The main factor in a good birth is the empowerment of the woman.

[sapphire_chan]

How true do you feel the above statement is? Discuss.

( Sorry to make it sound like a school assignment.)

[Emilie]

I think that your mind has a LOT to do with LOTS of things- so of course birthing...
I did not go into labor until my mind got out of the way....( and dd's hand- which she has still not quit sucking on!LOL)
I think that if a woman TRULY believes that she can birth her baby- and the people with her believe that too- it will happen. Of course this is not always the case- but I think that in general- it makes a huge impact.
Emilie

[Raven]

The main factor in a good birth is the empowerment of the woman.


When I read this my first reaction was to nod (a lot lol) and say, "absolutely".

Here is part of an article I wrote for a local birthing newsletter about Doula's:

There was a time when women were supported throughout their pregnancies by the wise and experienced mothers and grandmothers of their commnity. This was a time when the natural cycles of nature as well as within the human body and psyche were well respected and honoured.

The ancient secrets of birth were carried down from generation to generation. Women supporting women throughout their journey through motherhood. For when a baby is born, so is a mother and it is essential for society to recognise and honour this. The focus must include the emotional, spiritual and physical changes the mother goes through in order for the natural cycles of the human psyche to evolve.

Think about how things have changed. We no longer as a society, honour the mother during her birth experience. Her natural instincts are hardly encouraged and even seem lost at times.

During the time where mothers were acknowledged as being the true force behind birth.. where the circle of women around her gave her sage advice and assistence.... there was also a high death rate due to the general lack of knowldege about germs and disease (no clean sanitation sytems and outbreaks of diseases didnt aid the problem) and along came medical science.

Upper class women started having physicians attend their births. And the medical industry was fast becoming a profitable business. And as time went on, more and more women started giving birth in hospitals. Behind the scenes, the medical industry started to make midwifery obsolete. Not only that, but midwives were banned from medical schools and in some places it became illegal to even be a private midwife. Thus making the amount of women giving birth in hospitals increase more and more. The choice to even have a home birth became impossible in some places.

Charity hospitals became breeding grounds for childbed fever. The maternal deathrate climbed. This was due to a lack of knowledge about how germs spread and doctors would go from one delivery to the next without washing and things like that. Childbirth was fast becoming something to fear .. something that could kill you. And once again, the medical industry had to rise up and save the women of this earth. Forceps, vacuums, twighlight sleep (where women were given opiates and other drugs such as high doses of morphine while in labour, often causing them to be unconsciouss and oftentimes hallucinate), fetal monitoring... all these things crept into the birth place and hailed miracles of modern science.

Women were restricted to lie on their backs so that the doctors could more easily assist them. (I dont know about you but I did NOT want to be on my back during labour. It blocks major blood vessels that carry oxygen to the baby therefore making labour take longer and even cause lack of oxygen to the brain leading the baby into distress.... number one reason for "emergency" ceasars. )

Birth became something to fear rather than something to honour and celebrate. The medical industry promised relief from the "unnecessary" pain of childbirth... the inconvenience of labour and slowly but surely the ancient wisdom of childbirth was diluted by the seemingly omnipotence of medical childbirth.

We are now moving into a more ethical phase which I am personally very excited about. More and more women are reclaiming their births. More and more women are standing up and demanding a choice. And in such a time, allies are needed. And that is what I like to think Doulas are: allies. And not just to pregnant and birthing woman, but to the mother as a whole woman.

It's not about where you birth or how you birth, its about empowerment. Every woman has the right to choose and a right to be supported in whatever choices she makes. But in this era of hi tech living, we have to wade through a lot of redundant ways of thinking. Women have been birthing since the beginning of time. That primal instinct is the power of every woman. But it needs to be awakened... respected... honoured... and encourged in order for it to become activated. All babies know how to be born. This is a truth I have witnessed and can honestly say it is a miracle each and every time.

