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So You Want To Know The Truth About Child Birth And Labor?
By Suzanne Doyle-Ingram, Fri Dec 9th
Labor and childbirth was an amazing, positive experience for me,both times. I am very fortunate, I know. But I do believe thatif you prepare yourself through education (reading books,reading articles like this one, taking prenatal classes, etc)and taking good care of yourself while you are pregnant, youwill have a far greater chance of a pleasant birth experience. There are many things you can do to increase your chances of anempowering childbirth experience. These are the things I did:-Pregnancy yoga classes -Regular Chiropractic care -Chose aMidwife instead of a doctor -Hired a doula to be with me throughthe labor and birth -Took high quality vitamins, folic acid andnatural iron supplements (made by Flora, derived from naturalsources, not metal) -Took a 18 hour prenatal class from a formermidwife (NOT at a hospital) -Lastly, I believed, truly believedthat my body knew what it was doing. I was not scared at all. Iknew in my heart of hearts that pregnancy is a healthy state ofbeing, and that my body would know exactly what to do when thetime came. And it did! So many people seem to enjoy telling stories of excruciatingpain during childbirth. Others will tell you their labor was 87hours long! I do not know why women do this to each other. Yes,I will grant you, labor is painful. But it is also powerful andincredible what your body can achieve!
One important note: I am Canadian, and our medical system ismuch different than the United States. BUt I am aware that mostvisitors to my website are American, so that is why I often tryto include American statistics and information. One majordifference between our two countries is that midwives in mostparts of Canada have hospital privleges, i.e. they are allowedto deliver babies in hospitals. They perform essentially thesame procedures as doctors, except they do not perform surgery.Whereas doctors view childbirth in terms of what can go wrong,midwives see childbirth as a natural process and medicalintervention is only necessary in the event of an emergency. I had many questions before I gave birth the first time, and thefollowing onformation is what I leaned about labor and childbirth. I am not a doctor, and I have no medical trainingwhatsoever, so please ask your own doctor for clarification ormore information. Am I going to be pregnant forever? In terms of when the averagewoman gives birth, a woman's due date is determined to be 40weeks after her last menstrual period, which is about 280 days.Most women deliver very near their due date, but anywhere from38 weeks to 42 weeks is normal. You know you are in labor whenyou have strong (generally more painful than period cramps)contractions, five minutes apart, which last for a full minute.The first stage of labor is the longest and that is when yourcervix dilates from 0 to 10 centimetres and becomes thinned out(or "effaced"). The second stage of labor is the pushing stage,which begins after you are fully dilated. The third stage oflabor is after your baby is born and you deliver the placenta. Iwas worried that my water would break in the supermarket and Iwould be mortified. However, the bag of water, (the membranethat surrounds the fetus and protects it during your wholepregnancy), contains amniotic fluid and it only breaks at thebeginning of labor (mine did) 10% of the time. It does not hurt.You may not even know it has happened, but you may feel warmwater on your legs. You feel a tiny "Pop!" and then a littlefluid trickles out. It's not a huge gush - I think this isbecause the baby's head is acting like a cork. Most commonly,about 90% of the time, your water breaks when your cervix isfully dilated. Sometimes your midwife or doctor may break it.When that happens, prostaglandins are released, and contractionsbecome stronger and more regular, and the progress of laborspeeds up. Many women also wonder when they should go to the hospital. Yourdoctor or midwife will educate you about what they want you todo. Some may want you to phone the hospital as soon as anythinghappens. A midwife usually comes to your house, so you don'thave to plan so much as you would with a doctor. When you get tothe hospital, you will need to register at the MaternityDepartment. Usually you can do this a few months prior - callthe hospital where you will deliver and find out. Depending,again, on whether you have a doctor or midwife, a lot ofdifferent scenarios can take place. Also what kind of doctor youhave: is he or she someone who believes that your body knowswhat to do? Or will he or she insist that you are given an IVand hooked up to a monitor constantly? You do NOT have to laborthis way, but you need to decide before you choose a doctor whatis important to you and how you want your experience to be. (Abirth plan would be a good option. If you present your birthplan to your doctor and he or she laughs at you - reconsiderusing that doctor!) How long does it take? Every labor is so different, butgenerally speaking, first labors take about 12 to 24 hours. Myfirst labor was about 10 hours but my midwife said that I wasonly in "active" labor for 5 hours, which I disagree withbecause the first 7 hours were not spent sitting aroundcomfortably! What about the pain? Is it really that bad? Answer: I am notgoing to lie about it, it is painful, but your body is anamazing machine. I did not take anything for the pain during mylabors, but I was very fortunate to have a wonderful doula andhusband who supported me throughout. Studies have shown thatcontinuous support during labor decreases the need for painrelief by 60%. See my article entitled "What would I do withoutmy Doula?" herehttp://www.pregnancy-leads-to-new-babies.com/doula.html. What's wrong with having an epidural? Why go through the painif you don't have to? This is simply my opinion - I am not adoctor, but I have done the research. For me, I was not tryingto be a martyr. I just wanted my baby to have the very bestchance of being healthy. Generally, it is true to say thatepidurals are a safe and effective method of relieving pain inlabor, but safe does not mean risk free. There are risks; Iwould