There are a few brave women who have the guts to say, "I'm having a natural birth." The rest of America will then take three steps;
- Chuckle under their breath
- Tell you to your face, "Good luck with that," or, "I thought I would too, but then the labor started!"
- Proceed to tell you the horror of everything that labor DOESN'T have to be.
There are 4 key steps that you as a mother need to do in order to increase your chances of having a natural and intervention free labor;
- Educate yourself on the unnecessary interventions commonly practiced in the United States.
- Educate yourself on the stages of labor and know the processes of what your body is going to go through.
- Know your rights to deny any procedure or medication in the hospital.
- Have the courage and faith in your body and mind to know that your labor will be absolutely normal and fine.
1) Know the Common Medical Interventions and their Risks during Labor and Delivery
For most women natural labor simply means no epidural or pain medications, but for others it means no medical interventions that are unnecessary and interrupt a normal and healthy labor. This includes arriving too early at the hospital, subjecting to I.V. fluids for a mother who is not dehydrated, withholding food, subjecting to cervical checking that does not help speed up or improve the outcomes of labor, subjecting to unnecessary and painful episiotomies, subjecting to a limited time for labor without induction, subjecting to Electronic Fetal Monitoring whether constant or every 30 minutes, being free to labor and push in any position without the direction of a nurse, delaying umbilical cord clamping, and denying any medications that are unnecessary to deliver a placenta in a mother who is not hemorrhaging. This can also continue into postpartum care of the newborn and mother like requesting skin to skin contact before administering any vaccines or exams that can’t be performed on the baby while on the mother’s chest.
Having this kind of birth experience is virtually impossible in a hospital environment. Obstetricians, Midwives, and Nurses have been trained deliberately to decrease the time of labor for a woman in order to keep her from spending an extended amount of time in the labor and delivery ward. They push epidurals, to calm a hysterical woman, which ironically slows down labor and then they must induce labor by pitocin to speed it back up again. In the end these medical interventions can causes serious and fatal health risks in the mother and baby. Epidurals can cause spinal fluid leaks and massive headaches and can even paralyze in rare cases. The numbness of epidurals can prevent some women from pushing which can increase cesarean rates or extraction of the baby by forceps or vacuumed. Pitocin not only makes your uterus contract stronger, but also irregularly and not in a way that helps move the baby into the birth canal. Pitocin can cause allergic reactions in mothers and can prevent that baby from having proper lung tone at birth and will require resuscitation. Electronic Fetal Monitoring is cumbersome to the progression of labor because the mother must lie on her back for 20 minutes to get a reading of her contractions and the baby’s heart rate which is incredibly inaccurate and has shown to increase rates of long labor and cesareans! There are other means of monitoring the baby’s heart rate like a fetal Doppler or fetoscope that take less time and are more accurate.
Obstetricians and medicine have convinced us that these protocols are simply necessary and there is no safer way to deliver a baby. This is so far from the truth!
North America is ranked 33 among the developed countries in regards to maternal and infant safety and mortality. How surprising is it to know that women in much of the western world do not expect to have a painful birth? They don’t ever expect to need to even see a doctor at all! They see midwives who specialize in normal births. That is births without pain medications or interventions to help extract a baby. They have so much confidence in a woman’s body to deliver a baby of ANY size. If you labor for 3 days, so be it. If you start labor and then it stops, so be it! All of these things are normal and harmless to mom and baby. Inducing or speeding labor is only necessary in an event when baby is showing signs of distress which is actually quite uncommon (around 20% of slow labors in a birth center.)
You do not need these interventions to deliver a baby. If you have already read the link I've provided, but you still have doubts about denying these interventions then please read more about their risks and MOST IMPORTANTLY read more on the natural process of labor to gain confidence in knowing that your body is capable of naturally delivering a baby.
2) Know the Stages and Processes of Labor
Information from:
This is such a fundamental element for ANYONE who is going to be giving birth. Most women in the United States feel scared and apprehensive about giving birth. Between horror stories told by family and friends and the media making a humorous joke about labor it is no wonder women fear birth in America.
Birth is such a primal and emotional processes for us, why should we be expected to just numb it all away with medications?
I am a rare commodity because I actually want to feel my body birth my child into the world. I find this quite sad actually. Many ask why? Why do want to go through all of that pain? Well for one it really doesn't have to be so painful. The movies show women suddenly dropping everything that their doing and screaming to the high heavens. Labor isn't like that. It doesn't just suddenly hit you in the middle of no where. You don’t go from ordering a coffee to lying on the floor ready to push in the matter or 2 minutes. Labor is a slow process. You could be 1-3cm dilated for weeks and having Braxton Hicks contractions to help slowly open your cervix. Then when active labor begins at 4cm labor requires more concentration for breathing and convincing the mind to relax the pelvic muscles. This can last from 6-24 hours in a normal birth. The most painful part of labor is transition, which begins at 7-10cm, because this is the moment the baby’s head is exiting the uterus and entering the birth canal and it can last from 15 minutes to 2 hours. If you know these steps that your body will be taking, how to control your body and relax to allow your pelvis to open, and utilize positions that increase the speed and duration of your labor, then you won’t have any fear that your body isn't doing what it should. You won’t have that helpless and lost feeling that your body is just going to labor forever. You WON’T be in labor forever! The more you know what to expect in labor and how to control labor the faster and less painful it will be.
