Dream Birth-Creating the Birth You Want

You’ve heard the stories…Morning Sickness. Non stop pain. Cramping. Screaming. Women writhing in pain. Their body being torn open. Thirfy five hours of labor followed by six hours of pushing, all to end up having a c-section or pushing a 10lb baby out your ‘hoohoo’. You’ve decided that from the moment you find out you are pregnant, you are going to have every intervention known to man! You’ll have the ultrasound and the blood tests. You’ll have a 2nd ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. You arrive at the hospital already planning to have the epidural, but to look good to your peers you tell everyone you are going to ‘try’ to go natural. Truth is, you’ve already talked to the midwife and doctor, and the epidural and Demerol are already on standby. We’ve heard and used the line “Nature needs no help, just no interference” but when it comes to pregnancy and birth, we throw this concept out the window.

In this scenario, there are loud noises all around you. Beeping, buzzing and ringing surround you. People are in and out of your room, removing the sheet that is covering your elevated legs so they can do a check to make sure you are ‘progressing’. The lights are bright and the bed is uncomfortable. You are allowed to move around the hallways, but only for a limited amount of time, and only until they decide it’s time for the epidural. In a few more minutes, they will need to check your progress again. You’ve now made it-the 10cm required to begin pushing! You feel a sense of accomplishment at having made it to this point (epidural or not) and now are told that it’s time to start pushing. “Deep breath! Bear down! 1-2-3-4…10. And another big breath. AGAIN!” It doesn’t matter that you’ve body isn’t telling you to push. You are at 10cm and now you MUST push! The doctor who you worked so closely with during your pregnancy and who you prayed would be on call the night you went into labor, races in and spends the last 15 minutes of your pushing with you, just in time to catch the baby. The baby is laid on your stomach for a little over a minute, just long enough to cut the cord that is attaching the baby to your body. The placenta hasn’t birthed yet, but that’s ok. This baby has got to be cut from your body now that it’s outside of you! There is no more need for it to remain attached. Within a matter of minutes the baby is taken to the other side of the room where it is cleaned up, its nose suctioned. She is weighed and measured. You hear the baby crying and they tell you this is a good thing and that the baby has ‘a great set of lungs’. Truth is, this small baby is terrified and screaming for you, her mother.

But there’s a better way! This is not the way that birth should be, especially for those of us who believe that the body is fully capable of knowing what to do. Imagine a birth in which you, the mom, are in complete control. The room is dim, the smell of candles or incense burning from the corner. Your significant other is next to you and in these moments, it’s only the two of you. Your midwife might be in the room, but you are oblivious to her because you are totally connected to your body. You are immersed in warm water, your body floating up and down with each contraction. There is no tension in your body. You are relaxed, allowing your body to work with each contraction. The contractions grow closer together, more intense, each one coming right after the next, but you aren’t fighting them but instead, working with them. You are free to make any sort of noises you need to because you are in your own home, allowed to express yourself in your own way because it’s a familiar place to you. It’s a place you feel at peace. It’s a place you’ve created for the birth of your child. It’s the place you have created for this very moment! After a few hours of labor, you start to feel a pressure that is indescribable. You tell your midwife that it’s time and she comes to your side. In the next few minutes, the baby will slowly pass out between your open legs and into the water and your waiting hands. You may even find yourself having a powerful orgasm during this time in which your body is allowed to operate in wholeness and perfection. You slowly pull the baby up out of the water and to your chest. Immediately the baby looks up at you! There is an instant connection between the two of you as you gently wipe the vernix off of her head and await the placenta to deliver. The baby is still attached and is reaping the benefits of the most amazing blood that it will ever receive. The blood in the cord is essential to the baby and as it pulses, it contracts every last drop into this new baby. When you are ready, you hand the small baby to the midwife for her weight and measurement. Baby appears so relaxed and at peace. No screaming, no flailing. Just perfect peace in this moment. This is the way birth can be!

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Poem: From Birth to Womanhood

I came across this poem today. It is on a site for abused women and children. I pray that we are women who portray more to our daughters than this sort of worthlessness and meaninglessness.

