The more a midwife speaks to a mother and spends quality time with her, the more likely a mother is to open up and reveal more of her daily routines and habits that can affect her pregnancy and birth. For example, the midwife will ask a mother the most basic yet critical questions like what is she eating and follow up with nutritional counseling, a topic in which the midwife owns expertise. She’ll ask her what is occurring in her life today, yesterday, expecting for tomorrow. A mother’s every day peace and stress contributes to her body’s sense of well-being and reaching the point where mother and her body believe it is time now to give birth safely and securely.
The psychology of labor is addressed during the med school L&D rotation by incorporating finding other resources for emotional and mental support. Subsequently we have a number of practitioners in all fields lacking in bedside manner today, but in birth this aspect has an impact intangible to the practitioner but very real to the mother and her family. The average obstetrical course of education includes fewer than three credit hours in understanding nutrition. The focus on prenatal nutrition is only a small portion of the syllabus (do your homework choosing a careprovider!). The home birth midwife also follows the mother into the immediate postpartum and continues home visits to see how mother and baby function as a unit.
It is the midwife who is better versed in delivering babies in various but normal birth situations. A breech baby can be birthed safer in the hands of a midwife than a hospital attendant. She has not let her skills fall behind because medico-legal liability has dictated a breech birth to be enough of a risk as to deem a cesarean to be the required course of action; therefore, she continues to hone both her observational and palpating skills.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), America’s leading organization promoting the benefits of clinical obstetrics in the sterile rooms of trained physicians, has found itself in a dilemma. The technology and protocols ACOG promotes are the very ones that directly influence our birth statistics negatively. The birth technology ACOG promotes to prevent or lower risks in birth for both mothers and their babies has not been proven to be beneficial, yet it is used profusely. Birth in America rarely includes the intimacy of the act that culminated in procreation. Images of an infant gently caught into its own mother’s arms are so rare that they cause the general public to question the safety of such an event. Debate for and against the licensing of midwifery – and the definition of midwifery itself – is gaining momentum, because statistics for hands off care of normal, natural childbirth are far better than those of managed birth.
In fact, Rebecca Watson of the New Mexico Department of Health has stated, “I sometimes wonder why [we bother compiling statistics on midwives], since their statistics are so much better than everyone else’s.”
While home birth is stereotyped as dangerous because of the lack of medical supervision, it is the lack of that technology and medicine that actually makes birth at home safer than birth in a hospital under today’s protocols.
Studies have shown that once a technology is introduced and mandated, it is difficult to remove it from care practice despite being proven unsafe or unnecessary. For instance, although the rates involving an episiotomy (cutting the perineum to create a larger opening for the baby to pass through) have dropped drastically since 1980, it is still a common practice. Ironically, episiotomy rates today are justified as integral to the higher use of vacuum-assisted deliveries or unfounded fears that a baby is stuck because it is a large baby or presenting in a less than optimal position, (posteriors, for example, where a baby faces away from the mother’s back during labor).
America is one of the few nations where birth is managed more with technology than with the hands and eyes of the care provider, but other countries will soon catch up. In a country that boasts technology superior to other developed nations and is not known for undernourishing its citizens, our mothers and babies are faring no better at birth than underdeveloped nations such as Croatia. No improvements have been made in the maternal mortality rate in America since 1982, and America’s infant mortality rate in the past two decades also has not improved. Our birth technology has increased and the number of routine prenatal screening tests have multiplied since the early 1960s, but our maternal and fetal outcomes have gone progressively backward.
“Despite a significant improvement in the U.S. maternal mortality ratio since the early 1900s, it still represents a substantial and frustrating burden, particularly given the fact that – essentially – no progress has been made in most U.S. states since 1982. Additionally, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that most cases are probably preventable.” states C.T. Lang in a 2008 obstetrics and gynecology report. Further, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported in 1983 that the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. was 8.0 for every 100,000 live births (Monthly Vital Statistics Report). In 1993, the rate was 12.0/100,000 live births (CDC).
Among the causal deaths that could be prevented were those that involve both underlying health issues such as poor nutrition and high blood pressure (World Health Organization) as well as those that are physician-caused including infection and hemorrhage. Bacterium can be introduced first by the mother arriving in an environment where diseases are being treated as well as from infiltrating the natural barriers we have against infection through vaginal exams and, of course, surgical delivery. In addition, there are higher incidences of hemorrhage from forced delivery of the placenta as when a care provider intentionally pulls on an umbilical cord to tear the placenta away from the uterine wall of the mother’s womb. In all instances, normal birth evidence training of the professional birth attendant is critical.
