The Best Birth for Your Baby
Natural birth discussions very often strike a sensitive cord with mothers, and many mothers are left hurt by a discussion they believe infers that they are inferior mothers because they choose a medicated childbirth. Natural birth advocates take the position that natural birth is the healthiest way to bring a baby into the world, but with 80% of American mothers using some form of medication for pain management and the c-section rate hovering at 30% very few American mothers give birth naturally. This article delves into this issue from my perspective as a doula and may help mothers understand what natural birth advocates are actually trying to encourage and why.
I believe that God designed a perfect way for babies to be born naturally...I believe when we tamper with the natural birth process it is risky business for our physical health as well as emotional health. I don’t believe that I am radical in my preference for natural birth, in that I don't discount that are many helpful medical advances that have saved the lives of babies and mothers who not more than a hundred years ago would have died. My concern is for the routine medical intervention that is making the otherwise safe and benign condition of pregnancy and birth a medical emergency. I worry that the unintended consequences of routine medical interventions into healthy natural pregnancies and labors are cheating women and babies of the most precious experiences of life.
I believe that women who are repelled by the idea of natural birth are influenced by negative messages about the pain associated with labor. These messages saturate the media and culture around them, and the majority of women don’t question the validity of these reports. The medicated birth offers an easy escape that seems like a no brainer, this option is presented to women as having no real downside by their doctors.
American women have become conditioned to accept everything their doctors tell them as safe and sound advice, they don’t often question their doctors about the risk of medical procedures to themselves or their babies and when they do doctors often sooth their concerns by ignoring the data. This problem is compounded by an un-informed public and an obstetrics community that places little or no value on natural birth and therefore has taken no steps to encourage practices and attitudes that facilitate its success.
American women have become conditioned to accept everything their doctors tell them as safe and sound advice, they don’t often question their doctors about the risk of medical procedures to themselves or their babies and when they do doctors often sooth their concerns by ignoring the data. This problem is compounded by an un-informed public and an obstetrics community that places little or no value on natural birth and therefore has taken no steps to encourage practices and attitudes that facilitate its success.
When I was a first time mom I questioned the validity of those who reported natural birth to be the worst experience of their lives. I guess the reason I was suspicious of this characterization was because of my feelings about motherhood. I was raised to believe that mothering is noble and honored by God as a divine work. Being raised in a Christian home the fourth of six children by a very faithful and spiritual mother who loved being a mother, my imagination of that event that brings a precious and longed for child of God into the waiting arms of his mother was a picture of serenity not violence. I rejected what I heard and saw in the media and from so many mothers around me who were encouraging me to just get the epidural and instead I began to study.
The study wasn’t easy, I had a lot of questions and it took quite a bit of work to get the answers I needed. I had to sort through all of the passionate arguments in what I began to realize was a war of ideas between those who support natural birth as the better way and those who see natural birth advocates as crazy zealots. I chose to pursue a natural birth but found that I was constantly hindered by the medical community. I searched for a doctor that would be supportive of my wishes and be willing to help me achieve my goals. The first doctor I interviewed, after listening to me explain what I wanted, said, “Well, that’s a great idea but I’ll tell you right now, first time moms often say they want to have a natural drug free birth, but in my experience that flies straight out the window when they feel the first few really hard contractions. Then there just begging for the epidural.” I politely thanked him for his time and walked out of his office and never went back, I learned then and there about the negative attitudes of doctors toward natural birth. As a doula I have found that some doctors are very supportive of natural birth, but sadly they are still the exception rather than the rule stemming I think from the reality that so few have any experience with natural birth.
Mom's have a natural desire to provide the very best of everything for their children to the best of our abilities...so if natural birth is the best thing for mothers and babies, and a mother is able (baring medical necessity) then these assumptions being true the vast majority of mothers would choose natural birth. So the question ends up being what is true?
What I ask women to do is what I did, go find out. Research the issue read both sides of the argument, read some of my recommended books on my blog. Then decide for yourself. I have already made my decision, and I believe the evidence bares it out that natural birth is better for mothers and babies.
Don’t mistake me, I feel great compassion for mothers who have out of medical necessity utilized other options, thank goodness for the miracle of modern medicine that in so many cases has been the difference between a healthy happy baby and the earth shattering heartache that only the loose of a child can cause. I do not think that the events of a birth are so consequential that a mother and baby cannot overcome a difficult birth and go on to thrive, that would deny the power of women to overcome any hardship or challenge by the sheer genius and pure love that are unique to mothers. My opinion of motherhood is not so low as to believe that, but just because some of us cannot have the ideal does not mean that we should not advocate for it and put our energy into supporting it.
What I ask women to do is what I did, go find out. Research the issue read both sides of the argument, read some of my recommended books on my blog. Then decide for yourself. I have already made my decision, and I believe the evidence bares it out that natural birth is better for mothers and babies.
Don’t mistake me, I feel great compassion for mothers who have out of medical necessity utilized other options, thank goodness for the miracle of modern medicine that in so many cases has been the difference between a healthy happy baby and the earth shattering heartache that only the loose of a child can cause. I do not think that the events of a birth are so consequential that a mother and baby cannot overcome a difficult birth and go on to thrive, that would deny the power of women to overcome any hardship or challenge by the sheer genius and pure love that are unique to mothers. My opinion of motherhood is not so low as to believe that, but just because some of us cannot have the ideal does not mean that we should not advocate for it and put our energy into supporting it.
I love being a doula because I love to be a witness to the most awesome miracle on earth. Natural births are powerful and beautiful. A doula client of mine had three medicalized childbirths epidural and all before she decided to try a natural birth, her first natural birth was a trial by fire. It was extremely difficult. She had large babies and this one was no exception her baby was born posterior brow presentation (just about the hardest presentation in vaginal birth), I thought for sure when she finished that labor she would go right back to the epidural for the next one and never look back, but I was wrong. Then next birth she tried it again, and this time at home, her strength and perseverance humbled me. She was an example to me of the power that women have to bring their babies into the world safely even when their labor is not ideal. For her second natural birth she hoped for an easier birth, and though it was a little easier her baby was posterior again, which means she was coming out the wrong side up. Posterior births are much harder, they cause more back pain and can make the pushing stage very difficult and long, and to do this with a big baby is very difficult. The mother pushed for a long time and we moved her into several different positions to move her baby down the birth canal. She had her wonderful husband, a very patient and calm midwife, and two doulas there and we were all sweating and tired out by the end of the labor and we weren’t the ones doing the bulk of the work.
After all she had been through this is what this mother had to say about her birth, “My 5th child was born at home…and the only way to describe it is a miracle. I actually felt like I loved my baby more, and was a better mother; I would go back and re-do all my births if I could.” I was amazed at this beautiful mother’s perseverance and strength, she isn't the first mother I've felt that way about, but she had one of those births that taught me just how strong women are. I love natural birth, I love what it does for women, I love that hardest stage when a woman reaches transition and she is brought to the brink. I love it because there is something spiritual that happens at that moment, the moment when a women passes through the impossible and pulls off a miracle. More babies need mothers like these who are willing to do the work of labor so that pain and toil is not passed off to their infant, these women are willing to suffer so that their babies will be born with no injury. They say it takes three miracles to make a saint, if that is true, then every mother who has birthed her babies by the sweat of her own brow is well on her way to being a saint.
