Even though I am struggling to keep on task here I do want to comment and share a little further along the path that IK has.
Like IK I have endured endless criticism and incredibly baseless and alarmist statements from folk for my birthing choices. My first child was a planned home birth - I was taken to the ringer by some. I won't go on about the comments but if I hadn't already been to many births at home and in hospital and if I hadn't had the education I had then, I would have been scared witless.
My second child was born at a birth centre - "surely that's not safe", "oh you are brave", "oh that's just ridiculous!" We had our older child at the birth: "she will be scarred for life". "Surely that's not allowed" or from my MIL "what if child services find out"!
What I find frustratingly amusing/angering is that if I said "I want a c/section" I would be normal. When I say I want to birth my baby in a tub of water with my family around me I am a wierdo. Trust me - I have been called just that.
I *think* in different words this is what IK is saying: If I choose a medical approach to birth I am thought of as normal. If I choose a natural approach - an approach where I listen to my instincts, follow my bodies lead, where I choose no drugs unless indicated by a medical condition then I am somehow foolhardy or irresponsible.
I don't choose this method to birth my children because I am an idiot I choose them because I have decided for me this is the best way to birth.
For me I see birth as a process - an initiation, a sacred act. Of course it's about birthing the baby but there are many facets to birth - it's a time of immense growth for a woman and a man.
Each time one of my children has been born - my Earth babies and my Angel babies - I have birthed a new part of me. I have learnt so much from the journey.
I still remember the little wriggle that my fourth child gave before I pushed her into the water. She was the first birth I had without my "sister" at my side. I had to reconcile and grow and realise that I could do it without her.
I still remember the incredible fear I had to overcome to push out my first daughter - the wrestling in my mind and heart that I had to make peace with. When I did make peace she crowned...
Yes, many women don't see birth at all like this - I don't think them wierd. I think them different to me. I have been at many births. I have been to c/sections through to homebirths in water. I have seen both ends. Birth is beautiful. Choice and education is an essential part of that. Good education is not opinion based.
Someone on here (ecxcuse me but I can't remember who) said we need to support each other. I don't think anyone has been unsupportive. I would be very sad to know that a woman I had touched felt unsupported. In being different there does not have to be lack of support. I fully and completely understand why some women "need" to be induced - I have supported wholly and fully women who do this. I also understand why women choose c/sections. Again I have supported women in that area too.
What I want to see is the pendulum to swing back. The c/section rate in Australia is 30% it should be less than half that. It is normal to have a c/section but less normal in many peoples eyes to have a natural (drug free spontaneous)birth.
People like me (and it sounds like IK) have had to endure incredible amounts of unsupportiveness on the path to getting the births we choose.
Belly Belly is about informed choice. It's about empowering women. It's about support. I think that is why many of us find the good Dr. to be a less than wonderful woman centred birthing advocate.
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