Different hospitals operate differently, the way obstetricians practice can vary widely. After all, they are individuals too. According to OBG Management episiotomy rates are declining quickly. It's frightening that without evidence of benefit the practice of routinely taking a pair of scissors to a vagina has been so normal. The same goes for immediate cord clamp & cuts which are are on the decline too as more parents are becoming informed and including delayed cord clamping in their birth plans.
Some hospitals haven't caught on yet, and are still operating under archaic guidelines. This birth in a Phillipine hospital shows full covering of the mother's body except for clearly, the main circus ring. Her vagina is cut, roughly manipulated and her daughter is violently pulled out of her body to be dangled upside down in the cold air, her pulsing cord and only known source of life quickly clamped and cut off, taken away from her mother off to a table for a spray-down and a long tube shoved down her throat even though she's clearly active and breathing just fine on her own. The treatment of this mother and baby is posted proudly on YouTube by the parents, titled 'Normal Delivery' and the mother is very grateful to her OB, praising them as 'great' for getting her baby out 'clean'. Thank God right?
Yeah yeah it's totally not posh to judge but I have to ask, what is 'normal'? Normal is what you're used to, normal is what's expected. If what you expect is for your baby's birth to be a dangerous, frightening and barely survivable tragedy then I can see how you'd happily subject your body and your child to all kinds of abuse in the name of saving their precious life and praise your doctor as the hero who rescued you both. Of course, who wouldn't? I would glady take a bullet or throw my body unto oncoming traffic or let you cut my arms off to save any one of my children from certain death.
But is the average healthy woman birthing a healthy baby really such a dire situation? You can make life as much drama as you want... or not.
Kourtney Kardashian gave birth to her son in a hospital and yeah she had an epidural, whatever. She also remained comfortably calm and kept a great sense of humor as her water broke, she took a shower and did her makeup and took her time getting to the hospital. Her doctor was gentle and spoke to her with respect, encouraging her to reach down and take her baby. With a smile on his face he watched her touch and take hold of her son as he was fully born and pull him right up in her arms, just as naturally as I'm sure she's picked up Mason a thousand times since. POSH!!! Go Kourtney!
Normal is your frame of reference, when you don't have anything else to compare your 'normal' to you just don't know how things could be different, or better. After my first baby's hospital birth I left thinking it sucked but I was more focused on my beautiful new daughter, grateful to have her as everyone tells you that's 'all that matters'. It was definitely not as bad as the 'Normal Delivery' video, but it had more similarities with that situation than I would like. At the time I was still reeling from how intense and painful birth had been and accepted the rigors, routines and rudeness of the hospital staff as 'normal'. It wasn't until after I had a drastically different experience birthing my son with midwives in a birthing center that I reflected back on the way things went in the hospital and I realized.
Realized how detached and stripped of his role of protector and partner my husband had been.
Realized how disruptive and violating it felt to have random staff come in and out of the room unannounced to look not at my face, but at my spread open legs and scribble in their charts.
Realized how humilating it had been to have a trash can at the edge of the delivery bed.
Realized that even though my daughter was kept in the room with me, how traumatizing it must have been for her to be taken to a table a few feet away while she was suctioned, measured, pricked and weighed.
Realized how rude my OB had been to wink at my husband while throwing in a few extra stitches for his benefit.
Realized how much it sucked to have to immediately change rooms and be woken up through the night to be 'evaluated' while my husband tried to curl up on a tiny couch.
What a difference it was to be in a small birthing center with a single midwife and one additional after-birth attendant. Where my husband and I were left to labor together in privacy in a comfortable room with a king-size bed. Where carefully placed chux pads and swift hands by compassionate attendants made clean-up discrete and dignified. Where my baby's nuchal cord was dealt with gently, and he was placed on me directly. To stay. Where the three of us were left peacefully alone to sleep and breastfeed until morning when we happily packed up and walked out.
The way you are treated and what you experience while giving birth matters. The way we are born, matters!
