April is STILL Cesarean Awareness Month!
And I suppose Time Magazine is trying to make us more aware of the new trends with their article Choosy Mothers Choose Cesarean (Thank you Cathy, Euna, Kati, and Findley!) yeesh, and arrrrrrrrgh, and grrrrrrrrrrr.
your thoughts?
And this reminds me, now more than ever we need to get our birth stories out into the world…
Calling for Birth Stories!
If you have a birth story (preferably unassisted, but if it’s assisted it shouldn’t focus on the midwife- not that she’s not totally AWESOME, please don’t understand, I LOVE midwives! - too much, I’m looking for birth stories that focus on the mother, the baby and the birth process.) please send it in to be included in the next Hathor book (I’m too poor to pay you, but will happily give you a couple of the books and my undying gratitude!) Plus, you’ll be in print! My friend, Gurumama, is going to be editing the book so I’ll be passing the stories along to her and she’ll be in touch about whether they’ll be included or not…Please forward this widely!
Here’s what you can do to make the birth story exactly what I’m looking for:
1. remove the paragraphs where you’re making your decision to birth at home, or birth unassisted. for instance in my birth story of Gwyneth Kai, I’m going to remove the first paragraph where I blather on about wanting a birth that was free of interventions. For the sake of argument, lets agree that the audience for this book already WANTS a birth that’s free of interventions. Let’s ASSUME we live in a world where ALL women want no interventions. It’s a given. How would you start your birth story then…probably at the first contraction, huh? Okay, start there.
2. If you’re telling an unassisted birth story or an assisted birth story, let’s just call it a birth. Take out all the qualifiers and just birth that baby!
3. fear is fine, but how ’bout a little bit about how you ‘rise above’ the fear? And don’t forget to include those moments when you weren’t afraid. I like to read birth stories where the laboring mother ‘just knew’ what to do. It comforts me, and when I gave birth the third time I was able to tune into my instincts because I had read so many birth stories by women who ‘just knew’.
and 4. if you think your birth story can do all of this but it includes an intervention anyway, heck, send it in. Interventions happen, as do transfers, it’s how we FEEL (and write) about them that matters. Can your birth story tell how you transfered to the hospital and delivered your breech baby into the hands of some strange doctor, but still, wow! isn’t birth great?! and wouldn’t you do it again?
So, that’s what I’m looking for…please send them in! hathor at thecowgoddess.com or in the comments below.
Love,
Heather
this musing is related to this comic: cesarean awareness!
amyphilo said,
April 23, 2008 @ 4:34 pm
According to the April 2008 Position Paper from the ACOG on psychiatric drugs for pregnant and nursing mothers, one third of all US women are taking psychiatric drugs during pregnancy. One complication of this is that during labor especially when combined with labor drugs the baby can go into severe distress or die from the combined effects of the drugs (as well as from the psychiatric drugs themselves alone) - this can lead to c-section. When you look at the FDA adverse events reporting system data (MedWatch) for neonatal / prenatal adverse events from exposure to the babies, C-section is one of the ones listed over and over as an effect reported as being caused by the psychiatric drugs. It’s time for people in the natural childbirth arena to pay attention to this. Childbearing-aged women should not be put on drugs that could be addictive and hurt their future children.
PPHN which can be fatal can also kill babies before they are born, as well as the cardiac defects, etc. The drugs also cause double the rate of spontaneous abrotion, miscarriage, and preterm birth. Preterm births are often linked with c-sections as well. When you look at the NICU admissions it would be interesting to see how many of those moms were taking psychiatric drugs or using aspartame or sleep meds. I have a friend who took Ambien while pregnant even though this is a category X drug.
So sad.
Now back to the regularly scheduled programming.
sheepdoc said,
April 23, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
Ever heard the quote that the only people who go into psychiatry are the ones with the issues - and the field they choose is the one they have the most issues in?
As for balanced journalism. Wow, lets interview the one woman in the country who had an elective c/s where nothing went wrong. Lets not interview the survivors of the women who died after elective c/s or the parents of permanently damaged babies and see if they would like to change their choices.
My MIL doesn’t like wearing a seat belt and often doesn’t. She’s 66 - clearly that means we can all choose not to wear seat belts and we’ll survive, right? Of course we can’t interview all those dead people who made that choice.
Oh - and I love the mom’s comment about successful breastfeeding only happening to those who manage a vaginal. Hhm, what other “educated” choices did she make that she’s gotten flak about, I wonder.
amyphilo said,
April 23, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
“Vaginal delivery can, for example, lead to future incontinence and pelvic damage, while babies born by C-section may suffer from respiratory problems because of not being exposed to certain hormones during the birthing process. It will take more studies comparing the two methods for individual women to be able to determine how likely these risks are for them.”
