Controversial Pregnancy & Birth Documentary

[BellyBelly]

Prevention of Prolapse

Common sense tells us that we should be able to do something to avoid prolapse. In reality genetic factors may be important and changes in lifestyle may have little impact.

Increasingly women are turning to caesarean section to avoid the damage attributed to natural birth but evidence suggests that pregnancy itself is a factor in subsequent pelvic floor dysfunction. Certainly the avoidance of interventional delivery and pelvic muscle trauma at the time of delivery should be a factor in preventing subsequent dysfunction. Damage may not become evident until the menopause when the loss of connective tissue that occurs at this time places more stress on already compromised ligaments.

Treatment of long term medical conditions and weight reduction can also help. Avoidance of activities such as heavy lifting and manual exertion in patients who have a predisposition to prolapse or other risk factors is also important, especially in the first few months after surgery.

[Yael]

I'm trying to work out if it was the vacuum, or the pushing part

And my mum had a bad prolapse that she had operated on

My obs told me to do pelvic floor exercises - all the time - and i only have myself to blame for being slack..

I'm planning on going all out with them again soon, cos i have such a shocking pelvic floor its not funny!

[BellyBelly]

Wow, genetics was a factor too... I'd say go the exercises asap

[hannanat]

I never do them wither. Ive honestly done about 30 in my whole life. I'll be sorry when I have an accident every time I sneeze when I'm 50.

ETA I'm doing them right now though, lol.

[mrmoo]

I never do them wither. Ive honestly done about 30 in my whole life. I'll be sorry when I have an accident every time I sneeze when I'm 50.

ETA I'm doing them right now though, lol.

See, you read about it then you start doing it...

[Lulu]

Ha ha ha!! Hoo Haas and pelvic floors - I do mine at the traffic lights or I'd never remember.

This doco has already done great stuff if it is promting fabulous discussions with fabulous women about how fabulous we are at giving birth and the CHOICES we will stand up for.

[Inanna]

Absolutely!!!!!!

[hannanat]

I'm doing them again now, lol. I need to read this thread every day

That was well said Lulu.

[christy]

Just as a side....my grandmother had 10 babies, the 9 born at home lived the 1 born in hospital died.

[MantaRay]

I just need to ask - has anyone got through this thread without doing pelvic floor exercises?

[Liz]

yep! I haven't done any LOL. And I probably did about 5 during my pg when the antenatal class was explaining what they were. hehehehe

[lindie]

I love the bit about the damage done too all us womens HOOHAAs.

I read an article the other day and asked my OB on monday gone, its been researched that absolutely no stretching (sex life affecting damage) will be done by having your baby naturally, most damage is caused by A) carrying your precious bundle continually for 9 months on your pelvic floor and B) NOT doing your pelvic floor exercises......(and nope I too dont do em...)

so really not having a natural delivery to preserve (great word sounds like your making jam with you weewha) your weewha is a load of horse manure...


Oh and theres another mother and baby mag. article called....Vagina free birth....its a good read.


Lindie

[Lucy]

I am a pelvic floor nerd. It is sometimes the ONLY excercise I do, LOL! I do them religiously at traffic lights and during the adbreaks on TV........

[bon]

I must say after 3 kids and tearing and stitches each time I don't feel any different down there either. Sometimes I feel a bit achey but thats it. Must start doing those pelvic floor exercises...

When it comes to looking back to the past in terms of pregnancy and birth I feel we should be careful not to romanticise how things were. The fact is the maternal and neo-natal death rate was much higher then than now. This can be attributed to many reasons, and not necessarily the rise of obstetricians or hospital births, I do appreciate that. But as someone whose first birth was induced due to pre-eclampsia, I also appreciate the fact that had I been pregnant and given birth 100, or even just 50 years ago, I would have faced the very real possibility of me or my baby dying. I am not an advocate of blanket intervention but it definitely has its place.

As for breech birth, I have read comments that the skill of breech birth has been lost over time, but I don't believe that this skill was any more prevalent in our mothers and grandmothers time than it is now. I have no doubt that there were those who could do it but I believe we are lucky now that we have the option of a (clean, sterile) caesarian if our babies are presenting breech. My great grandmother gave birth to her first baby, a son, in the 1920s. We are talking 80 odd years ago. He was breech and in order to birth him, the doctor broke his legs. The baby died. Maybe this was a exeptional case, I don't know. But it makes me feel grateful that I live in the modern world where we can take it for granted that we will have access to clean hospitals and modern medicine.

[mrmoo]

Thanks to this thread being continuously responded to I've been doing my *exercises* everyday. I haven't had to remind myself, just had to keep reading this thread! lol.

Oh, Bon... that's really, really awful for your great grandmother to experience. I'm appalled and shocked, shaking my head in disbelief!!!

[BellyBelly]

There are still cases now where there are poor outcomes for breech babies, where the doctor or midwife tries to manage them like a normal birth because they do not know how to handle a beech birth (there are so few of them these days). However breech birth requires a hands off approach and allowing the baby to do the work him/herself until the last minute, no maneuvering or anything as if it were head first.

Its not a scary thing, I have been present to a breech birth with one of BB members, which went without a hitch with an Ob who does around 3 a month and is skilled. Anywhere you go, you will get skilled and unskilled doctors or midwives in breech. Where they are not skilled they will want to do a caesarean. Also, some breech positions are more favourable than others. Many will do a caesarean on a footling breech (feet first, as opposed to bum). The hips have around the same diameter as the head.

As per a paper I just read, I agree that these days, the highest standard of care is often confused with the most technically advanced care. They are not the same. Just like c/s rates have risen but so have complications and adverse events.

[bon]

I just want to add, the documentary sounds like it is following a similar vein to the book "Misconceptions" by Naomi Wolf. A very interesting read, and I would recommend it. It also looks at the experience of pregnancy and birth for women in America, and what is wrong with the hospital obstetric system over there. Although I feel the situation is better here, we do need to be careful that we don't go further down that road in Australia.

[Jennifer13]

You're right, Bon, it's important to make sure we're not going down that road here in Aus. Getting midwives funded by Medicare would be a start!

I have to say I feel a bit sorry for all of you poor women who've had such appalling treatment at the hands of health professionals. I feel so lucky to have had an ob who never shafted me out of the door after 15 mins (in fact while I was in hospital I made him late for his patients 'cause he was chatting to me about schools in the area...) and made me feel like he had nothing better to do than talk to and care for me.

And I heard you can get dodgy pelvic floor muscles just from the pg and not from how the baby comes out. I was so slack, lucky I did prenatal aqua aerobics 'cause that was the only time I ever did them. Nary a leak here though!

As for what your hoohaa might look like, I have to say, since I had a c/s I absolutely HATE the ropy scar that might be hidden in my bikini line but is still clearly visible to me several times a day! I hate the fact that it reminds me I couldn't have the birth I wanted and I hate the fact that it tells me I'm more likely to have about half a dozen problems in my next pg. I'd swap that for a slight change in the nether regions any day...

Oh, and I would have gone with the assumption that it's a bit like stretch marks, some get them, some don't. And they fade over time so don't completely destroy your skin. Although I was lucky there too, no stretch marks... Perhaps my hoohaa will escape unscathed when I have my doula-supported, active vbac!!!