When I was preparing to birth my breech baby, I searched for medically managed pictures and videos and found more than a few that gave me nightmares. This one is hard to watch, it shows horrible technique that surely, SURELY isn't practiced here in America. I talked to other mothers who had their breech babies born by being pulled out by my backup OB and they were healthy, she seemed to have a pretty good rate of success fully extracting second breech twins. But what if something went wrong? Brachial plexus injuries are serious, and too common! After reading guidelines for allowing spontaneous birth of a breech and seeing videos of a breech baby being born on their own, I could not find a reason to risk allowing someone to pull on my perfectly healthy baby.
How posh would a norm of gentle be? Where a mother's body is allowed to work, her baby allowed to be born spontaneously, and stay with her? This water birth video is simply beautiful, showing how well mother and baby work together and clearly benefit physically and emotionally from nature's design.
So, Posh Mama what kind of normal do you want? Do you need someone else to deliver your baby from you, or are you capable of giving birth yourself? Could you stay calm, allow your baby to be born and pick them up with your own two hands?
You know what I think.....of course you can!
Showing posts with label Breech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breech. Show all posts
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Posh Thing About Pushing
Is that you don't even have to. You have a uterus just dying to push for you, and if you just shhhhhhhush. Shhhuuushhh your busy worried over-thinking brain. Be calm and allow your mind to work with the incredible uterine pressure it will push your baby all the way to their first breath, while you slowly exhale your own.
"The birth process need not be a pushing affair. It can be a gentle unfolding in harmony with the natural rhythms of life." ~ Nancy Tatje-Broussard
We are not suddenly abandoned at the end of our pregnancy. There is literally a birth "response" that propels our babies from womb to world with very little conscious effort on our part. The problem is, there is something even more powerful than the birth response, something that can override it entirely. That something is known as the fight/flight response. ~ Laura Shanley
What would your body do if your mind wasn't even there, if it totally checked out?
IT COULD ALLOW YOUR UTERUS TO PUSH YOUR BABY OUT PAINLESSLY. ummm.....POSH.
Comatose pregnant women have spontaneously give birth to healthy live infants! Epileptic pregnant women have woken to find they have given birth! Some women even report birth to be pleasurable to the point of orgasm!
No need to try to be some warrior woman proving her power, or suffer in self-hate to follow Biblical command.
Just be soft, gentle, calm and allow your body to work. You may or may not have an orgasm but you will find yourself in a pretty great state of mind for successfully caring for a newborn. Nice coincidence!
What one woman can do, why can't another?
I really had to hold back laughter when I was told 'Birthing a breech baby vaginally without manual extraction by an obstetrician is impossible, at least...it's never been done in Austin.' LOL I mean, seriously??? Not only has it been done in Austin by mothers before me, it has been done in Utah, Australia, Georgia and the United Kingdom. All over the world. Yes only 3-4% of full-term babies are in a breech position at full term so while it's not common, it's still normal. And since plenty bottom-first babies have been born live and healthy throughout human history (was there even life before Google???) it's more than possible, it's probable.
There's a LOT that's possible and probable in birth, with a strong uterus in your corner you're most likely set for success! Here's how to aid your uterus' strength and give your body support:
*The basics, the obvious of being healthy. Eat most of what grows organically in the ground, less of what's synthetically derived and injected into slaughtered creatures and genetically altered plants. Move your body, sweat, take in sunshine and fresh air and get good sleep.
*Drink Red Raspberry Leaf Tea before conception, through pregnancy, especially during the weeks leading to birth, in labor and through postpartum. And during that menstruating time of the month . Just keep RRL permanently on your favorite Herb Bar shopping list.
*Take the herbal blend 5W five weeks prior to your estimated due date. I'm no herbalist, midwife or doctor but I have a group of posh girlfriends who have taken 5W after having it approved by their midwives and OB's and gone on to have productive, quick, successful and manageable labors(some with epidurals) and feel the 5W played a role. I agree and would not have a baby without it! Ask your birth attendant about it and own thinking before taking it yourself.
