- Have you ever considered using a midwife?
Here are some common answers in the United States:
==> I would not
==> hmmmm .... no I would not, cesarean section are so much better. You know it's done, it's surgery. 1,2,3 and here it is, easy you know.
==> A midwife ? No, it's too dangerous !!! My baby has to be born in the Hospital, much safer!
==> A midwife ? I don't want to have my baby somewhere on a farm.
==> I don't really know what is a midwife and what they do ...
==> I don't really know what is a midwife and what they do ...
==> I don't want that a second class obstetrician take care of my delivery, I want a real doctor.
Here is the poor reality:
Here is the poor reality:
The United States has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world.
First of all, let me just tell you who I am and why I am writing this article.
My name is Sarah and I come from France. I am married and I just moved in Phoenix, Arizona last June and got pregnant, 1st pregnancy.
My name is Sarah and I come from France. I am married and I just moved in Phoenix, Arizona last June and got pregnant, 1st pregnancy.
This pregnancy was not planned and I am a foreigner so automatically I got lost in the American system. I had no idea of where to go for my maternity care ! I finally went to an OBGYN office and then decided that I will never go back.
Here is why :
Maternity care in the United States is in crisis. It's in many ways: a disaster !
Medical decisions are being made for monetary reasons not because they are good for the mother and the baby.
This is what we need to ask ourselves : Is this is an improvement or are we making things worse?
There is so little understanding of how incredibly important this whole process of pregnancy and delivery is to a woman.
Women have been told for years that they are not responsible for their own birth process.
Basically what the medical profession had done over the last 50 years is convinced the vast majority of women that they don't know how to birth.
THIS IS WRONG !
I think that today, most obstetricians have no idea of how a birth can be like. Very few doctors have never observes a normal birth in medical school or in the hospital.
==> For a normal, low risk pregnancy, it's just overkill going to the doctor. The Dr is not really excited about things when they are normal.
Because obstetricians are trained surgeons and also because they are socialized to search for pathologies, they often find pathologies where they do not exist...
But, please do not get me wrong, they are really good to what they do and I am so grateful we have them!! But they are surgeons and they should be doing surgery. They should not be doing normal, natural births.
EVERYWHERE ELSE in the world Doctors are not part of the birthing process!
- Why The United States is standing alone?!
- Why The United States is standing alone?!
In Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, New-Zealand, Australia, Japan... and in other highly developed countries; you can observe Midwives attending 70 or 80% of all the births and the doctors are there to take care of the small percentage that develop the complications.
This is the PROVEN system everywhere else in the world.
Everywhere else in the world, birth is much more seen as a natural and normal event and not as a medical or surgical event.
Because I choose a midwife and a birthing center to welcome my future baby in the world, I have people asking me : Well ... What about if you have complications?
And I usually reply:
The fact is that BECAUSE I choose this way to handle my pregnancy and delivery I have actually less chance to have complications than if I was in a Hospital and you have to trust that ! This is a reality!
To all the women that are going to read this article, I need to tell you that I am not judging you for whatever choice you took for your own birth.
The unique goal of this post is just to let you know that you do not have only 1 option when you get pregnant.
Coming from France, I realized that a lot of American women did not know they have several options for their births.
Through labor, the woman should be in control, women are SO powerful, they are SO in power. This is not the doctor's role, this is not the midwife's role. This is the women's role!
Women need to find their power, their strength, they need to be here with their baby and do their job. They have to be mindful of the birthing process.
And believe me, even if you have no clue of what you have to do to push your baby out, your body knows exactly what to do !
Birth is all about the women's body, it's all about secretion coming out and maybe a little blood coming out, it's all about a woman experiencing very much pain and she may respond to this pain by screaming, crying and even ... "roaring"!
Everywhere else in the world, birth is much more seen as a natural and normal event and not as a medical or surgical event.
Because I choose a midwife and a birthing center to welcome my future baby in the world, I have people asking me : Well ... What about if you have complications?
And I usually reply:
The fact is that BECAUSE I choose this way to handle my pregnancy and delivery I have actually less chance to have complications than if I was in a Hospital and you have to trust that ! This is a reality!
To all the women that are going to read this article, I need to tell you that I am not judging you for whatever choice you took for your own birth.
The unique goal of this post is just to let you know that you do not have only 1 option when you get pregnant.
The hospital is not your only option !!!!
So ... What is a midwife ?
A midwife is a trained health professional who helps healthy women through their pregnancies, labors and after the birth of their babies.
Midwives may deliver baby in birthing center, at home and yes they also do deliveries at the Hospital.
In Europe, the midwife is an Essential Key of the health care system, who is responsible for the care of the great majority of pregnant women.
A midwife is NOT a second class obstetrician! This is WRONG ! A midwife does not need to be supervised by doctors !!! Nonsense !!! In other highly developed countries, midwives are not supervised by doctors, they are independent health care providers. And this is how it should be here in the US as well!
There is nothing to be afraid of, they know exactly what they are doing, they went to school to be able and capable to help birth our babies.
