Last night I watched a documentary called "The Business of Being Born". I watched it for 2 reasons: 1-Morbid fascination of what is to come in a few months and 2-I've been re-evaluating my birth plan and wanted to explore the option of a natural birth. This documentary doesn't show a lot of actual births, but there are a few. Mainly it discusses home births and statistics as to why its better then a hospital birth. There was enough information to make me wonder what happened exactly when I had Lucy.
The reason I'm exploring a new birth plan is because with Lucy, I had a difficult time delivering. I never felt a thing until that last moment before she took her first breath. My epidural was so strong that I never felt the urge to push despite the fact they turned it off 2 hours before I started pushing and I pushed for over 2 more hours. So that's a total of 4 hours I never really felt anything from the waist down. It took forever for the medication to wear off and I didn't leave Labor and Delivery until almost 5 hours later (because it took that long for me to be able to walk or stand).
It wasn't necessarily that I had a bad experience. It was just that I didn't really enjoy the whole not feeling my legs for hours after birth and how difficult pushing was for me. My Midwife, the nurse and Jon made the experience exactly how I wanted it-no one yelling (well, except me) and peaceful overall.
"The Business of Being Born" did open my eyes to a few things I was unaware of. For instance, the maternity death rate in America is #2 among developed countries. NUMBER 2!! This is attributed to the high rate of C-sections and lack of delivery without intervention. When I say "intervention" I'm talking about drugs.
I also did not know that 90% of women who receive an epidural also receive Pitocin. Its a never ending cycle: starting an epidural means contractions and/or progress slow therefore creating the necessity of Pitocin to increase the contractions and progress. This means more pain for the mom, so they increase the epidural and so on and so on. In the end, this creates a much higher need for a C-Section because the natural birth process is delayed due to the drug intervention. This creates the higher level of C-sections in hospitals.
The documentary goes on to talk about how birthing has changed over the last hundred years from home births to hospital births that included being so drugged you couldn't control yourself to drug intervention to the increased rate in C-sections. They even talked about how something as simple as the position a woman gives birth in changed. It was terrifying at times. To think that a process that is so natural and normal has become so clinical and less about what the mother needs.
I'm not saying that choosing drugs or needing a cesarean make anyone a bad parent. I know that I'm always the first person to trust and believe a Doctor when they tell me what will be best. But I didn't know anything about pain relief besides an epidural and I knew nothing about the best birthing positions. I had no idea that being on my back was the worst way to deliver. I just assumed after seeing birthing videos and what they show on television that being on your back was the easy way to get a baby out.
So this time around I'm making different choices. I'm reading more about my options and asking my husband (who I hope will be in attendance) to do the same. If I choose to go the natural birth route, I will definitely need his unconditional support. I'm also not naive enough to think everything is going to go according to plan. I also don't know if I'm going to make it through a natural birth without giving in and getting some sort of pain relief.
One of the things I'm learning through this research is that hospitals rarely allow for the techniques suggested (ie. water birth, constant walking, acupuncture, birthing ball) for a natural, drug free birth. I know for a fact that the hospital I plan to deliver at does not allow water births. This does not mean that I want to have the baby at home. The idea of a home birth still scares me. But I do know that I'll be able to labor longer at home in a place where I feel relaxed and comfortable versus sitting in a hospital bed hooked up to 5 different monitors.
My overall review of the documentary was that it was worth watching. I learned the things I want to happen during labor and after birth. A lot of what I'm looking for I don't know is possible in the hospital I have to deliver. I plan to talk to my Midwife Monday morning about a few things just so I have my expectations in order. She delivered Lucy and I'm hoping she'll be able to deliver this little one. She was so encouraging and despite a Dr coming in to tell her it was taking to long to get the baby, she pushed me on. No intervention (besides the drugs) necessary.
I'm sure I'll post my birth story at some point. But for now, I'm going to continue to do research and discover the best options for me.
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