From birth to womanhood
All I’ve known is the hard side of life. But never did I take my eye off the finer side of life.

From birth to womanhood
I’ve been made to feel like my existence on earth is meaningless. Not much love was ever poured out to me.

From birth to womanhood
I was programmed to feel that, no matter what I did in life, I was nothing. So I feel as if “I am nothing.”

From birth to womanhood
Learning to love myself in an uncaring world has been very hard for me to achieve. When you truly don’t love the person looking back at you in the mirror, who can truly love you?

From birth to womanhood
Now that womanhood has surrounded my inner being, I’m learning slowly to love and respect me. And trying to change the negative being that entered into my mind, body and soul.

From birth to womanhood
One day, I rise-up a changed woman, at peace with myself, the world and my creator, God almighty.

From birth to my real womanhood.

- Teresa H.

I am NOT the exception

I am *not* the exception
I am the norm.My birth is normal~~unhindered~~standard~~regular~~easy~~simple.
It amazes me how when people hear about my birth experiences, they are amazed that a birth can be like that. They say things about how I must not have had contractions NEARLY like they did. They say things about how their birth was so painful that even the doctors were astonished by it. They say that I am so brave (or maybe so stupid to risk what I did).


Yes- it wasn't in a hospital. No doctor was there telling me to push when I didn't feel like it. No pelvic exams to check my dilation and progress. No emergency, no drugs, no nurses telling me to count to 10 and then blow. No c-section, no forceps, no episiotomy, no stitches. Just my husband and I along with a midwife who sat on the bed and watched. Its been 2 years since my first homebirth. It's been 2 years since I reached into the water, between my legs, and pulled the baby out and to my chest. I've loved telling my story and talking to women who are unlearned in this area. Educating a woman about her body and how it functions is a new found passion of mine. Isn't simply sad that women have truly no clue on how their body works. The brainwashing needs to stop. After learning about the history of obstetrics, it infuriates me to no end how these professionals feel the need to manage something unmanageable. Just recently Asia Carrera (who is a former porn star, true) had a UC (unasisted childbirth...no doctor, no midwife, NO ONE but her and her daughter). Her story is simply beautiful and perhaps she can enlighten the rest of the world in discovering how their own bodies can function. Of course, many will write her off because her former porn status. She is still a woman who reached deep within herself to deliver her baby into an environment that wasn't hostile and full of noise and lights. She birthed her baby on the floor in front of her fireplace! How truly romantic and peaceful!


Those of us who birth this way know that we aren't alone. We know that the homebirth idea is becoming more and more popular as women are seeing themselves as the empowered creatures that God created us to be. Yet to many, we are some strange breed of creatures. I hope that in the future, women will realize that deep within them lies a strength to birth in a new found way. That they will understand that the 'emergencies' they face in the hospital setting are often times CREATED by the hospital staff through the various interventions. Pitocin to speed things up, often cause such INTENSE contractions that epidurals become almost mandatory. Pitocin contractions don't cause the cervix to relax enough during contractions, which makes c-sections almost inevitable. Epidurals can often slow down labor and progress as well. When the female body is left to do what it knows to do, it normally functions in a way that delivers a beautiful baby with little effort and must ease.

I am *not* the exception.

By: Kelly Milano


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Do the 'impossible'

Do the 'impossible'
Walt Disney once said "It's kinda fun doing the impossible." As homebirthers so often the views that others throw at us about our choice is that it is impossible. It's impossible that you can do it without drugs. It's impossible that you can do it without assistance from anyone. It's impossible that in that moment of pulling the baby out, that you can actually have the energy and desire to do it. It's impossible that you can actually have a 100% problem free delivery. It's kind of fun to do the 'impossible'. It's fun to prove them wrong and be able to educate them all at the same time. There is NOTHING impossible when you let your body work the way it was designed to work. There is NOTHING impossible about delivering a baby. While there are always complications that COULD arise, truth is they are rare and don't make for the impossible.