Hmmm… my baby being able to breathe versus me leaking pee until I do my kegels. Tough choice!
NO wonder she chose a first-time elective c-section, she was a shrink!!!!!!! A child psychiatrist, I wonder how long before her baby winds up on drugs. So sad. I guess if she bottle feeds him and he starts displaying overactive pacifier sucking disorder she could put him on some Paxil for anxiety.
amyphilo said,
April 23, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
They don’t mention the antibiotic resistant infections that kill moms or the fact that her epidural can be fatal or any of the common complications of c-sections.
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-PavfSLswdr9AFy_59KAwcQ–?cq=1&p=36
There is my birth story. Let’s go have some more babies so we can have more birth stories (just kidding - ha ha ha ha ha)
birthblessed said,
April 24, 2008 @ 7:11 am
Please look at my blog, http://blog.birthblessed.com, where I posted my birth story for you. It was sort of long so I didn’t want to put it here.
jeanette said,
April 24, 2008 @ 7:13 am
“it’s how we FEEL (and write) about them that matters.”
Exactly! If more people caught onto this, birth everywhere would be more satisfactory.
“Let’s go have some more babies so we can have more birth stories” I would love to have another just for the birth story too, but we’re done. It’s tempting though because I know it would make for a great birth story. I became very confident and strong after my last birth, a freestanding birth center waterbirth.
Emily said,
April 24, 2008 @ 9:32 am
“Choosy moms . . . “. How apt. Choosy moms don’t pick plain births, they choose births with plenty of added sugar, salt and hydrogenated oils.
This informed mom knows there are many healthier choices out there.
mrs.mama21 said,
April 24, 2008 @ 1:01 pm
Hathor- (sorry so long)
I would love to have our story included in your book if you like. We had a prolonged rupture of membranes for 49 hours before birth. We used natural induction techniques because I wasnt having contractions, and eventually manual dilation, cervix repositioning, and turning of baby. I hope other moms find it inspiring that in circumstances that would certainly end in a c-section at a hospital, a supportive midwife and a lot of faith can make a world of difference in a successful birth. I can be reached at mrs.mama21@yahoo.com and I give my permission to edit the following story as needed.
I woke up in a puddle and thought to myself “I KNEW this baby would be early. Good thing I put the mattress pad on last night”. I stood up, and the water just kept gushing. What an odd feeling. I left my husband, Forrest, to deal with the puddles, and got into the shower. My anxious husband called our midwife, Debbie. I had broken water, no contractions, and was only 36 weeks along. Still, I was ecstatic! We’d finally meet our baby, and I knew in my heart that everything would be fine. Everyone I spoke to on the phone kept asking me what drugs I was on, because I sounded so happy. I just laughed and said I was simply excited and that we wouldn’t be using any drugs.
24 hours later, we were trying every natural induction technique to try and get my labor moving. Prolonged rupture of membranes put me at risk for infection. I used grapefruit seed extract mixed with water to rinse every time I used the bathroom, and I was frequently taking immune-boosting herbs and vitamins. We kept close track of my temperature and baby’s heartbeat. Everything remained perfectly normal, and I was feeling calm and positive. I knew that stepping into a hospital after having my water broken for so long would mean an immediate c-section. Our vitals were perfect, and I felt fantastic, so I assured everyone that there was no need to transfer. I walked and walked and walked. I did pelvic rocks. I bounced on a birthing ball. I tried nipple stimulation. I tried various herbs and homeopathic methods. I even tried castor oil. I was having only weak contractions that I barely felt. I wondered if my Hypnobabies training was working TOO well, but at that point I had opened my mind up to pain, just so I’d know if I was really in labor. Alas, there was no pain.
As we passed the 40 hour mark, I finally asked Debbie to check me internally. I was mentally and emotionally ready to have this baby, so I was sure that something else must be holding things up. After all that time and effort, I was still only 3 centimeters dilated. My cervix was very posterior, and the baby was up too high and was facing my side instead of my back. She wasn‘t pushing on my cervix and allowing it to dilate. Debbie could feel my sweet little baby moving her head about trying to find her way, but she was a little lost. Debbie asked if I wanted her to try and manually dilate me, pull my cervix forward, and turn the baby. I kneeled and supported myself on a birthing ball, and used my hypnosis training to turn “off”. Debbie was easily able to pull my cervix forward, and stretch it to 8cm. She was even able to feel the plates in the baby’s head, and help her turn to the right position. I felt absolutely NONE of this, and had no sense of time passing. I just felt very comfortable and relaxed. God bless self-hypnosis! An hour later, I got up to use the restroom. When I came back, I was back down to 3cm, cervix posterior, and baby had turned back. We repeated this cycle for about 8 hours before things finally kicked in and STAYED that way. Still, I had no perception of how much time was passing. I got in the tub to relax. The contractions were amazing. My mother was there, using the word “release!” to cue me into relaxation during a contraction. At that point, I was too tired from the ordeal of the past couple of days to stay present in my mind. When she said “release!” I was OUT. They had to keep the water shallow because I would sink completely down and be limp like a noodle. It felt lovely!
