Birth & feeding 50 years ago

This is slightly off-topic, but I have a copy of "Everywoman" that my mother had when she was an older teen (She's now early 50s) and I love reading it to see the contrast. The author asserts that if women gain more than the recommended amount during their preg, it will be impossible for them to lose the weight and their husbands will be furious and that it's fine to smoke 11 cigarettes or less a day while preg ("But recent studies have shown smoking to be cancerous anyway so pregnancy may the perfect time to just quite entirely"). Lol!

MummaB - I thought that the standard procedure was the numb the area with a needle and then perform the episiotomy? I could be wrong though.

Unfortunately Neenee the standard procedure for episiotomy is to cut without anaesthetic. It is supposed to be done at the height of a contraction so that the skin is stretched tight and thus it won't hurt (it still hurts many women). Sheila Kitzinger describes episiotomy as "the only surgical procedure routinely carried out on adults without consent or anaesthetic".

Bx

WOW that's crazy! I had no idea! I honestly thought that an anaesthetic was administered via injection! Or perhaps that was just at the birthing centre I attented?

P.S. Sheila Kitzinger is fantastic. I should've paid more attention to what I read of hers before I gave birth!

It depends on the reason for the episiotomy hun. If it's because bubs is slipping back rather than crowning the do it at the height of a contraction while the head is bulging forward and the skin is stretched tight, ditto the episiotomy done to prevent a tear. But if you have to have one due to needing forceps the head isn't usually on the perineum, so they will numb you first if they have time. I know one women who had the all-too-normal failure-to-progress/augmentation/foetal distress and they wanted to section her, saying her son was obviously too big to come down, and she refused, saying she wanted to delivery vaginally, and the ob said, ok, well then i need to use forceps. He got them out and then said "because baby is so distressed, i need to make a small cut to get him out faster, there's no time for an injection, this might sting a little" and then cut a mediolateral episiotomy so deep she had to have her left glute stitched by another surgeon before the Ob could repair her pelvic floor. She said it was agony, far worse than the labour or birth, and she has PTSD. Her son was under 6lbs.

So basically it comes down to how much time you have, the reason for the episiotomy, and the compassion (or lack thereof) of the care-provider whether they numb you or not. I would imagine in the birth centre there are very few episiotomies, and those which are done are done carefully and compassionately, which is possibly why they use anaesthetic.

Bx

My grandmother gave birth to 5 babies she said he best labour was my mothers which was a homebirth attended by 2 midwives who arrived on their bicycles. She was a bit concerned when the younger , an irish catholic girl knelt at the side of the bed and said a prayer for he before she delivered my mum. The prayer seemed to work becuase everything went well. This was 52 years ago in England. Interestingly my mum is the only baby she breastfed. My grandmother then moved to new Zealand and had hospital births. Her first birth she had no prenatal education and when in labour asked a midwife how the baby was going to come out, the midwife said 'the same way it went in'. She waqs only 16 at the time.

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Her first birth she had no prenatal education and when in labour asked a midwife how the baby was going to come out, the midwife said 'the same way it went in'.

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This reminds me of a story my grandmother told me when she was alive. Grandma already had three children at this point and a neighbour - a first-time mum-to-be - was visiting (too many hyphens there? Anyway...).

"I'm very careful when washing around my belly button," this woman told Grandma.

"Why?" asked Grandma, a bit confused.

"I don't want to press it and it opens up and the baby comes out."

See! I knew there was a reason for the linea nigra - the opening for the little door whereby the baby flies out! I don't know what this woman did when poor Grandma put her right, must have been a shock to be 7-8m pg and find out how your baby comes out.