Back to the Natural Way

*This is not meant to offend anyone or stir controversy. I just feel so passionate about natural delivery I wanted to share

Throughout my pregnancy I've obviously been thinking a lot about the birthing process and the ways that I want to approach it. There are so many decisions to make...epidural or no epidural; hospital, birthing center, or at home birth, the list goes on. Despite the many horror stories I've heard about labor, I've always leaned more towards a natural birth. I've been scoffed and laughed at for my decision not to get an epidural. Most people give me a knowing smile and say, "we'll see..." I have nothing against women who receive epidurals, I just want to do this as naturally as possible for myself and for my baby. Recently, I had an amazing experience that just confirmed to me that I am making the best decision for myself. Since I sit at home all day I tend to watch a lot of videos and movies. One in particular has changed my perspective on childbirth. "The Business of Being Born" is a documentary that was done in 2007 that focuses on the benefits of natural childbirth. It mostly emphasizes at home births but offers really great and valuable information about how medicine and hospital interventions can sometimes be the very opposite of helpful. Many of the following quotes come directly from this video.

After watching this documentary, I fully believe that "A woman doesn't need to be rescued. It's not the place for a knight in shining armor. It's the place for her to face her darkest moment and lay claim to her victory."

I am a daughter of God and I was created specifically with the ability to bring life into this world. I have been given the strength and the innate knowledge that assists in giving birth to a child, and I know that I can do it without all the many hospital interventions.

However, I do also understand that there are instances when interventions are necessary to save the mother and the baby. My sister Emma pushed and pushed and finally was taken in for a C-section. The doctor discovered that her cervix was too small and her tiny baby boy had gotten stuck. The C-section saved both of their lives. It is important that we have trained doctors to oversee our births and make vital calls when things are going wrong, but we must also remember that these interventions, like a C-section, aren't something that we should approach lightly.

Dr. Abbe Wain, an OB/GYN for Mount Sinai Hospital has made this statement: "The risks of a vaginal delivery are much less than a C-section, and what most people don't know is that a C-section is major surgery." Did you know that 32.8% or 1/3 of deliveries today are by C-section? The year that I was born, 1991, only 23% were by C-section.

The trend of taking the easiest way out is only growing. There is even a term for those who have elective c-sections, "too posh to push." Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera and many other celebrities actually pick the date and go in for a planned C-section, often getting a tummy tuck immediately afterwards. How are these women experiencing the joys of giving birth? To them, it's just another plastic surgery, not a moment of victory.

Here's a few links that show how common elective C-sections are becoming:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/family/orl-celebrities-csections-moms-photos,0,6210441.photogallery

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993857,00.html

"Medical decisions are being made for monetary and medical reasons, not because they're good for the mother and the baby...if we don't quickly take hold of this, we are going to lose normal births."

Did you know that the United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates in all the industrialized countries? Did you also know that midwives attend 70% of births in Europe and Japan while in the U.S. they attend less than 8%? hmmm...interesting.

"Maternity care in the United States is in crisis. It's in many ways a disaster. Everywhere else in the world, that's what they do...you can go to Great Britain, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, all the highly developed countries where they are losing fewer women and fewer babies around the time of birth and what do you see? You see midwives attending 70% or 80% of all the births and doctors are there to take care of the small percent that develops complications. That is the proven system everywhere in the world and THE UNITED STATES STANDS ALONE." - Marsen Wagner, M.D. Former Director, Women's and Children's Health

In the U.S., women are made to believe that they have one option when it comes to childbirth. They are terrified of labor and go into the hospital and discover that they are really set up for only one kind of birth. And you get put through that system and have to fight to get out of it.

"People in our culture spend more time and effort researching what kind of stereo system, car, or camera to buy than they do checking out what their choices are for birth."

Women have been told for years that they are not responsible for their own birthing process...they are told by doctors, you're not dilating quickly enough, you need pitocin...you need to push when I tell you to...you can't do this. Ladies, these are lies!! You aren't dilating? Well get up and walk around, move your body, rock your cervix, let gravity help. Maybe you aren't "dilating fast enough" because your body has it's own timeline, one that doesn't always cooperate with what the doctor wants. Trust your own body to know what it's doing. You were made for this. Listen to your body, you push when you feel it's time, not when somebody else decides!

"There is little understanding about how incredibly important this process is to a woman. Women expect a traumatic birth, that's why they are all having epidurals, because they are terrified!"

Maybe less is more?

"In the hospital you're not allowed to have very long labors, so if you're not dilating rapidly, which you're likely not to do once you get an epidural early in labor, you will be given Pitocin. They put the Pitocin in the IV and it will flow into your veins. Pitocin makes contractions longer and stronger and closer together. So then the pain of labor is much worse. So you go with that for a while because you have the epidural, but eventually the pain of the contractions is overwhelming the epidural, so you need to up the epidural and then labor slows down more because of that, so then you need more Pitocin. Now, you're not feeling the pain of the extra Pitocin because you've got the epidural, but your baby is being compressed and getting less oxygen supply because Pitocin contractions last so long and are so strong the blood and oxygen flow to the baby is compromised. So then the baby is likely to go into distress and then you're sent off for an emergency C-section because the baby is in distress from contractions induced by the Pitocin which was necessitated by the epidural."And then the doctors say, "thank goodness we were able to intervene" when everything would most likely have been fine if they had never intervened in the first place!

Why are we so terrified to do the one thing that comes most naturally to us? We let the doctors pump our bodies full of medication, medication that could potentially harm both us and our babies, all for the sake of not experiencing pain. Sure, I've never experienced labor. This will be my first time. Others are probably thinking, "Haylee, you have no idea..." and I would agree. Of course I don't because I've never done it before. But I do know that millions of women have done it before me, and that means that I too can overcome. I want to feel what is happening with my body, I want to have control over what is being done to my body. I don't want to lie flat on my back in the most unnatural of birthing positions just because that's customary. My daughter will be fighting to make it into this world and I am ready to fight right along with her. I want to be an active participant in little Savannah's birth, and I want it to be on my body's own time. This is why I've made the decision to not receive any type of medication, to do things my own way and not the way the doctors and hospitals say it must be done. After all, if you are having a home built, do you let the experts decide everything for you? Where the kitchen should be, how many rooms you should have? No, these people are working for YOU and you have the power to tell them exactly what you want.

I'm grateful for doctors and we need them in our society and available when complications arise. I'm grateful for all the medical technology that has saved thousands of babies and mothers. But I do believe that we must get back to the natural way of doing things, that we should view labor and delivery as a rite of passage, a difficult marathon in which we can look back and say, "I did it!"

I pray that I can prepare myself, that I will have the will to stick to my convictions when that "darkest moment" arrives.