Knowing that everyone viewed my choice as 'impossible' made me more excited to accept the challenge and trust my body. There is an old Spanish proverb that says "To tell a woman what she can't do is to tell her what she can do". In other words, when rules and regulations are created to try to force women to all birth the same, the rise inside of women's souls will result in them doing exactly what it is you are telling them they can't do. To tell a woman she can't homebirth is certainly a challenge to many who will purposely birth at home just to show a point that a baby will come whenever and wherever it wants, whether a doctor is present or a not. Doctors don't deliver babies. MOMS deliver babies. Doctors just assist a mom in her delivery. A midwife or a husband or best friend can assist just the same. And if no one is there, the mom will still deliver the baby, for SHE is the one does all the work. No male doctor has EVER delivered a baby! EVER. He has never had a baby pass through his open cervix and out into the world. He has never felt the sensations of needing and wanting to push or of having that new baby put to his bare breast. And a male doctor never will deliver a baby. Pizzas are delivered by outsiders. Babies are delivered by moms. Next time you are asked by a well wisher "So, who will be delivering this baby?" Proudly say with a smile "I will be". Whether you have a doctor or midwife present or go completely unassisted, take pride in the fact that YOU will deliver the baby that is growing inside of you. More than likely, your doctor will just be getting in the way! ;)




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Train vs Educate

I recently read a great quote. It said "The definitions of "train" vs. "educate"; to train is to not deviate to the left or right, but go straight ahead. To educate is to broaden one's mind on a subject. This society primarily trains - doctors, nurses, attorneys, etc".

This is our medical profession to a T! We have trained them on how to react to situations. They are trained to not do a breech delivery. They are trained to not vaginally deliver twins. They are trained to vaccinate, trained to push for epidurals, trained to do routine c-sections. But are they truly educated? Are they educated on the risk of vaccinations? Are they educated on the dangers of induction? Are they trained on the hazards of repeat and routine c-sections?

We as normal everyday patients, have been trained as well. We've been trained to accept everything our doctors tell us fact. We've been trained to not ask questions or not doubt what we are being told. We are trained, just like we would train a dog, to speak when spoken to in the doctors office and not cause a scene. We train our dogs to jump through hoops and roll over and play dead, just like we've been trained to do when it comes to our opinions and ideas about our health, our bodies or our decisions.

It's time we EDUCATE ourselves!!! It's time we stop being simply trained and start researching and finding our voice. It's time we stand up for ourselves in the delivery room, to our doctors, to the insurance companies and the government.

EDUCATE YOURSELF AND FIND YOUR VOICE!!!

Powerful Women

Powerful women come in all shapes and sizes. They come in all religions, all nationalities and all colors. They are moms, they are teachers, they are pastors, politicians and store clerks. Every woman carries within her the ability for greatness and power, but how do we go about finding that? When you think about world changing women, who comes to mind? Joan of Arc? Rosa Parks? Princess Diana? Mother Theresa? Queen Elizabeth? [url="http://www.amritapuri.org/amma/wonder.php"]Amma[/url]? The list goes on forever.

What makes these women so powerful? It isn't necessarily their pride or their education. It isn't necessarily their 'Type A personality'. It isn't their looks or their financial status. It's their passion. It's their drive for life, their longing to change the things around them and better their world. Amma is a great example. This woman's only goal is to show love. She has millions of followers and all she does is kiss and hug them and tell them a small word of encouragement. She doesn't have to stand up from a pulpit and preach about love. She demonstrates it. Mother Teresa was the same way. She spent her days wtih the 'unlovely' and 'unlovable'. She had a following of people because of her passion for life and her desire to make a difference, no matter how small. She set out to change the world, one person at a time.

What makes you a woman of greatness and power? What is it within you that excites your heart, makes you come alive? Finding out what this thing is, will change your life. It will bring you a new sense of purpose and in that purpose comes your power. Whether your purpose is to change the world in a huge way or to change it by changing your children, the cause is great. No woman is without purpose. None of us without something that truly excited us. Find that thing, and set out to achieve it. Become a powerful woman of purpose!!!