*Learn about your body, the role your uterus plays in the birth process and how the rest of yourself works naturally with it. The release of hormones, dilation of the cervix, and most importantly your willing heart and mind.
*Use your imagination to influence reality. In pregnancy, imagine your body opening effortlessly and with ease to make the perfect path for your baby. Call on that visual again in birth. We take it for granted that men's bodies can drastically change size and shape with desire, ours does the same.
*When those waves of increasing intensity start to roll over you and you realize you're baby's about to be born, roll with it. Just let it be there. Let yourself be overwhelmed and amazed at the strength within, and react softly to it.
"The contractions cannot be stronger than me....because it IS me." -SageKelli from the Unassisted Birth Forums.
*Listen to your birth attendants when they say things like 'Breathe your baby down, down down down.' And conversely, if they are telling you to push and you don't feel it, tune them out and turn up the volume on the voice in your head. Every mother and every birth is different but usually it's only in those last few moments when a mother feels an urge to apply her own efforts to bear down and her baby is born. The only person who should tell you to push, is you.
*Realize there is another person on your team, a very tiny one with a heart, body and mind all their own but shares your same goal. Your body wants to birth and your baby wants to be born! They are not unconscious passengers and if they are unmedicated, unforced and unhindered they will be able to most effectively do their job of rotating down and out.
Love and learn your body! Birth doesn't have to hurt!
"The birth process need not be a pushing affair. It can be a gentle unfolding in harmony with the natural rhythms of life." ~ Nancy Tatje-Broussard
We are not suddenly abandoned at the end of our pregnancy. There is literally a birth "response" that propels our babies from womb to world with very little conscious effort on our part. The problem is, there is something even more powerful than the birth response, something that can override it entirely. That something is known as the fight/flight response. ~ Laura Shanley
What would your body do if your mind wasn't even there, if it totally checked out?
IT COULD ALLOW YOUR UTERUS TO PUSH YOUR BABY OUT PAINLESSLY. ummm.....POSH.
Comatose pregnant women have spontaneously give birth to healthy live infants! Epileptic pregnant women have woken to find they have given birth! Some women even report birth to be pleasurable to the point of orgasm!
No need to try to be some warrior woman proving her power, or suffer in self-hate to follow Biblical command.
Just be soft, gentle, calm and allow your body to work. You may or may not have an orgasm but you will find yourself in a pretty great state of mind for successfully caring for a newborn. Nice coincidence!
What one woman can do, why can't another?
I really had to hold back laughter when I was told 'Birthing a breech baby vaginally without manual extraction by an obstetrician is impossible, at least...it's never been done in Austin.' LOL I mean, seriously??? Not only has it been done in Austin by mothers before me, it has been done in Utah, Australia, Georgia and the United Kingdom. All over the world. Yes only 3-4% of full-term babies are in a breech position at full term so while it's not common, it's still normal. And since plenty bottom-first babies have been born live and healthy throughout human history (was there even life before Google???) it's more than possible, it's probable.
There's a LOT that's possible and probable in birth, with a strong uterus in your corner you're most likely set for success! Here's how to aid your uterus' strength and give your body support:
*The basics, the obvious of being healthy. Eat most of what grows organically in the ground, less of what's synthetically derived and injected into slaughtered creatures and genetically altered plants. Move your body, sweat, take in sunshine and fresh air and get good sleep.
*Drink Red Raspberry Leaf Tea before conception, through pregnancy, especially during the weeks leading to birth, in labor and through postpartum. And during that menstruating time of the month . Just keep RRL permanently on your favorite Herb Bar shopping list.
*Take the herbal blend 5W five weeks prior to your estimated due date. I'm no herbalist, midwife or doctor but I have a group of posh girlfriends who have taken 5W after having it approved by their midwives and OB's and gone on to have productive, quick, successful and manageable labors(some with epidurals) and feel the 5W played a role. I agree and would not have a baby without it! Ask your birth attendant about it and own thinking before taking it yourself.
