Welcome to Day #7, the last day of the Blog Carnival honoring
the International Week for Respecting Childbirth.
We are focusing this Blog Carnival on the importance of childbirth education.
My Story~ Why Childbirth Preparation Matters...
By Patty Brennan
As I approached the birth of my first
son, I remember thinking “I have a woman’s body—I imagine I can birth a baby.” Birth
wasn’t an intellectual experience, I thought. One did not need to read books
about it or take classes. I decided to trust my instincts and my abilities and
I thought that would be enough.
What I did not appreciate is that birth
takes place in a medical-legal-social context. Many influences come into play.
If opting to birth in a hospital, one is opting for institutionalized birth. I
was not prepared for that. And my husband, allegedly there to help, was, in a
word, clueless. The experience was essentially one of endurance, similar to
suffering a dental procedure and just knowing at some point it would be over. I
was on my own and I felt scared.
What if I had known that …
- I need not have stayed in bed, on my back, simply because I had IV Pitocin and a fetal heart monitor strapped to my belly?
- the Pitocin was probably unnecessary and would contribute to (if not cause) my son’s jaundice in the early days postpartum?
- movement would not only help with the pain, but also help the labor progress?
- just when I felt I couldn’t do it, I was almost there?
- birthing at home attended by a midwife was a viable, safe option and one that would have been well suited to my “can-do” attitude?
The list (of what I did NOT know and
the questions I did not ask) goes on. I experienced everything as a series of events
that “just happened.” First this happened, and then that, and then that. It
wasn’t until a couple of years later, after a pivotal chance encounter with a
midwife, that I began to read about our cultural context of birth and came to
understand that these events were, in fact, all connected, that each choice/decision
had unintentional as well as intentional consequences.
Childbirth education is about CHOICES. If
you don’t know that you have choices, you may as well not have any. You will,
by default, give your power over to others. Today, one third of American women
are delivered via cesarean section. Since surgery carries increased risks for
moms and babies, it is imperative that parents make informed decisions and
participate in their own care. Sadly, too many women are experiencing birth as
traumatic. We (the educators, midwives, doulas, mental health professionals)
know the causes and how to prevent that trauma. Engage in childbirth
preparation! Regrets are not necessary.
Patty Brennan is the owner of Center for the Childbearing
Year in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has just completed production of a
comprehensive series of multi-media Online Childbirth Preparation classes. http://www.center4cby.com
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