Pain Free Childbirth and Dealing with Fear

In spite of all the advertising touting "home-like" birthing rooms in hospitals, for most women, a hospital birth will be nothing like a home birth. Interventions are routine in the hospitals in my state. Every laboring woman will be hooked up for some period of time to an electronic fetal monitor, given vaginal exams, and be told where and in what position she must give birth. If her membranes are ruptured, she will be required to deliver her baby within a certain time period. If her labor is moving too slowly, she will be given pitocin to augment it or have her water artificially ruptured. She will be told how many companions she may have with her. If she has other children she may or may not include them at the birth. How long she is kept in the hospital will vary depending on her physicianand the particular hospital. How soon her baby will be released also will depend on the baby's pediatrician and hospital policy. Some of the more common interventions that take place during hospital births are discussed below.

AMNIOTOMY
Artificially breaking the amniotic sac is done routinely at many hospitals to speed labor up, get labor going, to test thefluid or to get it out of the way so that an internal monitor can be screwed into the baby's head. It was believed that breaking the water would speed up labor by 30 to 60 minutes butthe only randomized control trial done disproved this. This procedure causes cord prolapse, a serious complication for the baby and increases the chances of an infection. With less amniotic fluid in the uterus during labor, the baby has a greater risk of cord compression problems leading to fetal distress and malpositions of the head.

DRUGS & EPIDURALS
Nearly every woman giving birth in a hospital will receive a drug at some point during her stay. Pitocin is frequently usedto induce or augment labor. Because it causes abnormally strong contractions, many women receive a pain-relieving drug such as a narcotic. Unfortunately, narcotics also are received by the baby and can affect the condition of the baby at birth and for years after. Some of these side effects are respiratory problems,impaired muscular, visual and neural development in the firstweek of life and in the following years, lower reading and spelling scores, difficulty in solving problems or performing tasks when they pose a challenge.

The new drug of choice at many hospitals is the epidural. It must be administered by an anesthesiologist and requires the mother to remain in bed afterward. She must be flushed with an IV fluid prior to getting it to keep her blood pressure up. A needle is inserted into the woman's back and small catheter is left in place where the medication is injected. It numbs the woman's body from the ribs to the toes. Many women ask for this drug because they do not want to deal with the pain of childbirth and believe it is safe for themselves and their babies because the physician who administered it, their obstetrician and the labor and delivery nurses all encourage the use of it and give no information regarding side effects.

The known complications are many ranging from requiring EFM, IV, immobility, urinary catheterization. An epidural also may allow no sensation of labor or the pushing urge, lower blood pressure, abnormally relax the pelvic muscles which may encourage the baby to adopt malpositions of the head, may decrease the production of oxytocin at critical times, and increase the need for forceps and cesarean section. Epidurals cause some serious complications such as heart attack, spinal damage, and spinal headache. After the birth, chronic backache is a common complaint as well as backache. The baby may be exposed to narcotic drugs given to enhance the effect of the epidural and which if given alone can compromise the baby's respiratory efforts as well as require the newborn to metabolize the drugs. We do not know the short or long term effects of the epidural or other drugs on the baby. Some claim that the baby is unaffected unless the mother becomes hypotensive. Some non-interventionist birth attendants recognize that occasionally epidurals may be useful for certain situations. Some examples when an epidural may permit a normal birth are for maternal exhaustion, severe back labor, certain malpresentations or psychological dystocia. Although the FDA approves drugs as safe or unsafe, they have no definition of safe and do not guarantee safety of drugs. Many who work with brain damaged children, wonder if the disability is due to obstetric drug use. They also question if women would make the drug choice if they were given complete information about side effects. The American Academy of Pediatricians discourages the routine use of obstetric drugs.

ENEMAS
This procedure is still done routinely at many hospitals, although no research proves any benefits for the mother or baby. Home birth and natural birth advocates recognize that for the vast majority of women, the process of labor will empty thebowels.