*Learn about your body, the role your uterus plays in the birth process and how the rest of yourself works naturally with it. The release of hormones, dilation of the cervix, and most importantly your willing heart and mind.
*Use your imagination to influence reality. In pregnancy, imagine your body opening effortlessly and with ease to make the perfect path for your baby. Call on that visual again in birth. We take it for granted that men's bodies can drastically change size and shape with desire, ours does the same.
*When those waves of increasing intensity start to roll over you and you realize you're baby's about to be born, roll with it. Just let it be there. Let yourself be overwhelmed and amazed at the strength within, and react softly to it.
"The contractions cannot be stronger than me....because it IS me." -SageKelli from the Unassisted Birth Forums.
*Listen to your birth attendants when they say things like 'Breathe your baby down, down down down.' And conversely, if they are telling you to push and you don't feel it, tune them out and turn up the volume on the voice in your head. Every mother and every birth is different but usually it's only in those last few moments when a mother feels an urge to apply her own efforts to bear down and her baby is born. The only person who should tell you to push, is you.
*Realize there is another person on your team, a very tiny one with a heart, body and mind all their own but shares your same goal. Your body wants to birth and your baby wants to be born! They are not unconscious passengers and if they are unmedicated, unforced and unhindered they will be able to most effectively do their job of rotating down and out.
Love and learn your body! Birth doesn't have to hurt!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Do Your Own Thinking
Rather than let someone in a white coat and degree on the wall do it for you. 'But what makes you think you know more than a doctor???' I've been asked. Well.....I don't think I know more than a doctor exactly, but I do think I'm intelligent enough to understand the mechanics of birth (um, not rocket science folks) read up on common complications (hooray for the University of Google) and the methods different birth professionals use for responding to them. And sorry but when it comes to my own healthy body I definitely DO think I know more than some random doctor who sees me as a random patient and just another mark on the statistics chart, expecting the worst as fear of liability is her bottom line.
I'm a unique individual!! And so is my baby! The American hospital system and insurance companies may not think so, but we are and for both our sakes I demand to be treated that way. Which is exactly why I chose to birth outside of a hospital, in my own home when I was preparing for the birth of my twins.
A chemically induced forced early exit for my babies at 36 weeks? Really? A forced epidural? Really? Forced to give birth on an operating table? Really? Forced to stay on my back with my legs in stirrups? Really? The 'choice' between allowing a doctor's arm elbow deep into my uterus to grab my baby's feet and pull him out or major abdominal surgery to extract him from my body??? No, thanks. REALLY.
Those are the constraints of maternity care I found offered in local hospitals, simply matters of policy that were non-negotiable. It didn't matter that I was a third-time mother with a history of healthy, full-term, intervention-free vaginal births and was enthusiastic about managing labor without medication. Because I had two babies (perfectly healthy, Baby B a breech position) inside my belly we were labeled and put in the high risk box.
And why do the good doctors believe a twin pregnancy and a breech baby is so risky? Largely, based on the findings from The Term Breech Trial which said that cesarean birth has better outcomes than vaginal birth for breech infants. Never mind the thorough professional criticism of the study and it's own follow-up which negated the original findings, obstetricians continue to perform c-sections as a matter of practice for multiples and breech babies. It's quick, can be easily scheduled, surgeons perform the surgical procedures they are skilled at and most often there are good outcomes. Win-win for everyone right? Oh, except for the mother who was perfectly capable and willing to birth her own baby but is now recovering from surgery, and the baby who most likely needed NICU time as they were born before they were ready and missed out on the important life-supporting events that occur in the process of normal spontaneous birth. Allowing babies to grow to full-term and begin labor naturally with a mother who is an active participant in their birth also usually has good outcomes. But it can take a long time, and is cheap. Where's the efficiency and profits in that?
