OR nurse telling everyone how dangerous childbirth is! What to say?

[Quindin]

I am in a marriage group where somebody recently began discussing childbirth methods.

Well, when the natural birthing mamas began talking about their bad experiences in hospitals vs wonderful homebirths, the other side quickly jumped in the defensive. Basically, we are all conspiracy theorists and irresponsible for not listening to doctors who have so many years experiences under their belts.

And now a nurse who works with Obgyns in operating rooms just wrote: that after 10 years experience she knows for a fact that birth is not "simple" and not "easy". Women should never buy into the belief that "birthing is easy - women have done it for hundreds of years, and I don't need to think about interventions' She has seen many women buy into that lie and end up devastated because they don't realize how quickly things can change during birth

Man, I am sooooo bummed out!
I mean, there are LOTS of young impressionable women therewho are TTC or pregnant, and they are probably eating up everything she says because she is so "experienced"

What would you say??
Any links, studies?

I am so mad! Specially considering that all those things that "go wrong quickly" are caused by the d%^* hospital interventions that would NOT have happened if the women was home!!

[sadean]

Well, birth isn't guaranteed to have a positive outcome, regardless of where you are. Women and babies can die in childbirth. Women who decide to get pregnant and have children are making a calculated risk and to gloss over that I think is disingenuous and can be dangerous.

HOWEVER, going from there, I would take very practical and scientific approach to the issue and look at the maternal and infant mortality rates of homebirth vs. birth center vs. hospital. You will be almost guaranteed to find that statistically, homebirth is AS SAFE, if not SAFER THAN a hospital or birth center. It doesn't make a huge amount of sense for a normal pregnancy and birth to be treated through a hospital setting and doing so can make it MORE dangerous.

I would also factor in that 1) this nurse likely sees the worst of the worst of cases and that is what is "normal" for her (and how sad for her); 2) we remember the terrible things that happen much more keenly that the routine/normal outcomes; , and 3) her livelihood is entrenched in an alliopathic approach to pregnancy and birth and invested in upholding that model...it doesn't really make sense for her to investigate a different way of thinking.

[danotoyou2]

It may be worth mentioning that EMTs and Highway State Patrolers might see a different, more dangerous side to getting in your vehicle. They've had to clean up the messes (literally) of fatal car accidents. It's something that most of us don't think twice about, we just get in the car and go, not ever considering that we're risking our lives in doing so.

But... MOST of the time getting in your car is perfectly safe. MOST of the time giving birth at home or in a hospital is perfectly safe (and certainly one is as safe as the other).

So... would you rather take a drive with a passenger shouting at you that you're going to DIE any moment, while constantly trying to take the wheel out of your control? Or would you prefer to have a nice peaceful drive in your nice, comfy BMW with Enya playing in the background?

[Belleweather]

I agree. I would definately point out that as a nurse in the operating room she is ONLY going to see the cases where something goes catastrophically wrong. She'd never have anything to do with a safe, straight-forward natural birth (thank goodness!) and that might be coloring her perception and experience just a bit.