birth activist

I’ve been all over the place, spouting off about natural/home birth and posting links & resources, but I haven’t shared any of that here.  No reason why, I just haven’t!  So here’s a start.

I read a zillion natural birth/midwife blogs. One of them is Birth Activist.  One of the recent posts was “midwife vs medwife” which made me giggle. I learned this term when I was talking to the midwife who delivered Felix about the midwives I’d started with at UCLA.  I had big complaints about their (the UCLA midwives) following hospital protocols that I thought unnecessary and I didn’t appreciate being told I would basically be strong-armed into following said protocols, and my midwife & her assistants all chuckled and said, “You mean MEDwives.”  I love that term.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.  Medwives are fine if you’re happy going along with everything that you’re told.  *I* am not.  I’ve taken the blue pill.  When I told one of the medwives at UCLA that I didn’t want to be tested for B-Strep because I felt it was wrong to automatically tag you and then pump you and your newborn baby full of antibiotics if you tested positive for the bacteria*, there was a big scuffle.  The medwife who I saw said that she’d have to check with the head midwife (Paula, who I HATED – she tried to use scare tactics to talk me into the H1N1 vaccine and had absolutely no interest in hearing or discussing my concerns.)  Ultimately, I felt that this was MY decision, and no one should have to “check” with anyone if I choose to do something other than what they tell me to do.  Also, I was dead set against induction.  At my 37 week appointment (I didn’t switch until week 38), the medwife mentioned talking about my “options” once I got closer to 40 weeks, if I went past my due date.  Did you know that 40 weeks is just a median between 38 and 42 weeks?  It’s a bell curve.  There’s nothing magical about 40 weeks, and NO reason to induce at 41 or even 42 if there are no signs of distress, which there rarely are.

So I rather enjoyed this little blurb because it highlights yet another one of the MANY differences between nurse midwives (medwives, at a hospital) and traditional midwives.

* I was against being tested because the bacteria that they test for is VERY VERY easy to get rid of, naturally. (It’s harmless to you and usually harmless to the baby – something like in 1 out of every 200 cases it could cause problems.)  However, if you test positive, then during birth, you are automatically given an antiobiotic drip – which means you can’t get up and move around during labor.  Not to mention,  I am absolutely against unnecessary and overuse of antibiotics.  And, while you may test positive one week, it could be gone the next.  If you DO test positive, you should DEMAND that they test you again a week later and in that week, simply eat yogurt with live cultures & do a tea tree oil wash.  I guarantee you it till be gone.

I also enjoyed THIS post about this country’s view of Natural Birth.  I don’t know why I ever watch TLC’s Birth Story because every time I do, I want to throw the tv out the window.  And I predict what happens every time. “Oh, look.  She’s 5 days overdue.  I’ll bet they induce her.  I’ll bet she winds up getting a c-section.”  Yup, yup, and yup.

The induction thing just kills me.  If most of all first pregnancies are known to go “late” then why do feel a need to induce past 40 weeks?  Shouldn’t the “40 weeks” be changed by now?

Ahem.  So.  This country’s views on natural birth INFURIATE ME.  I got into a few heated arguments on Twitter a couple weeks ago, regarding Gisele Bundchen.  She had an all natural, home water birth.  When I read that, MY reaction was, “AWESOME.  Let’s get this out there, get people talking about it and changing the perception.”  Did that happen?  Nope.  Everyone latched on to her saying that she felt no pain and that with each contraction, she just thought about her baby getting closer to being born.  I saw nothing wrong with that.  I believe in painless birth, as well.  Mine was intense, surely, but  I don’t know that “pain” is what I’d have called it.  Pain, in this natural birth world, is all about perception.  Gisele may very well have felt the same thing that other women feel, but she chose to view it differently.  And yes, I believe that works.  But how did people react?  Well, typically, women attacked her because, as I well know, women get ridiculously jealous & hateful about other women’s positive birth experiences.  And, of course, they were jealous, because Gisele is a model and OH, she gets to have a perfect birth, too.  I don’t believe in comparing myself to models and the fact that she’s “perfect” doesn’t make me begrudge her a positive birth experience.  I wish everyone had a positive birth experience, and that’s my point of being such a loud mouth about it.  Instead of being hateful, ladies, how about open your minds & listen & try it for yourself?

I HATE how media portrays birth – it’s always screaming & bloody & miserable & dramatic.  And people who have home birth?  Dirty, stupid hippies.  I know.  I used to think that myself.  I consider myself to be rather highly evolved now.  *smile*

It’s been my experience, throughout this past year, that women who’ve given birth at home or at a birth center are far more positive and encouraging towards other women about their birth.  They’re less negative and less likely to pull out the old, “But don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t go how you want it to,” line.  These women say, “YOU CAN DO IT!” not, “Well, you can try, but…” or “Just you wait and see, you’ll change your mind,” etc.  That speaks volumes to me.

I’ve had good friends, who are pregnant, coming to me for advice now (one who is fighting for a natural birth for her twins) and who continually look to me to lift their spirits after they speak to other people, because after speaking to other people, all their happiness pretty much gets shit on.  The one having twins – everyone is telling her how hellish her life will be, how horrible birth will be.  I never, ever say these things.  I don’t ever swear that everything will go perfectly & the way that you hope, because sometimes it doesn’t.  But I focus on the positive, and how to get through things & be happy, no matter what happens.

Birth is what you make of it.  If you expect it to suck, it will.  If you go in with positive thoughts, even if things don’t go your way, you’ll still look back on it as a positive experience.

Then there’s this, about restricting food & drink during labor.  Sigh.  Such bullshit.  The best thing you can do is stay hydrated & keep your energy up.  Everything that hospitals do is in anticipation of a c-section.  C-section rates in this country are so through the roof that the WHO has recommended a return to midwife model of care, to curb those rates.  And if you wonder why unnecessary c-sections are so awful, I’ll get to that in another post.  And MOST of the c-sections in this country are absolutely unnecessary or CAUSED by hospitals’ medical interventions.  Again, I can dedicate another post, or point you to other posts about that.