In many ways, the modern obstetrical birth scene is a machine. One I didn't want to be a cog in. So I *gasp* thought for myself and hired a Certified Nurse Midwife to attend us at home who was comfortable with the very normal scenario of twins and the very normal presentation of a breech. I mean, if I wanted modern decor for my home I wouldn't hire Rachel Ashwell would I? Same principle, if you need help with something in your life find someone to assist you who does what you want and does it WELL.
Midwives do normal vaginal birth VERY well. They can also do multiples and variations on normal birth presentations well. Searching on Gentlebirth.org and Midwifery Today gave me a lot of information and filled my notebook with questions for my own midwife. We talked about her experiences and training, how it compared to what I had read, and what she felt most confident with. She even brought out her midwifery textbooks and dirt-dove options with me. A birth attendant should absolutely be this willing and transparent with you, treating you with respect. If you ask detailed questions and are met with condescension, silence, or get answers that do not satisfy you should think about transferring care. Been there! When expecting my first baby and telling my OB I wanted a natural birth I got a 'Sure, we'll see how things go' said shortly through pursed lips. I should have ran. I didn't, and she wasn't on call the night my daughter was born and while I was thrilled to walk away with my beautiful baby girl I was less than thrilled with my experience with that OBGYN practice.
Expecting my second baby, I still hadn't made the leap of considering birthing outside of a hospital so I made an appointment with an OB who'd been recommended by a friend. A friend who loves her pitocin-induced and epidural-aided births, I should have known I probably wouldn't get support for natural methods but I was completely shocked when after hearing the details of my daughter's birth he replied that he would have c-sectioned her! Why??? 'Because that labor was too long' he said, it had been about 36 hours. It mattered less to him that my daughter had been born perfectly healthy and there were no major complications, he said because I labored so long with her he considered me high-risk. I instantly went cold with his words and from that practice, I did run.
I ran straight to the Austin Area Birthing Center, where I was appropriately assessed as a low-risk mother and went on to enjoy a great pregnancy ending in a productive and completely manageable labor with my son. He was born in less than 18 hours from when contractions began, about 4 hours after checking in.
With my twins, my perinatal doctor (who had previously been a practicing obstetrician) was wonderful in his honesty and forthrightness in discussing delivery technique, I truly did appreciate that. But I also knew those techniques were not right for my babies. Performing a full breech extraction on a second twin may have been his favorite thing to do and while I'm aware I'd lose a contest of education and medical expertise with him I knew enough to know that I did not need anyone to pull my baby out, I have a uterus that can push just perfectly.
I thanked him, said he gave me a lot to think about and focused on the positives from my experience at his practice and went out the door so grateful for my midwife, who was trained in the 'hands off' method for birthing breech babies that I knew was our best bet to have him born safely. Which he was.
Birth is personal, and should be treated that way. Cookie-cutter constraints do not serve mothers and babies best. Find the support you need and deserve, demand evidence based care and don't let anyone else do your thinking for you!
I'm a unique individual!! And so is my baby! The American hospital system and insurance companies may not think so, but we are and for both our sakes I demand to be treated that way. Which is exactly why I chose to birth outside of a hospital, in my own home when I was preparing for the birth of my twins.
A chemically induced forced early exit for my babies at 36 weeks? Really? A forced epidural? Really? Forced to give birth on an operating table? Really? Forced to stay on my back with my legs in stirrups? Really? The 'choice' between allowing a doctor's arm elbow deep into my uterus to grab my baby's feet and pull him out or major abdominal surgery to extract him from my body??? No, thanks. REALLY.
Those are the constraints of maternity care I found offered in local hospitals, simply matters of policy that were non-negotiable. It didn't matter that I was a third-time mother with a history of healthy, full-term, intervention-free vaginal births and was enthusiastic about managing labor without medication. Because I had two babies (perfectly healthy, Baby B a breech position) inside my belly we were labeled and put in the high risk box.
