Guide For Informed Decision-Making: Labor
Posted By Daisy on July 13, 2010
How one should go about the birthing process is a personal decision that is impacted by your own notions of what you want from the childbirth experience, your own attitudes toward pain, and of course medical advice in cases where labor takes an unexpected turn or a birth is particularly high-risk. Personal though it may be, there are plenty of mothers who will be anxious to give advice whether or not it’s desired or helpful to you. Here are a few things you are likely to hear, along with a little dose of truth or at least a slightly less black-and white way of viewing the well-meaning advice.
Camp One — Labor is Natural and the Pinnacle of a Woman’s experience. The less medical intervention, the better.
1. Only women who abstain from any pain relief during labor are “real” women.
Rebuttal: A birth is a trial, no matter what. Even an epidural is a pretty daunting procedure, and not without pain. Birth is scary. Only women can give birth, so no matter how they choose to go about it, they’ve got “real woman” credentials.
2. Most forms of pain relief, and medical interventions generally, will create extra risks for your baby.
Rebuttal: The whole process of giving birth can be risky. If it were not for the development of many new medical interventions, a great number of women would continue to die during childbirth. In general, most OBGYNs will agree that less intervention is less risky, if there are no complications indicating an intervention might be necessary. It’s a sad truth that not all babies are born perfectly. I’ve encountered mothers who were certain that had they foregone the c-section, things would be fine, just as I’ve known moms who remain convinced the c-section caused the damage. Most often we just don’t know.
3. You’ll bond better with your baby through a natural childbirth.
Rebuttal: I don’t think I’ve seen any studies on this one, although there may be. At any rate you have plenty of time to create a bond with your child. Also, if the birthing process is central to everything, what are we saying about the bond between adoptive parents and their children?
4. Women who schedule induced labor or c-sections are selfish, putting their own needs and wishes before their child’s.
Rebuttal: This is mythical for the most part. Very, very few women have purely elective scheduled inductions or C-section deliveries. Not many OBGYNs these days would go for that anyway.
Camp Two — Natural Childbirth Is Crazy.
1. Medicine has become very advanced. Interventions like pitocin, epidurals, and c-sections do not come with medical risks for mother or child.
Rebuttal: Talk to your doctor. The risks may be minimal, but all else equal, they are there. And there really is something to a lot of those birthing classes that arm you with methods to avoid feeling at least some of the pain, particularly if you are easily susceptible to hypnotic techniques.
2. If you go through natural childbirth you’ll be all kinds of messed up “down there.”
Rebuttal: Yes, natural childbirth is tougher on your girl parts than surgery. But, that baby has been messing with your pelvic floor for 9 months, so don’t you dare think you can bypass all that trauma. Oh, and one more thing — the more hopped up you are on painkillers, the less able you will be to inform the medical team if you feel a tear coming on.
3. It’s not safe to give birth anywhere but a hospital.
Rebuttal: There are very, very good doulas available to assist with home births, and they just about always have a contingency plan in case you do need to be rushed to a hospital or have a doctor brought to you. (Think about it — besides being lovely women for the most part, they have plenty of incentive to avoid getting dragged into a lawsuit.)
4. If you had a c-section once, you can’t deliver vaginally the next time around.
Rebuttal: This is another talk to your doctor area. The whole VBAC (“vaginal birth after c-section”) debate is a moving target but it seems more and more physicians are getting comfortable with it. If you can’t find someone with VBAC experience though, you may be better off repeating the c-section.
Conclusion
Once again, this was not intended to lean you into one direction or another, but to add a dose of rationality to your information gathering stage. It’s also best to keep in mind that the best laid plans sometimes must be thrown out the window at the 11th hour. (I think that’s 3 colloquialisms in one sentence — cool.) Anybody wanting to discuss in more detail, share stories in the comments section or email me privately if you prefer.
Cheers,
Daisy
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