The world would be a much better place if we saw birth for the thing it truly is: a miracle. Its not a killer. Its not something to be afraid of. Its something to be celebrated. If every woman was treated like a goddess while birthing, can you imagine the shift in societies perceptions of mothers? It is the hardest job on earth and the one that is least respected. Peace on earth begins with birth and in order for us to reach that peace, we need to empower ourselves. Seek allies. Create awareness of the choices before us.. and act on it.

So yes, I think it really is about empowerment.

[party_of_seven]

I had a horrible first birth in the hospital with all of the usual crap. My second was and amazing empowering homebirth. I don't think that I would be the confident powerful mama that I am today if that had never happened. It changed something in me. It taught me that I KNOW my body. It gave me the courage to stand up for myself and my children. It bonded and strengthened my relationship with my dh in a way that never happened after my first birth. Overall it gave me power to believe in myself.

I mourn for women who will never know that feeling. I know that birth was meant to lift women up....bring families closer together....strengthen women and give them the courage to trust their instincts and protect their children. Its not meant to be a humiliating denegrating experience where you surrender all of your power to the "professionals". What does that teach you? Dependence.

[loudmama]

Empowerment is one of my priorities as a doula. My role, in large part, is to help them make decisions they feel good about. I also offer suggestions for positions, comfort measures, get things, etc. But I am there to help them get what they need, get their questions answered, & make sure they feel they are in charge as much as possible.

That's one of the things I do take from my own birth & share with the births I attend. I had a c-section. While I do have regrets about it, the reason I feel I don't feel trauma about it is because I felt that my DH & I were in charge.

L

[ashleep]

nak

Raven,


Do you mind if I print that to give to my cousin?


:

[velcromom]

Great article Raven, may we use it/distribute it? & if so, do you have a byline for it you would like us to use?


I haven't had a vb yet but I have to add that my journey from "just do another c/s" to "well, at least let the next baby choose his birthday" to "hm, if I'm going to go into labor why don't I give it a shot" to "There is no way in he(( I'm going to volunteer for a c/s without a very good reason!!" has been all about empowerment and taking responsibility away from the doctors and putting the power back where it should have always been - in my own hands.

[Lousli]

I agree that it is probably the main factor in a good birth, but I think it is important to remember that empowerment may not be enough to protect someone from a "bad" or traumatic birth, especially if there are factors beyond her control.

[sapphire_chan]

I think that having factors beyond her control can be disempowering. An emergency c-section can be less traumatic than a vaginal birth with no complications. If the woman is able to make the decision that surgery is necessary she's more empowered than a woman who is given an episiotomy because "it's hospital policy".

[NYCVeg]

I think I tend to agree. A friend of mine recently ended up with a section due to a badly positioned breech baby. They did everything possible to deal with the breech (moxibustion, ironing board lying, music, heat/cold, and finally a version). At the version, their care provider said she believed the baby could not likely be birthed vaginally, but also encouraged them to get a second opinion. They went to a doctor in the area who is known to be an "expert" in breech births and attends breech births regularly--he checked out the baby's position and agreed with the original assessment. Although she ended up with a c/s, she felt she made an informed decision that was her own and hadn't been bullied into things. Because she had thoroughly educated herself beforehand, she was also able to ensure that the c/s didn't force her to "lose" the other things that were important to her--she roomed in w/ baby the whole time, bf immediately and exclusively, and avoided the post-partum interventions that she didn't want. I compare this to another friend who did virtually no research before birth, ended up with an emergency c/s under general for reasons that were never fully explained to her (and, from what I can tell, were pretty bogus) and spent weeks struggling to come to terms with her birth and care for her baby. Neither of these women wanted a c/s--but one of them was still able to have a satisfying birth experience because she was well-educated, pro-active, and felt her decisions were truly her own.