And why do the good doctors believe a twin pregnancy and a breech baby is so risky? Largely, based on the findings from The Term Breech Trial which said that cesarean birth has better outcomes than vaginal birth for breech infants. Never mind the thorough professional criticism of the study and it's own follow-up which negated the original findings, obstetricians continue to perform c-sections as a matter of practice for multiples and breech babies. It's quick, can be easily scheduled, surgeons perform the surgical procedures they are skilled at and most often there are good outcomes. Win-win for everyone right? Oh, except for the mother who was perfectly capable and willing to birth her own baby but is now recovering from surgery, and the baby who most likely needed NICU time as they were born before they were ready and missed out on the important life-supporting events that occur in the process of normal spontaneous birth. Allowing babies to grow to full-term and begin labor naturally with a mother who is an active participant in their birth also usually has good outcomes. But it can take a long time, and is cheap. Where's the efficiency and profits in that?
In many ways, the modern obstetrical birth scene is a machine. One I didn't want to be a cog in. So I *gasp* thought for myself and hired a Certified Nurse Midwife to attend us at home who was comfortable with the very normal scenario of twins and the very normal presentation of a breech. I mean, if I wanted modern decor for my home I wouldn't hire Rachel Ashwell would I? Same principle, if you need help with something in your life find someone to assist you who does what you want and does it WELL.
Midwives do normal vaginal birth VERY well. They can also do multiples and variations on normal birth presentations well. Searching on Gentlebirth.org and Midwifery Today gave me a lot of information and filled my notebook with questions for my own midwife. We talked about her experiences and training, how it compared to what I had read, and what she felt most confident with. She even brought out her midwifery textbooks and dirt-dove options with me. A birth attendant should absolutely be this willing and transparent with you, treating you with respect. If you ask detailed questions and are met with condescension, silence, or get answers that do not satisfy you should think about transferring care. Been there! When expecting my first baby and telling my OB I wanted a natural birth I got a 'Sure, we'll see how things go' said shortly through pursed lips. I should have ran. I didn't, and she wasn't on call the night my daughter was born and while I was thrilled to walk away with my beautiful baby girl I was less than thrilled with my experience with that OBGYN practice.
Expecting my second baby, I still hadn't made the leap of considering birthing outside of a hospital so I made an appointment with an OB who'd been recommended by a friend. A friend who loves her pitocin-induced and epidural-aided births, I should have known I probably wouldn't get support for natural methods but I was completely shocked when after hearing the details of my daughter's birth he replied that he would have c-sectioned her! Why??? 'Because that labor was too long' he said, it had been about 36 hours. It mattered less to him that my daughter had been born perfectly healthy and there were no major complications, he said because I labored so long with her he considered me high-risk. I instantly went cold with his words and from that practice, I did run.
I ran straight to the Austin Area Birthing Center, where I was appropriately assessed as a low-risk mother and went on to enjoy a great pregnancy ending in a productive and completely manageable labor with my son. He was born in less than 18 hours from when contractions began, about 4 hours after checking in.
With my twins, my perinatal doctor (who had previously been a practicing obstetrician) was wonderful in his honesty and forthrightness in discussing delivery technique, I truly did appreciate that. But I also knew those techniques were not right for my babies. Performing a full breech extraction on a second twin may have been his favorite thing to do and while I'm aware I'd lose a contest of education and medical expertise with him I knew enough to know that I did not need anyone to pull my baby out, I have a uterus that can push just perfectly.
I thanked him, said he gave me a lot to think about and focused on the positives from my experience at his practice and went out the door so grateful for my midwife, who was trained in the 'hands off' method for birthing breech babies that I knew was our best bet to have him born safely. Which he was.
Birth is personal, and should be treated that way. Cookie-cutter constraints do not serve mothers and babies best. Find the support you need and deserve, demand evidence based care and don't let anyone else do your thinking for you!
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