Using a midwife is a very SAFE way to have our babies. They also know when there are complications, what to do and when they need to transfer a woman to the Hospital.
They have a perfect knowledge of the birthing system and you can develop a personal and intimate relationship with them that you will not be able to create with an OB.
They have a perfect knowledge of the birthing system and you can develop a personal and intimate relationship with them that you will not be able to create with an OB.
Why don't we trust them?
For a normal, healthy pregnancy, there is nobody better than a midwife to attend your birth.
Through labor, the woman should be in control, women are SO powerful, they are SO in power. This is not the doctor's role, this is not the midwife's role. This is the women's role!
Women need to find their power, their strength, they need to be here with their baby and do their job. They have to be mindful of the birthing process.
And believe me, even if you have no clue of what you have to do to push your baby out, your body knows exactly what to do !
Birth is all about the women's body, it's all about secretion coming out and maybe a little blood coming out, it's all about a woman experiencing very much pain and she may respond to this pain by screaming, crying and even ... "roaring"!
Trust your body!
Too many doctors and women need to understand that this pain is NOT evil.
Too many doctors and women need to understand that this pain is NOT evil.
The pain is put there for a purpose and it has several purposes during the birth !
First of all it focuses the woman on what she is doing which is breathing her baby out into the world!
The pain also does something else. The labor is done by a muscle, the uterus that pushes the baby out and this pushing out is done in a very very specific way, it's a very complex procedure that the body knows exactly how to handle!
How the body control all of this ? "Thanks" to the pain! Indeed the pain goes up to the brain and the brain secrets hormones which go through the woman's body and down to the uterus and give the message to the uterus when to contract.
Without the pain the brain does not secrete these hormones there would be no hormones to go down and tell the uterus what to do.
First of all it focuses the woman on what she is doing which is breathing her baby out into the world!
The pain also does something else. The labor is done by a muscle, the uterus that pushes the baby out and this pushing out is done in a very very specific way, it's a very complex procedure that the body knows exactly how to handle!
How the body control all of this ? "Thanks" to the pain! Indeed the pain goes up to the brain and the brain secrets hormones which go through the woman's body and down to the uterus and give the message to the uterus when to contract.
Without the pain the brain does not secrete these hormones there would be no hormones to go down and tell the uterus what to do.
If you take the pain away, you are taking away the entire system!
==> The pain is necessary for the regulation of the entire birth process. It is a GOOD pain.
Our bodies are extremely clever and amazing. It seriously amazed me when I found out that the pain also has another purpose. It makes the brain secrete another hormone very similar to Morphine. It is something that relieves pain and gradually through labor the brain secrets more and more of this Morphine hormone : No, it is not dream, this is a natural pain killer that our body secretes to help us go through labor!
Now, if you take some artificial pain killer then your body will never secrete its own pain killer and as you can guess our body's pain killer is completely safe, it does not in any way negatively affect the mother or the baby ... Any synthetic pain killer you will bring into your body has a chance to harm the baby and yourself.
At this point you might be wondering how you can relieve your pain naturally? Well, there are a lot of answers to this question. Here are some:
- When the woman has someone that she trusts and loves to help support her during labor has been SCIENTIFICALLY proven that it's making the labor easier and faster
- When a woman sits in a tub full of warm water has been proven SCIENTIFICALLY that it's easing the pain and it's perfectly safe.
- Use of Essential oils / aromatherapy
- Massage
- Acupuncture
- Hypno-birthing
....
Here is a 3 minute video of Mardsen Wagner, my favorite neonatologist, epidemiologist and author.
Wagner is the former Director of Women's and Children's Health for the World Health Organization. His books details the incredibly flawed maternity care system in the US and the over medicalization of the birth process and the use of unnecessary (and often not FDA approved) procedures on women in labor. Many of which, he believes, contribute to the US having one of the highest rates of maternal-mortality, compared to other industrialized nations. The statistics he cites in this book are absolutely eye opening.
If you have any interest in the health care system in the US, especially as it relates to women, this is the book for you.
If you have any interest in the health care system in the US, especially as it relates to women, this is the book for you.
This link is a very interesting study that will help you to understand which hormones are playing a key role during pregnancy and delivery:
Here is another short video from Wagner's thoughts, very wise guy.
To finish, I would like to share a last link to a trailer of a very mind blowing movie called "The business of being born":
"While the United States has perhaps the most advanced health care system in the world, it also has the second-highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation, and many have begun to question conventional wisdom regarding the way obstetricians deal with childbirth. While midwives preside over the majority of births in Europe and Japan, fewer than ten percent of American mothers employ them, despite their proven record of care and success. How do American doctors make their choices regarding the way their patients give birth, and who is intended to benefit? Director Abby Epstein and producer Ricki Lake offer a probing look at childbirth in America in the documentary The Business of Being Born, which explores the history of obstetrics, the history and function of Midwives, and how many common medical practices may be doing new mothers more harm than good. The Business of Being Born was screened as part of the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide"
Thank you all for taking the time to read my article, I hope you will all learn something new as I did.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me directly :)
Sarah
