There
is much discussion regarding climate change in the world. There should also be conversations about
climate change in birth.
Current
conversation about birth talks about what is happening now: maternal
morbidity/mortality, infant morbidity/mortality, breastfeeding rates à but what about the
future? How will the way we required
women to give birth now, impact birthing in the future?
And
furthermore, why should we care?
In
his book, Childbirth in the Age of
Plastics, Michel Odent points out that we just do not know
What
about labor pain? Either women are fearful
of it or they do not want to face it at all.
Regardless, the physiology of labor pain is not being taught in nursing
or medical schools and only a handful of childbirth educators and midwives
teach about the physiology of labor pain.
Hence, we are raising several generations of both parents and
professionals who do not understand that labor pains are a guide for how the
laboring mother’s body needs to respond to the labor. The pains tell the mother how and when to move
to assist with the Cardinal Movements.
Labor pain is unlike any other pain humans experience and should not be
treated in the drive-thru method of getting rid of it. It should be considered, contemplated and
cooperated with.
During
labor, mothers have restricted movement (inhibiting Cardinal Movements), have
the pain removed by
anesthetic/analgesics (inhibiting Cardinal Movements) and restricted in food
and fluids. Simply put, the medical
community, in its zeal to care for laboring women, put those women at a
distinct disadvantage and enable fetal and maternal distress to occur. The medical community promotes the notion
that labor and childbirth are emergencies waiting to happen and facilitate the
self-fulfilling prophecy.
The
aforementioned anesthetics/analgesics cross the fetal blood brain barrier and
we are unsure of the results. Natural
pain and coping techniques such as positioning, touch, relaxation, breathing
and hydrotherapy are systematically being removed from choice options for pregnant
women. Many childbirth education classes minimize or remove exploration of
these options due to perceived time constraints (“parents don’t want lengthy
classes”), when in reality, parents don’t know what they want and are often
disappointed when abbreviated classes are over. And besides, what tools can
they use between onset of labor and getting “their” epidural?
Women
are not encouraged and often miss out on falling in love with their babies
during pregnancy. They then miss out on
the right of passage called labor with the glorious hormonal dance.
Do
we really want assembly line childbirth in the future? And at what cost?
Odent,M.
(2011) Childbirth In The Age of Plastics,
Pinter & Martin LTD.
1 comment:
Connie,
I am a wife, mother, and RN. I have the hopes of becoming a midwife. Thank you for your wonderfully written blog and for empowering woman with knowledge. The world needs more women like you. Knowledge is POWER!!
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