Injuries and deaths related to the physician’s care range from the off-label use of medicine such as Cytotec (also known as Misoprostol) for the inducing of labor as well as the sanctified use of surgical delivery, which gives us embolism, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and a risk directly associated with cesareans. Cesarean rates for delivery rose by 46 percent from 1995 to 2006.
Women around the world, the time to look again at the image of women birthing with women versus a medical obstetrical group in normal birth is now. WE can improve global maternal and newborn birth outcomes and experiences. WE know birth. WE know women’s hopes and fears. A new generation of birth wisdom and experiences is here!
Wishing you a truly happy Mother’s Day secure in the knowledge of your body’s innate wisdom!
Learn more about the wisdom of utilizing your best resource: an Independent Childbirth member led birth education class like Dorene Vaughn’s All Natural Baby!
Visit our comments section (this post) to find some of the most awesome birth wisdom posts our readers have found on the web and to add the ones you’ve found!
May 10, 2009 at 1:34 am
If YOU’ve read an awesome birth wisdom post in your cyber travels please share it! Post it here!! Share what you know with women around the world! Thank you for dropping in here!
May 10, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Our thanks to readers who have sent us these links. Sit with these wise women today!
Childbirth in Rural Ethiopia
http://www.hipmama.com/node/24796
Fate of Earth Fate of Birth on YouTube
Birth In A Cow Trough? from Sage Femme Productions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R92xTFyTQn0
Post a link to an article or video YOU love!
May 12, 2009 at 7:56 am
Our thanks to MIndful Mama for her site’s series of interviews on the transformation to motherhood!
http://www.mindful-mama.com/video.aspx
Dale
May 12, 2009 at 1:04 pm
[…] 12, 2009 by talkbirth It is International Birth Wisdom Week, and I want to share something from The Pink Kit about inner voices during labor. The book says […]
May 17, 2009 at 11:32 am
TalkBirth ~
I love the articles you’ve written about birth wisdom. This is a wonderful blog and the information I’ve read here has me convinced that I want to birth MY way.
Let’s be frank though. Money is an issue. The midwives in my area are no better than the obstetricians (to me anyway).
A homebirth with midwives here ranges from $3,000 to $6,000. I would never birth unassisted because I’m a first time mom and neither my husband or I are comfortable with our inexperience.
I have no desire to have a doula for “comfort measures” because the truth is I know I can cope with the labor. I don’t want a doula to “run interference.” I know they aren’t there to dispense advice, but also, I can speak up for myself.
We are comfortable with saying ‘no’ to anyone who is at our birth, but, with all of the above, how can anyone in my limited situation really expect to have a great birth today?
May 17, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Hillary,
I teach in an area that has only one hospital that isn’t pro-natural. My students choose to birth at home or in Los Angeles, those who do decide to deliver locally, have had some wonderful births, but yes, you have to work at it. First, get a recommendation from a local childbirth instructor of which doctor works best with natural patients and then take a childbirth class (I teach Bradley) that isn’t in the hospital as they tend to be not supportive of natural birth. Natural childbirth classes help you find YOUR voice and to empower to try to have the birth YOU want.
June 3, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Hi Hillary,
I’m sorry but I didn’t see your comment on this post until this week! Your question is an excellent one and I had many thoughts about it–too many to put into a blog comment, so I made it into a new blog post. You can read it here: http://talkbirth.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/can-i-really-expect-to-have-a-great-birth/
Best wishes for a beautiful, confident birth!
Molly
June 4, 2009 at 12:12 pm
[…] 3, 2009 by talkbirth I received a comment via another blog asking “given my limited situation, can I really expect to have a great birth today?” […]
May 10, 2011 at 1:55 pm
What exactly do you mean by “underdeveloped nations such as Croatia”? Croatia is in Europe, next to Italy. The first university of the country was founded in 1396, half of the country’s population can speak English, they also provided Europe’s first female prime minister. They have a much better public health care system than the US ever will.
(No, I am not Croatian. I am from Hungary – Croatia’s neighbour, if you have a map -, living in the US. Please explain why you think that Croatia is “underdeveloped”.)
July 3, 2011 at 1:42 pm
The infrastructure and economics to provide for the “high tech” our country thinks is necessary for a healthy (read “safe” birth) are not in place in Croatia. This is not meant as a negative statement. Quite the contrary. You’ve directly pointed out that what the USA considers to be a sign of providing good healthcare has no merit. Croatia, is an example of a country that allows for birth without technology and its birth outcomes cannot be said to be considerably worse than America’s. In other words, you demonstrate the fallacy of Americans believing technology is the impetus for us to have better birth outcomes.