Suddenly, I was pushing without even meaning to! In ONE HOUR, I had dilated from that stubborn 3cm that I kept bouncing back to, to ten! What an incredible feeling! I had missed out on that with the medicated hospital birth of my first daughter. It was overwhelming. I tried to rest for a moment, but the urge was so powerful that it was painful to NOT push. Someone said that the baby was crowning, and I reached down. I felt that little head and had to quickly pull away because I started bawling hysterically. Eventually, I had to get out of the tub and into bed. The episiotomy from my first birth had caused deep scar tissue that was preventing me from stretching enough. The head would go back up quite a bit between contractions, and the Doppler wasn’t picking up a heartbeat anymore. The midwife finally used her own hands to push me over the baby’s head like a turtle neck. With a lovely feeling of release, out came baby! My darling husband wept “it’s a girl!!!”. My mother, my grandmother, and I all wept then too. She was placed on my chest, and our life as a family began. Despite being 4 weeks “premature”, and despite a total of 49 hours between rupture of membranes and birth, our little girl was a healthy as can be. After a few days of getting to know one another, we named her Charlotte after her grandpa and great-grandpa Charles. As a note on the wonders of breast milk, our little Charlotte gained a whopping 5 pounds in just her first 6 weeks. Twice the “typical” rate. Way to thrive little one!
Having experienced both a medicated birth and a natural birth, I’m amazed at the differences. I felt so fantastic, and Charlotte was so healthy and alert. Even with the somewhat unusual circumstances, I would gladly relive it all a thousand times before I’d go through another hospital horror. My baby and I were surrounded in love, support, and peace, just the way it should be. I feel blessed beyond words, and only wish that every woman could walk away from her birth experience feeling as wonderful as I did.
Rachele Burke in Oregon
Mommy to Brooklyn (3/5/05)
And Charlotte (3/13/08)
Becci76 said,
April 24, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
I was listening to a first time mother (she really seemed like a basket case) the other day talk about how she was so upset that the doctors “wouldn’t give her a hysterectomy and now she ended up pregnant and she has a scar and was so happy that someone at the free clinic finally told her that ‘not all women were designed to have vaginal deliveries’ and she is going to have a c-section because it is easier.” Yes, she talked exactly how I typed it!
I was just so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even say a word! It took the sales clerk to pipe in and explain to her that a vaginal delivery is so much safer. I told the woman that I would much rather go through a vaginal delivery than have surgery and she just kind of shut up and walked away.
I really wonder how smart people have to NOT be to think like this. I know the lady in the article was supposedly educated, but I know some really dumb educated people! Hell, I went to school with many of them
I think that women who think this way just must not understand how important it is to late nature do what nature does. Many people don’t think about how natural things should be in their every day lives so it really isn’t a wonder that they think this way about birth too.
jessica_anne010 said,
April 24, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
Here is my amazing VBAC story!! http://www.jessicas-haven.com/baby.htm
Slingnmom said,
April 24, 2008 @ 10:25 pm
Since I have so many kids and 5 homebirth and unassisted birth stories I will just give you the lilnks to them.
Sariah Anne - (no birth story written yet)
December 30, 1998
9lbs 2oz; 21″
scheduled c/s for breech presentation
Rachel Elizabeth - (no birthstory written yet)
February 3, 2000
7lbs 10oz; 19″
Hospital VBAC
Slingnmom said,
April 24, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
It doesn’t look like all of my birth stories posted.
I’ll try again.
Mason Nicholas
January 25, 2002
9½lbs; 21.5″
Home waterbirth - 2 trained friend assistants.