[cottonwood]

"Humanizing birth means understanding that the woman giving birth is a human being, not a machine and not just a container for making babies. Showing women---half of all people---that they are inferior and inadequate by taking away their power to give birth is a tragedy for all society. On the other hand, respecting the woman as an important and valuable human being and making certain that the woman's experience while giving birth is fulfilling and empowering is not just a nice extra, it is absolutely essential as it makes the woman strong and therefore makes society strong."

--Marsden Wagner

[pamamidwife]

I love that quote, Linda! yes, yes!

I think the biggest piece is that no body - no doula, no midwife, no doctor - can empower another person. We can only empower ourselves. Once you realize that every woman has her own definition of a "good birth", the idea behind trying to empower women starts to decrease. Each individual woman is responsible for her own empowerment, though it often blooms from the willing support and resources found within her community.

[Phoebe]

I think it is very true...

That's pretty much why I have never shed a tear or felt regret over my son's birth. I planned to birth him at home and worked for 36 hours at it but needed some help, so I went to the hospital...my choice. Then after 52 hours total, he was coming out with his head cocked sideways and I was not tolerating the dr. reaching in me and cranking the baby's head anymore so I said, "that's enough. cut the baby out"...once again, my choice. I was not guilted or coaxed from a homebirth to a csection. I was empowered to make all of the decisions along the way and for that exact reason I never had any bad residual feelings from his birth.

Good question!

I'll be trying again for a homebirh with the baby I'm carrying too...VBAC this time!

[Lousli]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

I think that having factors beyond her control can be disempowering. An emergency c-section can be less traumatic than a vaginal birth with no complications. If the woman is able to make the decision that surgery is necessary she's more empowered than a woman who is given an episiotomy because "it's hospital policy".

I guess I was referring to circumstances in which a woman may not be able to make the decisions. If, for example, you're planning on homebirth and end up with severe preeclampsia and need a c-section, that might feel pretty traumatic, even if you did everything right and educated yourself, you still might grieve your ideal birth that never occurred. You still might not feel very empowered because circumstances, for the health of both you and your baby, were beyond your control, not a line of bull that some OB was feeding you.

[joesmom]

I was going to say that I disagree with the OP's statement, until I read this quote:

Originally Posted by Emilie

I think that if a woman TRULY believes that she can birth her baby- and the people with her believe that too- it will happen. Of course this is not always the case- but I think that in general- it makes a huge impact.

I was 100% certain that I would have a natural, med free intervention free delivery. I ended up under complete anesthesia & did not see Joe till he was four or five hours old. My husband (at the time, & that is probably related to the way he was at the birth) was not a good labor coach & my mom thought I was crazy for not having an epidural. So I had no one telling me YOU CAN DO THIS- instead I had my husband & doctor telling me about c sections...

I do not for one minute regret my birth experience, because it was MINE & it gave me my beautiful son. I DO regret that unless I meet someone & marry & have another baby, I will never know the joy of seeing my child come into the world...

[USAmma]

I can provide a perspective that's different than most births here. I had an epidural birth for each child. Dd1's birth, I just didn't know a whole lot about birth but the promise of pain-free with epidural sounded good to me! For the second birth I knew a lot more and wanted the benefits of a natural birth, but I just could not conquer my fear of pain and the abuse that I endured for most of my growing up years from birth to age 16. So I chose an epidural.

For me being in control meant being able to escape from my pain and demons of the past. Being in pain that I could not turn off or escape made me crazy with dd1's birth until I got the epidural. It was not so much the physical pain as the feelings of panic and anger and wanting to escape. So the choice I was able to have for a pain-free birth was empowering for me. It allowed me for once in my life to have something beautiful that was not shadowed by the pain of my past.

