It’s time to take back our births. It’s beyond time. In 1997 I attended a conference in New Hampshire called “Reclaiming the Feminine Power of Birth”. I was a new Bradley instructor, and it was incredibly inspiring. I listened to Penny Simkin, Janet Balaskas, & Barbara Harper talk about healthy normality in birth, and went home with a renewed spirit.
You should know that I became a Bradley instructor because of the experiences I had with the births of my children. The birth of my 1st child was traumatic for me because he was so sick afterward. I wanted to prevent that from happening again , not only to me, but to others as well.
Fast forward 27 years later. I am still teaching Bradley Natural Childbirth classes. But have things changed? No, not really. It seems that educating women and their families does make a difference (my students have half the cesarean rate of the national average, and an 80% reduction in the use of medications and interventions), but the medical establishment continues to chug forward with institutional, and interventional control. It reminds me of a Hydra – every time you cut off one head, another rears up. Every time we think we have a balance, and the research to back it, the medical powers that be come up with yet another excuse to control women’s birth experiences. Sadly, evidence based maternity care is not practiced in the United States.
Don’t get me wrong. We are thankful for interventions when they are medically necessary. But they are instituted at more than twice the rate that they should be, and women are not always treated with respect. As a result, women are being traumatized. I thought this would have changed by now. But I was wrong. I still hear stories of women whose births were sabotaged by the medical powers that be. It breaks my heart daily.
Well, since I am always trying to focus on prevention, let’s look at what we can do about this. Start with Education. Expand that to learning how to stay healthy and low risk, by focusing on what is in your control. Inform yourself about your choices, and be sure to be careful about selecting a care provider and birth place. And last, but not least, take a good look at our own socialization and bias. We know the bias of the medical establishment, and I frankly blame the medical schools. While I get that they want to protect mothers and babies, they need to re-educated themselves in how best to do that.
So many of us come to birth having been traumatized in the past, in one way or another. Physical and sexual abuse are all too common. Women are told they are never enough, and so suffer self esteem issues. Combine that with the way we are socialized in what we believe about birth in the US, and you have a deadly mix that sets the stage for a very difficult experience. Ideally we should heal ourselves before we give birth. But in reality, there is little support for that in our society. Truly, the the medical establishment should be additionally responsible for supporting women mentally and emotionally, but they barely seem to be able to attend to the physical & medical needs.
Keep in mind: Education, good nutrition, Doulas, homebirths, and even the best care providers are NOT magic. We must work to have a healthy, positive birth experience. So while you are educating yourself, and learning what is in your control, I , and others, will keep plugging at improving things wherever we can. Just remember – It’s not just about a healthy baby. Birth is also about a healthy Mom, and a positive experience!
Amy V. Haas, BCCE ajvhaas@gmail.com
To find out more about Amy and Bradley Natural Childbirth classes, check out our class page!
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