, they work great under the pressure, so thank goodness we have them.
I remember when I was at the hospital people kept telling me that if I had an OB I would have already had a c-section. But I made it clear to my midwife many times that I did not want to have a c-section, and she listened to me, which is what I wanted. They started my induction on Tuesday night and I had him on Friday morning, you can count the hours, that was a long time. I had to lay in bed the whole time b/c of my blood pressure, and didn't get to use any of the tools(like the bar, ball or walking the halls) I had learned about in our birthing class (we had a really funny Doula that was all about natural birth). I strongly believe that because I had a midwife I got to delivery vaginally like I wanted, so for that I am thankful. She was patient and she knew he would come.
There was so much information in this film that opened my eyes. I always wondered why people where telling me I would have had a c-section with anyone else. I had never considered a birth center or a home birth before, but now I am. I learned that if I had been able to use the tools I might not have had to have an episiotomy. The experience I had with Lincoln is burned into my mind (although I will always cherish it, since Lincoln was the result) and I have just begun to think about having another child in a few years. It was just traumatic for us both, we were so tired when he was finally born that we both slept for like 6 hours. I wish I could take back that time to bond with Lincoln, although I did get to feed him before we all went to sleep. The experience all centers around a hospital, so I have decided to consider taking my next birthing experience out of the hospital if possible. I trust my body to do what it is suppose to. And since I don't plan on having another child for a few years, I have time to research and make my next experience what I really wanted in the first place. Although Lincoln's birth was not what I imagined, I got the best little boy and that is what matters now, I can't change that experience. But I can try to make the next one better for my whole family.
They have a book out now (click on the book above to go to the site) and I think I am going to buy it, since I love to read now. Oh and BTW, Ricki is looking good, right! Mostly I love to read about vampires, but I will stray the course for this book. I guess the whole purpose of this discussion is for women to stop and think about your ideal birth experience. Of course be ready to make some changes, b/c it will never go exactly how you plan, but if that image includes a natural birth and you and baby are healthy, I would say use a midwife and see what options they give you. I would like my next experience to be in my control instead of feeling like people are making decisions without consulting me. Maybe I should have called this post Though Thinkin Tuesday, haha. Thanks for sticking with me if you made it this far. In the end I got a super cute little boy and it was worth it all. My little man and his straw.
Haha, even when he cries he is cute. We had to get in a little yard time before bed, but he was too tired!
2 comments:
Oh girl, I did not know you were in labor that long! Bless you! I am glad you didn't have to have a c-section, as I am sure you are too. So sorry your birth experience was not as you had hoped, but like you said the most important thing is that you and Linc were both okay. They always say that your birth experience is likely to be different than you imagined. Good luck making decisions with your next birth:)
So glad that little Lincoln was such a sweet gift after all that you went through. i saw Ricki Lake and that other woman on a talk show recently talking about that book, too. Glad I have a little time to learn about all of my options before my little one arrives!
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