I recently read an incredibly sad story of a woman who was grieving her birth experience. Her gut told her that birth was a normal experience for the human body, and there should not be any reason to have to do much of anything to prepare for it. She didn’t necessarily desire a natural birth, and trusted her careprovider and hospital to do only what was medically necessary. And there in lies the rub.
Birth in the US is not evidenced based. The ways in which laboring and birthing women are treated and cared for are not the ways that will produce the healthiest outcomes. We have been socialized into believing that if we go to the doctor, and birth in a hospital, that we will have the best and healthiest experience.
I won’t pretend to be better at this than ICAN (International Cesearean Awareness Network), but as a Childbirth Educator with 20 years + experience, I do know there is a formula to help prevent medically unnecessary interventions. Interventions that can have as many risks as they do benefits.
- Educate yourself
- Hire a midwife
- Have a homebirth
- Work to stay healthy and low risk
- Hire a doula or train a loving partner
Do these things guarantee a perfect outcome? No. But statistically speaking, they are proven to reduce your chances of needing a cesarean, and other medical interventions, that can place you and your baby at risk.
If you have had a traumatic experience in a previous birth contact ICAN and a local counselor for support. There is no reason to suffer. But in the future, you can take steps to prevent it from happening again.
If you take these steps, and still need some sort of intervention, then you can be really confident that you needed them. You weren’t just steamrolled into them out of ignorance, or misplaced trust.
For more information on how and why, contact your local Bradley Instructor .
The Bradley Method(r) is the one Childbirth Education class with data behind it to prove it’s effectiveness!
Follow Us!