My soap box!

I used to be passionate about all sorts of things: politics, food, raising children, birthing children, etc.  These days I'm more carefree.  I still believe what I believe politically, but it's become less important what others believe.  I used to feel it was my duty to get everyone on my side.  Now, not so much.  If someone agrees with me politically (ahem, that is, liberally), AWESOME!  I would happily talk politics with you all day long.  But if you don't, I might try to sway ya, I might not.  In the end, it just doesn't matter to me very much.  Same goes for food and raising children.  We are all entitled to our own opinions and who is to say that any one of us is right?  Your child may very well need to be raised differently than mine.  

Having a child really does this to a lot of people, I've noticed.  I ate my words so many times regarding the type of mom I was going to be that I quickly realized I have no right judging anyone else's parenting skills or beliefs.  To each his own!  

But a few things have held true and I've become even more passionate about them: my religion and birth.  Because I believe these are the two most important things in life and they're worthy of being passionate about.

Our birth system is BROKEN.  B-R-O-K-E-N.  It makes me sick to my stomach every time I hear about elective inductions and c-sections.  It is NOT okay.  It is NOT healthy.  It is NOT right to play God.  

I need to start off by saying that I don't blame moms.  Sadly, most of us don't really know anything about birth.  We go see our OB who tells us what to think and feel and do, down to how to hold your legs while pushing.  I accepted it all with Ben.  I accepted that I "needed" an ultrasound at every appointment (I didn't) and that I should be hypersensitive to every cramp or sensation inside of me.  I accepted that I had to lay flat on my back and push when the doctor told me to push.  

Why?  Because, though I'd seen The Business of Being Born and had read as much as I could, I was still scared.  I doubted my own body and my own urges.  I mean, this was a doctor!  A DOCTOR!  Surely they knew more than me!  

The second time around was much different.  With a pregnancy and delivery under my belt, I decided I could do this pregnancy thing without all the ultrasounds (yes, I'm the freak who believes ultrasounds aren't healthy) and hype and propaganda.  I decided I would birth on my terms.  I would have my birth plan and I would follow it! 

Even me, who is about as crunchy as they come in regards to birth, wavered at the offer for an induction at 38 weeks.  And then I wavered again at 39 weeks when I was 5cm dilated and they insisted that I be induced.  And then, ultimately, I caved and had them break my water 2 days before my due date.

By most people's standards, at that point in pregnancy there is nothing wrong with inducing (naturally or not).  I regret it because I want my God to decide when my baby is ready, not me or a doctor.  I don't regret it because there were bad outcomes, but because I trust my body but didn't trust it that day.  I decided I knew more than my body on that day and I made the call that my baby was ready to come instead of letting my body (& my God) make that call.

So, like I said, I don't blame moms.  Even the crunchiest of us can cave when a doctor dangles an induction in our face.  We're hormonal and miserable!  OF COURSE we are ready!  

But I urge you to get educated so that next time (or the first time, if you're that lucky) you can birth on your terms!

I was shocked when my doctor offered me an induction at 38 weeks.  Not for any medical reason - there was no concern whatsoever on any account.  I can only assume that it was easier on her to just schedule me in than for me to go into labor on my own.  Nothing else makes sense.  

This article in the NY Times really won me over.  There is no denying that early elective inductions and c-sections put your baby at much higher risk for complication.  But doctors don't tell us that when they pencil us in for an induction at 36, 37, 38 weeks.  

What woman, when facing these facts, would want an elective induction?  My bet is none.  Doctors should be educating their patients so that they can decide if they really want that elective induction.

• Studies have shown that as many as 36 percent of elective deliveries now occur before 39 weeks, and many of these early deliveries are contributing to an unacceptable number of premature births and avoidable, costly complications. 

• With each decreasing week of gestation below 39 to 40 weeks, there is an increased risk of complications like respiratory distress, jaundice, infection, low blood sugar, extra days in the hospital (including time in the neonatal intensive care unit), and even deaths of newborn babies and older infants.  

• In a study published last December of babies demonstrated to have mature lungs before birth, those delivered at 36 to 38 weeks had two and a half times the number of complications compared with those delivered at 39 to 40 weeks

• In 2006 the infant mortality rate at 37 weeks gestation was 3.9 per 1,000 live births; at 38 weeks, 2.5 per 1,000 births; and at 40 weeks, 1.9 per 1,000 births. 

But until doctors do start educating their patients on all of the above, it's time that we educate ourselves and make up our minds early on in pregnancy that we won't have an elective induction or c-section unless it's truly medically necessary.  No matter how miserable we are!  I would love to be able to rely on doctors to remove this choice all together, but right now that's just not the state of our birthing system here in the US.

We assume that a 37 week baby is totally ready to come.  Because, you know, 37 weeks is full term.  This is not the case, as can be seen in the above stats.  Now, as the article states, if your body goes into labor on its own, chances are much greater that the baby is ready.  We're talking inductions and c-sections here.

That's my first beef with OBs.  Elective inductions for no reason other than convenience should flat not be an option.  Period.  Exclamation point.

My second is the "necessary" inductions and c-sections.  Sadly, in this day and age, doctors make decisions out of fear of getting sued.  I can't say I really blame them.  But it's a major contributing factor to all the early c-sections.  It's something we should always have in the back of our minds during pregnancy.  If a doctor performs a c-section, he can say he did everything possible to save that baby.  So naturally, he's going to move to the c-section much more quickly than necessary.

It was supposedly necessary that I be induced when I was 5 cm dilated even though I wasn't in active labor.  One of the midwives I interviewed told me a story about a woman who was 6 cm dilated at 36 weeks.  As she pointed out, any OB would have required an induction at that point.  She didn't.  And do you know that that mother went on to deliver at 39 weeks and a few days?  Some women (me, a case-in-point) actually can walk around ridiculously dilated and stay that way for weeks.  Sadly, had she gone an OB route, she would very likely have been delivered at 36 weeks without knowing better and that baby could have been in NICU and had complications.  But they trusted her body and God and she carried that healthy baby to term with zero complications.

Other doctors will refuse VBACs and require that patients have subsequent c-sections because of the fear of uterine rupture.  Do you know that the risk of rupture is LESS than one percent? And now they're saying a woman who has had multiple c-sections is at no greater risk of uterine rupture than one who has had only one.   But doctors are still hesitant to accept the facts, so they encourage repeat c-sections.  Because they don't want their patients to actually go into labor, they schedule these c-sections often WELL before the due date.  Because of a risk of uterine rupture less than one percent, they up the risk of complications to baby by tons (see above).  How does this make sense?   

See what can happen when we educate and empower ourselves and decide that our bodies almost always know best?

Now I'm not one to shun the medical profession.  There are cases where doctors are needed and I'm very grateful for them.  In fact, I chose my midwife based on the fact that she seemed to share that philosophy with me much more than the others.  She said she never hesitates to make a transfer to the hospital when necessary, and she believes sooner is always better.  I totally agree.  If there is even one sign that something isn't quite right, I would much rather play it safe and end up in the hospital unnecessarily than the other way around.  I'm all about safety for my baby.

That's the entire point of this post.  Safety for your baby.

Educate yourself!  Empower yourself!  YOU know your body more than anyone else!  Have the birth you want with the healthiest baby possible!

And, above all, don't trust that your doctor always knows best.  Read the studies, seek out information on your own.  Because doctors are notoriously very slow to accept new information and change the way they practice.