But with dd1's birth I had a conventional hospital birth, with all the "fixings" (episiotomy, etc). For dd2's birth I had a very strong birth plan of many unconventional requests: delayed cutting of cord, no breaking of water without my permission, no staff in the room except when absolutely necessary, no pit shots, no cutting me down there, and I wanted to pull her out myself. I had a doula whom I wholly trusted, and well as two friends that I consider the sisters I never had growing up. And my dh. It was such an empowering, wonderful birth. I did not get out of the bed but I was surrounded by the love and support of people I trusted, we talked, shared stories, and as I sat there in the bed I just felt very happy like everything was going right. I meditated for awhile, too, when they went for a walk and let me have some quiet time. When I got to 10cm I gave permission for my water to be broken, and baby was born 3 pushes later. I pulled her out myself and onto my chest with bare hands, felt the cord before I gave permission for it to be cut. I bled very little, tore just a tiny bit, and well, the whole thing was about as good as an epidural birth can be.

Now, my friend is planning a homebirth and I was able to attend one of her prenatal appts and see where they plan to set up the tub and all that. It was so intimate and safe. Perhaps if I had gotten pg again (we are not having any more children) I could have chosen a home birth for the third baby. Because the home is safe and maybe the pain could have been bearable. I just didn't know a whole lot about homebirths and waterbirths and midwives. Ah well, maybe in my next life!

[sapphire_chan]

Okay, let's go to a different aspect, discuss the following statement:

Hospital births are inherently disempowering.

To clarify, although I'd like to let this stand on it's own and see people's comments, I don't mean that people *can't* have an empowered birth in the hospital, just that it requires more work.

(I finished reading the American Way of Birth and I'm not going to the library for a couple days. I'm totally using everyone, sorry..)

[Emilie]

i can't wait to respond to this!
be back later- great question- one i have thought about a ton lately

[hellyaellen]

in my limited experience, (two births), empowerment is a big factor in the satisfaction of the birth experience. at least for a woman who has done her reading and knows what she wants.

with my first, the only reading i did was in What to Expect.... I was induced for reasons that are unclear, had an epidural b/c it was availible, and almost ended up w/ a section for either "failure to progress" or "fetal distress" (still not sure wich or why they opted not to do the section, i just know i felt an urge to push right before they were going to prep me and they decided to check me again just to be sure) I wouldn't have said i was unsatisfied at the time.

this time i read everything i could get my hands on esp stuff with a "natural" bias. i chose the hosp i wanted based on how non-interventionist they are, switched to midwife care at 28 weeks, and gave birth with limited interventions (more vaginal exams than really necessary, some intermittent external fetal monitoring, and an episiotomy). i felt much more satisfied after this birth than my first even immidiately after.

next time i'm planning for a homebirth which i rhink is even more empowering and i expect to be even more satisfying.

yes you do have to work for empowerment and satisfaction in a hospital setting. i think by choosing homebirth you automatically increase your empowerment.

[Emilie]

This is based on my experiences with one hospital birth- and one homebirth.
I think that hospitals in general are not equipt in the same way that midwives are to deal with the complexities of birth.
Some may say that medical equiptment is neccesary for birth- is it more neccesary than respecting and celebrating the miracle and amazingness of birth?
The people who are involved in a hospital birth- the nurses, doctors- etc.
This is their job. This is what they do for a living- some may even enjoy it( not my experience...lol) but I see and feel that midwifery is a calling.
Midwives are people who enjoy birth. They cherish it for what it is. They celebrate women. And the ability they have to birth children.
OB nurses- are just that- nurses. I had a very good friend who was a OB nurse and I was shocked by how they treated birth( this was in fact before I even CONSIDERED EVER having a natural birth- much less a baby at home)
When i asked her what she thought of women who had babies with no drugs- she replied that they were stupid.
When I would chat with her after a shift- she would be sooo annoyed if a woman did not get drugs- it did not give her time to chat with her friends, and made her job- harder.- she did not understand why anyone would do that....she also thought bf was gross.( whole other topic!)
this is very insightful for me.
I do not think that all ob nurses are like this. However- she was- she did not know not to be.
I am sending her some books.
Anyhow- no I do not think hospitals are set up to deal witht the miracle that is birth. I think they are set up to be efficient. And to comply with their malpractice insurance.
emilie