2013 Childbirth Education Blog Carnival ~ How Childbirth Education Helps Women!

Welcome to Day #3 of the Blog Carnival honoring 

the International Week for Respecting Childbirth.  

We are focusing this Blog Carnival on the importance of childbirth education!

How Childbirth Education Helps Women

by Kathy Morelli

Childbirth is a transformative emotional and psychological event. Women are transformed into mothers, men become fathers, marriages & partnerships are transformed into families. It is a full mind-body event, bringing in all aspects of a person's self-hood: physical, psychological and emotional. Some women are interested  in a natural birth experience, and  many others are emphatic this is not their personal path. Woman have the right to choose how they wish to manage their childbirth experience. All are valid personal choices.

From a public health perspective, childbirth education, like sex education, is an essential component to overall reproductive health. The latest Listening to Mothers (LTM III) research indicates that 30% of women surveyed indicated their provider seemed rushed during their visits. A community-based, professional childbirth education class provides an important component to public health. 

On a personal level, research shows that women want the childbirth education process to increase awareness about the physical aspects of what happens during pregnancy and birth. They want to increase awareness of how their birthing institution manages the birth process and want to learn specific coping skills for pain management and strategies to manage their emotional responses. In addition, research shows that women want help in reducing their anxiety and fear about the birth process and about becoming parents of an infant. Research indicates the socialization aspects of the shared group experience is personally helpful to many women and their partners.

However, in childbirth education, one size does not fit all. In the  LTM III survey, a portion of the participants had chronic conditions before they became pregnant. One in eleven women (9%) were diagnosed with either Type 1 or 2 diabetes, 11% were diagnosed with gestational diabetes, 8% reported taking medication for high blood pressure, and 13% reported taking medication for depression.

So, it's important to note that there is a certain portion of the population that may need more individualized care in childbirth preparation than others.  Those who have pre-existing anxiety or depression, those who are managing chronic pain, often need more individualized and personalized support.

Childbirth education touches women on multiple levels: physical, emotional and psychological. It is a good community intervention that serves people in their healthcare.   

Kathy Morelli, LPC, is a licensed marriage and family counselor in Wayne, NJ. Kathy specializes in helping women and their families with the emotions of birth, pregnancy,  postpartum and in the adjustment to parenthood. Author and blogger, she is the author of the BirthTouch® series of books on motherhood. She writes at her own blog, BirthTouch®,  is co-hosting the  Postpartum Support International's May 2013 #PSIBLOG Hop, and has served as a Guest Editor for the Lamaze Science & Sensibility blog. Visit her at birthtouch.com and kathymorelli.com  

For more information on the IWRC, click here.

The Perfect Response by Barbara Harper

My long-time friend, Barbara Harper (founder of Waterbirth International), posted this on her Facebook page. I found her dialogue so phenomenal, I asked her permission to reprint.  So here it is..in Barbara’s words….

There was a commentator on the radio in Miami this morning (10/18/12) extolling the virtues of planned cesarean surgery and induction because you can guarantee that your doctor will be there as one reason to "control" the birth of your baby. This was my response:

To the uninformed person who commented on the convenience and safety of inductions and scheduled cesarean surgery instead of waiting for the perfectly timed dance of undisturbed childbirth: 

Barbara Harper

All human beings are programmed by brain wiring and influenced by the environmental signals to initiate the birth process through a complex set of chemical, hormonal and neurological transmitters. The new human needs that process to fully engage and activate parts of the brain that contribute to health, well-being, cardiovascular stability, respiratory function, neurological development and even feelings of love and attachment. 

When we arbitrarily assign a date to chemically initiate the process, the innate programming gets shut down, cannot function in the same way as the biological imperative would have, had things been left alone. The human being perceives this "jump start" as a threat and begins to prepare its body and brain to survive in an environment that is stress filled and possibly life threatening. All of the bodily functions that control the neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic adaptive mechanisms are put on high alert and remain there. This over stimulation of the psychoneuroimmunological system creates and lays down the patterns for future problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and even some psychiatric disorders. 

This may be difficult for the uninformed consumer to begin to see the connections between the use of a simple drug to stimulate the uterine contractions or a surgical procedure to remove a human being from the habitat in which brain development is meant to take place, but the growing field of epigenetics and pre and perinatal psychology are rapidly filling in the gaps in our understanding that what we do in the birth process has life-long consequences on human health, the development of character, mental stability and perhaps even drug addiction. Tall order? Perhaps we are only beginning to realize the long term effects of this violation of an innate biological agenda - because that is what early chemical induction is!

As they say, "don't mess with Mother Nature!"

These scientific principals and the evidence to support this thesis are contained in my forth coming book, "Embracing The Miracle: How Pregnancy, Birth and the First Hour Influence Human Potential."  There are already many books and hundreds of research studies from which to broaden your understanding of allowing nature to fulfill its destiny in the creation of new human beings. Parenting For Peace by Marcy Axeness is a great book for any potential parent or grandparent along with my other book, Gentle Birth Choices . 

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