birth options

I like reading about birth, about other countries maternity systems, I find it all very interesting, I read this blog today and was interested in the controversial way it was written ....

As women we sometimes lose sight of what our bodies are capable of doing, and we make excuses to use interventions to make it all right.... anyway read the link and see what you think....

my response is here too...

wow, that is so true for so many woman I know, I did birth naturally for all my 4 babies, I had gas for the last one as she was facing the wrong way and needed to turn to come out the right way, posterior I think is the word.

I had awesome labours no longer than 3 hours yet I have been made to feel guilty that my body was able to do it…. that guilt stuck around for a while, now I embrace it that I can birth babies…. people only think of the birth, yeah my births were great, the pph after my first daughter, the retained placenta, the trip to theatre, the iugr baby, the neonates experience, the mastitis at day 7 aren't thought about by others cos I have ” easy” births…… I hate the competition, I hate the lack of trust by so many that they cant do it…..

D

Spinning Babies

I have spent a while reading about this on the web of late, why? Because I am trying to spin a baby myself, what it is is when you are trying to move a bay in utero to a more favourable birth position, in my case we are trying to move from left occiput posterior to left occiput anterior.

And tonight it feels like the 6 hours I spent today might actually be paying off. I have been leaning on all fours against the swiss ball, sleeping on my left side, sitting with my pelvis tilted forward, any of the above for most of my day, and tonight baby feels like its more towards the front, its made some big movements tonight and I have actually felt the smaller movements come around.

Birthing posterior babies naturally is possible, it just takes longer and can be more painful hence the reason that I am spending time trying to move baby before I go into labour, posterior labours are generally less effective too which is another reason that I want bubs in the right place when things finally happen.

So I am hoping that at 39 wks (in 20 minutes time) we may have had some success and be in labour some time soon. D

decision to make

Miss K was awake last night so laying in bed with me and she asked if she can be there when the baby is born, she wants to know how it all works etc, Ben has said its my decision to make and I am torn in many directions over it.

In some ways I would like to have her there to witness the birth etc and maybe so that she doesn't go into adulthood fearing birth, but I also don't want her to see me in pain, I wont be having any pain relief unless absolutely necessary so it can get a bit intense. I was wondering if maybe I let her on the terms that she has a support person that she can talk to etc and leave if she wants, my sister will be here the week bubs is due so could possibly do that job.

I am really quite conflicted on this and would love some advise.

D

the business of being born

I went with a friend to see this documentary today it was put on by the homebirth association and the nz college of midwives, omg it was amazing

Its done by rikki lake after she was unhappy with her birth experience the first time, it followed a couple of women and their births and talked to many sides of the birth process in the usa. only 8% of women there have a midwife, and under 1% have homebirths, I personally arent able to have homebirths but think they are great for those who choose to do that.

The us stats were scary, in some hospitals nearly 45% of births are c sections, here its around 24% which is still quite high, infant mortality is the 2nd highest in developed countries in the US as well... so does more technology lead to better births.... some ob gyn's interivewed thought it was great others were more for moving back to a midwife lead model.

Nz doesnt have a perfect system of maternity care but I sure am glad that I have had my babies here and had pretty much the births that I wanted

birth stories

I recently read a fellow bloggers birth story, and she has been totally bagged by some anonymous poster because she had a c-section for her son who was breech. It got me thinking about why women have to one up each other or guilt trip each other over how we gave birth to our babies.

I am lucky to have had three relatively quick natural births.... its great for me, but after my eldest I haemorrhaged badly and had to go to theatre to have part of the placenta removed and was given 4 units of blood. She then was too small for full term and jaundiced so spent 5 days in neonates. When she was 7 days I developed mastitis, and spent 3 nights on iv antibiotics in hospital. To top all this off my mum had an aortic valve replacement the morning after I had K.

So the first birth was fine, afterwards suxed bigtime. L was easier, I didnt haemorrhage at all, and she only spent 3 days in neonates with jaundice. 2 stays in hospital for mastitis happened too...

Number three was great, no haemorrhage, no neonates, only 2 days in hopsital, fab midwife care and I was in Oamaru with mum and dad and hubby and our two girls. And touch wood, so far (he's 9 months) no stays in hospital for IV antibiotics for mastitis...

So yeah the births were easy but having the other things happen and having depression for most of my last pregnancy sure as hell didnt make that any eaiser.

So to all those who think they have the right to tell other women that what they did was wrong..... bugger off we all make choices in our lives and childbirth should be about the best choice for that mum and her baby