Coming soon....

I just found out about this movie. It looks interesting.

The movie takes on the model of birth in this country. In general, our model of pregnancy and birth is that they are illnesses and not healthy normal processes. I think our conception of birth needs to change (pun is there and I'm aware of it). Because of this belief, I think we end up with far too many interventions in birth.

(This goes along with my believe that in general, we have too much Medicalization of our society.)

I am lucky because I had 3 hospital births with very few interventions. But I had to be resolute to avoid interventions.

The first time, with N, I wish I wouldn't have let the doctor break my water, but I was in such a hurry to meet N (5) that I was willing to take the trade-off of more pain for faster... After I read about the procedure later, I think it probably didn't speed things up very much. (I actually went into my first birth a little naive.) In letting the doctor break my water I put myself on a clock for giving birth, opened myself up for potential infection, and if I hadn't given birth in 12 hours I might have ended up needing a C-Section.

Thought Experiment
It is entirely possible that the little intervention of breaking my water might have caused me to want an epidural because the pain was so great since the bag of fluids weren't there to cushion the baby and my back/pelvis. Then, if I'd elected to have an epidural, I might not have been able to push effectively. And then, if I couldn't have pushed effectively, N who was already not wanting to come out, might have really needed help getting out. Or my labor might have stalled and the "give birth within 12 hours after breaking the bag of fluid" clock might have chimed.... And then, since I already had an epidural the doctor who delivered N may have said I needed a C-Section. And by that point, who knows, I may have actually needed it.


Did the doctor suggest anything like the above scenarios when she broke my water? Nope. All that was said was, "Let's speed things up and get things going for you." To a first-time Mom, that sounds GREAT. All I wanted to do was meet my baby! My first baby!


Since I am not one for regrets, I try not to think too much about that and the potential of intervention on top of intervention that could have happened. I am just thankful that I didn't have more interventions when I had N.


When I was pregnant with K, I actually got scared of the process of giving birth at a hospital at around 24 weeks.

My doctor was out on her maternity leave and I had to see a substitute doctor in the practice for my OB visit. We'll call him Dr. Too-happy-about-epidurals. He looked over my chart and saw that I hadn't had an epidural with N. He asked why not. I told him I didn't think it was necessary. I didn't like the idea of being numb from the chest down (and I explained to him why--my history of Transverse Myelitis). I also explained that I wanted to be able to feel the birth. That I didn't think pain was "wrong."



He spent the rest of the OB appointment trying to talk me into an epidural.

I was fuming mad when I left that appointment.
I hired a doula to help me FIGHT OFF THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT.


I wanted to have a baby without being asked every 5 minutes if I wanted an epidural. When I was in labor with N, I had to say no to an epidural about 3 or 4 times. I figured with a doula there, she could say NO for me.

Before my second labor and birth, I thought a lot about things. I wrote a birth plan. I talked with our doula. It turned out that with K, we didn't need a doula because she was born about 10 minutes after we got to the hospital. Heh. No epidural for me! (Also MY doctor was back to deliver Miss K... Not Dr. Too-happy-about-epidurals.)

K's birth was so incredibly wonderful (it was absolutely amazing and empowering) and I think it was because I labored at home and had NO INTERNALS through labor. No interventions. I can't even explain how incredible her birth was. I was on a high from it for weeks. Literally.

Miss T's labor and birth... I'll have to share the whole story sometime, but labor was pretty fast (I checked in and was 2 cm at 11:15 am and she was born at 2:35 pm).

No epidural, and no pain meds. Too many internals. A scary few moments, but no intervention other than having a neonatal team on hand to check her immediately after birth.

Unfortunately, I think there were about 8 people in the room when she was born. It also turns out that the problem that occurred only causes problems in about 11% of infants, but NO ONE TOLD ME THAT during labor. It would have helped to have heard that. That's a simple little thing that no one thought about since the model of our births are that they have to be "treated."

Having all those people on hand was not reassuring. It made me think that they'd probably be able to save T when she was born with something wrong. She was fine when she was born. I'm still a little traumatized by the scare however.

Anyway, I am glad I was in a hospital, I wanted that safety net. I chose to be in a hospital all 3 times.

Because I chose the hospital route, I am very glad I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about what I wanted during my birt. I am very glad that I knew enough about when you can say NO to avoid many interventions.

Many women don't know when they can or can't say no to things and consequently there are just too many interventions done. Cascading interventions. The first one may or may not be necessary, but after you have one, a second one may become necessary. And so it goes, intervention after intervention after intervention.

The C-section rate in America is 31-33%. Again, there's nothing wrong with a c-section if you need it. However, when other countries have a lower infant mortality rate and a lower c-section rate, you just can't tell me that we NEED ALL those c-sections. I'm sure we need some, but not ALL.

Anyway, check out the movie trailer I linked to at the beginning. It looks interesting.