Part I: Childbirth Today
Denise Spatafora, author of “Better Birth, The Ultimate Guide to Childbirth from Home Births to Hospitals”, is the creator of Bornclear, a nationally recognized birthing method backed by renowned doctors, midwives and celebrities. Her revolutionary book, Better Birth is based on the mind-body connection preparing women and couples on all levels for conception and birth: emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually-leaving them educated, empowered and trusting themselves and their choices. Be the first two people to tweet @Kris_Carr with a link to this blog and win a free copy of Denise’s book!
The way we have come to expect a “traditional” pregnancy and birthing to look and feel has dramatically changed in our modern, technically enhanced times. The once customary rite of passage, with its inherent understanding that women were designed to give birth, has morphed into a sterile and oftentimes lonely medical procedure. This shift in thinking has inadvertently led us into an era where many women feel as if they are bringing new life into this world without really being present for the experience.
Before the 1920s, most births took place at home and were attended by doctors or midwives, but by the 1930s women were flocking to hospitals, hoping to experience the revolutionary methods of “painless” childbirth. Even though the doctors of the time did not deliver on this ridiculous promise, we continued to follow and “improve” on these new scientific practices, and before we knew it, we had unintentionally relinquished control over the entire childbirth experience. Every aspect of hospitalized childbirth became almost mechanical, and they were all orchestrated by a doctor. Women were separated from their husbands, sedated by drugs that made them oblivious to the birthing process, and kept in sterile environments. Breastfeeding was discouraged, and breast milk was replaced by “enhanced” infant formulas. As time passed, we completely forgot how to own and control pregnancy and childbirth: the natural, normal aspects of delivery no longer existed.
Doctors gave great arguments to pregnant mothers. As Dr. David Chamberlain, an expert in prenatal psychology, said, “The doctor ’s byline was, ‘Let us do it. Trust me; we know how to do this.’ But they didn’t. All they had to offer was a protocol. They treated every mother the same, every father the same and every baby the same.”
According to the World Health Organization, “By medicalizing birth, i.e., separating woman from her own environment and surrounding her with strange people using strange machines to do strange things to her in an effort to assist her, the woman’s state of mind and body is so altered that her way of carrying through this intimate act must also be altered and the state of the baby born must equally be altered. The result is that it is no longer possible to know what births would have been like before these manipulations — they have no idea what non-medicalized birth is. The entire modern obstetric . . . literature is
essentially based on observations of ‘ medicalized’ birth.”
Before women could muster up opinions to the contrary, technology took hold once again, to the point where today the Cesarean section is the most common form of surgery performed in any hospital. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 1 in 3 babies in the United States is delivered by Cesarean section. USA Today reported that in 2006, 31.1 percent of U.S. births were by C-section, a 50 percent increase over the previous decade. Some doctors are even referring to C-sections as vaginal bypass surgery! While C-sections can be lifesaving operations when either the mother or the baby faces certain health-related problems, many health-care experts believe that a good number of C-sections are performed unnecessarily. Too often, they are scheduled to meet the personal needs of obstetricians or the hospital staff or to conform to the hectic lives of mothers themselves. In almost every country in the world outside of the United States, 75 to 80 percent of all low-risk pregnancies are attended by midwives. In the United States, most women are still opting for a hospital birth, but many report afterward that their experiences were less than ideal and sometimes traumatic. Often, they are disappointed with the clinical character of the process. Women often say that they felt as if they were not included in their childbirth. Other mothers have told me that even though they were well informed about “what to expect,” they were too scared of the pain to be emotionally present, so they relinquished control to the medical team. They did not know how to deal with the totality of the experience in real time because they really weren’t prepared.
On top of individual experiences, the main conversation about birthing that is often shared among traditional health-care providers, birthing professionals, and even girlfriends is that childbirth is a painful ordeal, an uncomfortable means to an end. The discussion then compartmentalizes the process into two categories: “successful” mainstream or “alternative” vaginal births, and “unfortunate” or “scheduled” C-sections.