1hr 40min L&D
http://www.themoralesfamily.us/masonbirth.htm
Liam Joseph
August 23, 2003
9lbs; 19½”
Unassisted pregnncy, Unassisted birth
Slingnmom said,
April 24, 2008 @ 10:31 pm
http://www.themoralesfamily.us/liambirth.htm
Kaden Luis
October 8, 2004
7lbs 15oz; 20″
Unassisted waterbirth
1hr 30min L&D
http://www.themoralesfamily.us/kadenbirth.htm
Slingnmom said,
April 24, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
Jaylen May
May 11, 2006
10lbs 9oz; 21¾”
Unassisted waterbirth
45min L&D
http://www.themoralesfamily.us/jaylenbirth.htm
Evan David
September 2, 2007
7lbs 15oz; 19″
Unassisted waterbirth
1hr 25min L&D
http://www.themoralesfamily.us/evanbirth.htm
I think all 7 are there now. I don’t know why it was cutting links off and posts short. Sorry.
wiffersnapper said,
April 25, 2008 @ 5:22 am
As someone who has had one baby each way, I vote that vaginal births are WAY easier to recover from! Despite the black eyes (from pushing the wrong way at first- it took me a few minutes and the midwife putting her hand on my perineum and saying, “Push THIS direction!” for me to get it figured out!), I was up and walking around just fine the next morning after my first daughter’s vaginal birth. It’s been five weeks since my second daughter’s emergency c-section, (this one was actually justified- footling breech and 7 weeks early), and I still have “twinges” now and then. And I’m bummed that I didn’t get to feel her sliding out the way I did with baby #1- that was the coolest part of the whole birth. I cannot fathom why anyone who is fully informed would choose a section.
Slingnmom said,
April 25, 2008 @ 6:44 am
Wiffersnapper: Breech is just a variation of “normal”. Too many women believe that breech is a justifiable reason for a cesarean section when in actuality it is very much a vaginally birthable baby. Too many doctors and midwives just simply aren’t trained HOW to help deliver them without a knife, compared to other countries where the doctors ARE taught how to handle a vaginal breech delivery, footling or frank.
My first was in a frank breech position. I didn’t know any better, but if I had to do it over I certainly would have just delivered her at home. If I ever have another breech baby I will do it at home as well. Even at 7 weeks early.
But that’s just my opinion on the matter.
typeogirl999 said,
April 25, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
Great comic! You have pet rats? I do too! They’re awesome.
Anniee451 said,
April 25, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
The Choosy Mothers article is horrifying. Amyphilo, I totally agree - she first of all didn’t do her research (actually, if she did then that’s even scarier) and didn’t really want to be a mother - just to possess a baby. Not actually, you know, do anything - like birth, or nurse or care etc. Just possess a baby. A child psychologist yet. Scarier still. It’s a matter of months or a year before that poor child is on meds, and that’s the worst thing of all. That is, if he “survives” the formula. Most babies do, I’m told. But I have my doubts.
Hathor, I am actually sorry I ever saw that article. And that BS about pelvic problems versus respiratory problems - who do they think they’re fooling? Scratch that, they’re obviously fooling a lot of people with such “well-rounded” reporting. GAH!
marceille said,
April 25, 2008 @ 7:28 pm
scheduled c sections, for non medical reasons, makes no sense to me. it is like training for an Olympic event for your whole life, getting to the Olympics and than deciding you don’t want to compete, because it “sounds hard” every woman’s body has been preparing for this moment since before she was born. she has been training since puberty and in intensive training for nine months, only to go through major abdominal surgery because it hurts. pain tells you how to do something, or not do it. back labor makes women want to squat on their hands and knees, which makes the baby turn to a better position, pushing hurts to tell you how and when to do it, contractions hurt to tell you to wake up the baby is coming, all of it is for a reason, all of it is important, all of it is miraculous.
julie said,
April 26, 2008 @ 6:20 am
I like the “WTF News” on the mic. Nice touch.
I had a hospital birth with more interventions than what is ideal (episiotomy, annoying fetal monitor, a shot of phenergan to stop me from vomiting, etc) so I’ll let you get the whole stories from others. But I do like to spread the word that birth is pleasant. When I tell people that it was a wonderful experience, they are surprised. I told some nursing students (young women with no kids) that I loved giving birth and they said that was the first time they’ve ever heard that. Nursing students who have been through the OB rotation! They are used to people lamenting the pain, complications, exhaustion… Now, I must admit, my little one was very good to me. She was a little more than 7 pounds, I had an easy pregnancy with no complications and I was in labor for only about 8 hours total. Frankly, I’d go so far as to call my pregnancy, labor and birth “fun.”
I really believe that fear makes pain different. Hiking the Long Trail end to end in Vermont taught me to trust my body, even when it hurts. And when you can trust it, it’s just not as scary. And when it’s not scary, it doesn’t REALLY hurt. And when it doesn’t really hurt, well then how awesome is it that you are pushing another human being out of your body??!!! How can it not be the most wonderful experience? So I told those students: if you ever give birth and if you do it naturally, relax, and aren’t afraid, it will be the greatest high of your life.
I agree with getting the word out that birth is not going to hell and back. It doesn’t prevent people from getting pregnant, just prevents them from enjoying it. (well, not getting pregnant, but being pregnant
you know what I mean, right?)