be lying to say there are none. See Thorp, J.A. &Breedlove, G (1996) Analgesia in Labour: An evaluationof Risks and Benefits 23(2) 63-83. In terms of risks for your baby, epidurals can cause maternalfever and this can potentially harm your baby. Newbornssometimes also exhibit poor nursing behavior for up to onemonth. Many newborns exposed to anaesthesia in laborare very sleepy and they would rather sleep than nurse, whichcan be problematic because the more you nurse at the beginning,the faster your milk will come in and the better your experiencewill be. It's shocking to me that most women take suchexceptional care of their babies while they are pregnant, i.e.no alcohol, no Tylenol, etc., but they willingly expose theirbabies to drugs during childbirth without fully educatingthemselves of the risks. Here's something you want not want to know: Hospital-employedchildbirth educators WANT you to have an epidural. Hospitalsmake a lot of money from epidurals. The nurse often comes intoyour room and says, "Are you ready for your now?" Inthe U.S.A, an costs from $500 to $2500, depending onthe hospital. The United States spends more money on birth ($50Billion a year!) than any other nation in
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the world, withoutnecessarily getting the best results. The average hospital birthcosts $8,000 - $10,000 and that doubles for caesareans,providing very nice profits for obstetricians,anaesthesiologists and drug companies. Hospital policies areroutinely set based on financial goals. This is a fact, and ifyou don't believe it, you are being duped. Just hear me out on this one: It makes sense, doesn't it? Sincemidwifery care and doula care reduces the rates of intervention,they also reduce the profit for doctors and hospitals. Ofcourse, they will try to convince you that midwives aredangerous. They want your money!!! That is why, in Canada, wherewe have arguably the best government-run medical insurancesystem in the world, governments realised that by allowingmidwives to deliver in hospitlas, they are saving millions ofdollars. Back to epidurals (which I am NOT completely against, by theway! I do believe they are warranted in some cases)If you havean epidural, you must also have a urinary catheter inserted toempty your bladder. Epidurals can cause your blood pressure todecrease, so a nurse will check your blood pressure very often.The nurse or doctor will also periodically rub your abdomen tomake sure there is enough paralysis but not so much that yourbreathing becomes impaired. There is also a domino effect that plays into it as well - onceyou have one intervention, you are more at risk for more andmore. For example, a woman who has an is FOUR times aslikely to have to have a caesarean section. Sometimes it relaxesthe pelvis so much that you cannot push out your baby, so theuse of Vacuum and forceps are significantly increased. Thismeans you also have to have an episiotomy (where they cut yourperineum from your vagina to your rectum) in order to get theforceps into your vagina. SOmetimes there are complications fromepisiotomies, as you can well imagine, such as bowelincontinence and urinary incontinence. Note: According toChildbirth practices researcher Katherine Hartmann, MD, PhD,close to 1 million unnecessary episiotomies are performed in theU.S. each year. She says episiotomies are probably medicallywarranted in fewer than 10% of cases. Currently 1 in 3 Americanwomen get episiotomies. Hartmann is director of the Center forWomen's Health Research at the University of North Carolina inChapel Hill. The biggest risk of is death - if the anaesthesiologistinjects the wrong dose, or makes a mistake, you're in trouble.You can also be paralysed (in very rare cases, permanently) dueto nerve damage. Let me repeat, MOST epidurals are safe, butthese are some of the risks you need to be aware of. Theevidence of risks is well documented, but it is notreadily available. Don't you think it is easier for the doctor to be able to"control" their patient if they are lying still and quiet in thebed, paralysed and unable to move around? Ask your doctor whatpercentage of their patients receive an epidural. Can you go onestep further and ask them how much money they make if they givean epidural? Or of it makes their job easier if their patienthas an epidural? I think that would be very interesting! If heor she has an alarming rate of epidurals, I would seriouslyconsider changing doctors. If you are still thinking, "I don't care what anybody says,there is no way I am going to go through that pain like somefreaky natural childbirth nut", I am here to say that I thoughtexactly the same way when I was pregnant - at first. But once Idid some reading, I thought, wait a second, maybe I could atleast try to do it naturally. In my birth plan I wrote that Iwanted to try to do it naturally, but if I ask for an epidural,give me one. (Where we live, Midwives can order epidurals.) Ialso want to say that I do believe that in some cases, epiduralsare a really good idea. For example, if you have been laboring avery long time and you need to rest a few hours so that you cangather your energy to push the baby out. I was present at myfriend's birth as her support person, and she was not making anyprogress after about 10 hours. We tried all sorts of positionsand everything, but finally her doctor suggested an andI agreed. She was able to rest, and calm down, and then it woreoff and she was able to push out her baby without any problems.It was beautiful. (Note: she did not experience any of the abovecomplications.) Please educate yourself by reading some of the books Irecommend. You will feel much better about yourself knowing thatyou did your research and made the right decision for you.Finally, please take a GOOD prenatal class and read as much asyou can so that you are prepared and educated. It's your bodyand your baby! About the author:Suzanne Doyle-Ingram is the mother of two daughters, Hana andAlexa, and married to her best friend James, who is astay-at-home dad and educational game developer (and he makes amean grilled chicken!). Visit her website athttp://www.pregnancy-leads-to-new-babies.com
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