Yet this negative and limiting conversation doesn’t have to exist at all. Today, many women, as well as mainstream health-care professionals, are speaking up against the current culture of childbirth, and changes are happening, even in hospitals. Doctors and midwives are uniting to find better solutions to the increasing rate of C-sections, as well as the rising costs of hospital births. Husbands and partners have reentered the birthing room. Mothers are encouraged to breast-feed by both obgyns and pediatricians: medical statistics now back up what many women have known all along, that breastfeeding is the healthiest feeding option for both mother and baby.
Tune in tomorrow for Part II: Childbirth Today…
7 Comments
Thank you for this blog! I was just talking to my best friend last night about all this. She has two kids, both of which she delivered vaginally in a hospital with pain medication. She tried breastfeeding the first one, but she didn’t stick with it and she didn’t even try on her second kid. I told her that I did not want to have my baby in a hospital and that I would rather go to a birthing center. Ideally, I would like it at home, but there is such a stigma with that now that I think it would be hard to convince even my boyfriend to do it. Anyways, she told me I was crazy for not wanting to go to the hospital. She asked me what I would do if something went wrong. People act like the birthing process is so delicate and that problems are very likely. I tend to believe that the birthing process was made to prevent problems and it has been occurring since humans have been on this planet. If there was really that big of a risk for problems, how did all of us get here? And, a lot of problems are up to the mother to prevent. With proper nutrition and education, I believe most problems would never occur. That’s just my two cents ;-)
Looking forward to part II!
I was traumatized by the birth of my second child (I have three). I was left alone in a room, while the medical staff prepared for my C-section. I was told I had to have a C-section with my first child, so all my subsequent deliveries were also via C-section. I wish I had known about Birthing Centers or midwives back then. I had allergic reactions to the medications they gave me in the hospital, and immediately suffered a panic attack after being given Demerol. I breastfed my first child, tried for a few months to breastfeed my second, and didn’t breastfeed my third at all. The consequences of have a C-section still affect me today. With my third child, my C-section incision was infected, so my doc put me on endless rounds of antibiotics, which caused me stomach problems that still persist today (15 months later). I also suffer from panic attacks / generalized anxiety, which started after the birth of my second child. Thank you for writing this article. Women need to know what they’re in for so they can make an informed decision.
What a wonderful article and what a wonderful conversation maker you have written I cannot wait until tomorrow. I suppose you are taken aback by all sorts of stories. Women have awful experiences in the hospital and some having awful experiences at home. When I finally gave birth to my son. After several late term miscarriages. I was fully engaged in every aspect of the experience. I decided who was in the room, what the doc.’s roll would be and how much and when I wanted to be medicated. I can say that it is wonderful that you can find doctors and hospitals that are ready willing and able to give you the birth experience you want, with compromises for emergencies.. I think the c-section option has gone to far, and we have to see that our bodies and the babies is made to go thru this process. Can I say I would go drug free.. no but I would be present and open and available again. I hope everyone takes as much time to interview the doc as she takes to make any decision. Your partner and your caregiver are essential in keeping control over the birth of your baby. Thanks for the intriquing thought provoking article. Callie
Great article- if only women could embrace the power of birthing naturally. Both of my birth experiences left me feeling connected to womanhood- the legacy of mothering that dates back to the beginning. Breastfeeding has been a similar experience. A gift to be able to provide nourishment and enhance the mother baby bond. But women seem to face so many obstacles on the path to natural mothering. i have known so many who have given up- it breaks my heart. But i can only stay strong the path that i have been blessed to take and hope to inspire others. My third is due in November and i look forward to partaking in the ritual of birthing and mothering in the ancestral way.
this article is very informative ! Thank you for all of your wonderful insight :). I have alot of health issues that would make me a “high risk pregnancy” if i ever become pregnant. I have diabetes among other issues. any advice on natural birthing with health issues?
i just think it should be noted that all women should be fully aware that the birth of a child is both a beautiful and also extremely complex time(physiologically speaking) for both the mother and child. i completely support a move back to more natural methods, but it is very important to know that REAL complications do happen. and back in the past(“better days”-as many seem to spout) when such complications arose those babies usually did not survive. i just recently had my full-term newborn son die shortly after birth due to still undetermined causes. i did have a c-section, and i fully believe that had i delivered vaginally he would have died during delivery. the outcome would have been the same, but i can only imagine how many more “what ifs” would have tortured me if medical care had not been immediately available.
Can’t wait for tomorrow! thank you for your words.
metta
July 22, 2009