Homebirth General Discussion #15

[Cricket]

Avoiding muscle cramps would be a bonus anyways! They haven't been too bad this time around (it's a boy/girl thing for me, I think - with my last DD they were TERRIBLE, whereas with DS I barely got any) but none is still better than a few. I'll see about getting a bottle.

HotI - about natural birth in the hospital - a lot will depend on who gives your care, I think. When I delivered at hospital with a midwife, not a GP or OB, things were definitely more natural. But, the hospital has more regulations in place that the midwives just have to stick with, or they'll lose their right to practice there. And getting regulations changed is a long, slow process. I think a lot of the regulations were put in place after bad outcomes, but were over reactions to something that happened. (ie - someone ruptured or had a still birth or a severely distressed baby after labouring for hours and hours, so they decided that if a mother isn't progressing x amount per hour, she needs intervention.) I guess the best thing to do is to push for alternatives, and more freedom in regulations, so that the caregiver and mother can have some options at least. And encourage women to educate themselves about normal natural birth. (ie - join BellyBelly. )

The other part of the problem is that there is a HUGE range in what mothers want. There are women who go in scared of any labour pain and hoping for a c-section. They think that will be better. There are some who think that they more they have "done to them", the better care they have received. There are others who think that they should not have to feel any discomfort during labour, and want to be medicated in whatever way possible. There are others who are totally overwhelmed in the medical setting and want to be told what to do and what will happen, without being offered options which they find confusing. There are some who are totally ignorant about what labour and birth will entail, and the staff won't have time to tell them everything that they need to know. (A teacher once told me about someone who came in totally sure that the baby was coming out of her belly button. This was a full-grown adult woman! The staff thought she was joking at first.) And, many hospitals are under-staffed, or the staff is under-trained. And it's much easier for the staff to deal with a woman who has had an epidural and is resting quietly on her bed as opposed to one who is delivering naturally, and screaming and requiring 1 on 1 attention (or more) along with her nervous DH who is demanding that somebody DO SOMETHING FOR HER!
So coming up with policies that work for everyone can be very difficult. Not trying to say that we shouldn't try - of course we should try! - but there are a lot of factors to consider. There is a general fear and ignorance of birth. Most women have never seen normal birth. It's portrayed in the media and society in general as a scary, life-threatening event, not a normal part of life.