Please read the links and books I have suggested that focus primarily on normal and natural labor progression to help educate and convince yourself that your body and mind CAN do this!
3) Know Your Right to Deny Medical Procedures
Information from:
Once you are fully on board with giving birth naturally, and maybe even without unnecessary interventions, the next step (and hardest) is finding/convincing your obstetrician that you want to have this kind of birth experience. When it comes down to the hard truth you’re going to have a hard time with finding an OB who will comply with your request. Unfortunately for the OB they MUST LEGALLY OBEY to your requests. Once you find an OB who is on board (or along for the ride) the next step is collecting all of the paper work from your hospital's labor and delivery ward that they will be wanting you to read and sign whilst laboring. You have the right to collect these papers beforehand to read the fine print and go over the details with your doctor. You can refuse to sign any of these papers or you can alter them to comply with your requests. The hospital and the entirety of its staff, including the doctor, cannot perform any medical intervention without your approval and by signing (or not signing) these papers you are giving or denying them permission to perform these interventions.
If you deny any medicine or vaccine that is given without your request to you or your baby it is considered battery!
When in doubt request that any routine or “normal” hospital procedures be confirmed by you first.
Another option is to simply not give birth in a hospital! Did you know that Birth Centers have lower cesarean, maternal death, infant death, and injuries than hospitals? Also, much of the western world does not give birth in hospitals, but in birth centers or at home. If you are a low risk patient you can give birth in a Birth Center or even at your home with the presence of a Midwife and YES insurance does cover this! There are even Birth Centers that are on location of a hospital, but are completely separate to the hospital. In the event of an emergency the Midwife or Birth Center Staff are fully capable of dealing with the situation including a "stuck" baby, hemorrhaging, and infant resuscitation. Here is a link the the American Association of Birth Centers where you can read more about their statistics AABC. There are really only two reasons that you would be admitted to the hospital
- Your baby truly is stuck or refusing to engage in the pelvis
- You need a blood transfusion because you hemorrhaged after birthing your baby or placenta.
If you need more information about what your rights are and how to make sure your requests are followed without argument please read the links I've provided, especially the podcasts because they really helped me!
4) Convincing Yourself and Others that Everything will be Fine
Information from:
Once you've made it clear to family and medical staff that you have control of this birth the next and final step is convincing everyone (including yourself) that your birthing time will be okay.
If you have the courage, faith, and factual knowledge about having a natural and intervention free birth then your energy will carry to your caregivers and medical staff. A kind and friendly heart will ensure your loved ones and nurses that you are absolutely okay in doing this thing on your own. Try your best to share your beliefs and knowledge because education is the best tool to help convince others.
You will need many tools to help you gain control of your mind and body in labor:
- The best tool I have found is to only read and hear POSITIVE BIRTH STORIES! Especially ones that concentrate on natural deliveries. Read up on how other mothers made it clear to their doctors and nurses that they were in control of their labor. Pinterest has a huge collection of stories told by mothers here: Natural Birth Stories
- You will need a method in which you will gain control of your actions and emotions during the pain and intensity of labor. Many hospitals offer free birthing classes, but unfortunately these classes are vague and center around hospital style births. There are books and other styles of classes available to you. For instance Ina May’s Guide to Child Birth is half positive birth stories and half information on the processes of natural labor and how to cope with it. Some hospitals offer the Bradley Method of Birthing, Hypbobirthing, and Hypnobabies is available for purchase online for at home studying.
- Learn self hypnosis. Hypnobirthing and Hypnobabies are an up and coming method for women to utilize during birth. Both use “self hypnosis” or as I like to call it “self relaxation” to help the mother tune out distractions and solely concentrate on allowing contractions to progress labor. These courses teach you how to control your mind to reduce or even eliminate the fear and pain of labor. Almost every birth story I have read about these course have been extremely positive and some mothers admit to having PAIN FREE labor and deliveries! How comforting is that to know that labor doesn't have to be painful? That we can actually enjoy our birthing times without having to succumb to medications to numb our fears? These tools can also be utilized by your partner or nurses to help keep you calm and focused.
- I am going to reiterate that educating yourself and others about the normal processes of labor will help you immensely to be calm about your birthing time. If you know what to expect in labor then the less fear and pain you will experience. My best resource for this is the Giving Birth Naturally Website where they have bundles of info on labor, delivery, medications, and interventions.
If there are other tools that you successfully utilized please share them in the comments below! We all need as many tools as we can find to help us through this chapter in our lives <3
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