EPISIOTOMY
Although many believe that an ep[isiotomy is necessary to have a baby to prevent damage to the baby's head, prevent trauma tothe mother's perineum and the cut will heal faster and prevent3rd and 4th degree tears, no research supports these myths. Shiela Kitzinger writes that 9 out of 10 American women will have an episiotomy with her first baby although in Holland, only 2 or 3 out of 10 will. The facts are that episiotomy is a cultural phenomena. Research shows that episiotomy is donebecause the doctor was trained to do it, not because it was anecessary procedure. It can be avoided by using more physiologic positions to give birth (not lithotomy), pushing only when mom feels need to, giving birth gently, slowly to thehead, preparing for the birth by doing perineal massage andKegel exercise, avoiding forceps delivery.

FORCEPS & VACUUM EXTRACTOR
Forceps are obstetrical tools which are shaped like large spoons have been in use since the 1500's. Years ago, forceps were used for many problems which are now handled by cesarean section. Today, most forceps deliveries are low forceps, which means they are applied when the babies head is low in the pelvis and birth is imminent. According to Henci Goer, "There is no research to support the elective use of forceps.

"The risks to the mother are perineal trauma, extensive episiotomy, possible extension tearing from episiotomy, hematoma and nerve damage. Lasting effects of forceps or vacuum extraction to the mother may be anal incontinence in spite of a repaired third degree tear. The baby may have damage to the head, eyes, the nerves that lead to the face and neck and arms. However, an article written by a physician which appeared in Parents magazine claims, "Medical studies comparing outlet forceps deliveries with spontaneous (no forceps) deliveries have shown that there is no difference in risk to the baby."(Emphasis mine)

Vacuum extraction is a newer technology that sometimes takesthe place of forceps. As with low forceps, the baby's head must be very low in the pelvis before the suction cup can be attached. It has the benefit of not requiring an episiotomy andmaternal perineal trauma is less than with forceps, but the babystill has the possibility of trauma to the head and face.Chiropractors also recognize that pulling a baby out by thehead changes the spinal alignment, although this is notrecognized in any medical texts.

IMMOBILITY
Along with the lithotomy position comes immobility. It is impossible to move around when you are flat on your back. It's even more difficult if you have internal and external fetal monitors attached to your body, an IV running into your arm and after a narcotic drug was given to "take the edge off." It goes without saying, that if you had an epidural, you would not be going anywhere at all as your legs would have no feeling.

Some hospitals encourage walking and moving around. Others do not like you to be out of your room, which may be quite small and loaded with equipment, making any real walking about nearly impossible. Studies have shown that moving about and being upright can shorten labor as well as changing positions.

INDUCTION
According to statistics from the health department in Wisconsin, one-third of all births in that state are the result of induction, the artificial starting of labor. Most inductions are accomplished using pitocin in an intravenous solution or artificially rupturing the amniotic sac. The reasons for doing this are many. One of the most common for healthy full-term women, is fear of going too far past the "due date" and having a baby with postmature syndrome or meconium staining. Another reason is fear of having a big baby.

Benefits of inducing would seem to be avoiding postmature syndrome, attempting to deliver a baby that had grown too big for the mother and bypassing meconium staining. However, studies fail to confirm this line of thought. The actual amountof time needed for a baby to grow to term varies and figuring an exact due date for each baby has not yet been done. Ultrasounds have at best a 10 day window of error if done in the first trimester. The phenomenon of postdates, is poorly understood. Macrosomia occurs prior to postdates as does "postmaturesyndrome." (p. 181) The entity of postmature syndrome is based on a single physicians "subjective evaluation of 37 babies." Research seems to indicate that watchful waiting is the more prudent course of action for healthy women.

IV
At a great many U.S. institutions, one of the first items of care to be rendered to the obstetric patient will be her IV,"just in case." Just in case she needs drugs or surgery or her veins collapse making insertion of an IV impossible. Nancy Wainer Cohen and Lois Estner interviewed many labor and delivery nurses to find out how frequently a laboring woman's veins collapsed. They learned that this does not happen. This is not the way birth happens in other nations, where a laboring woman is permitted to eat and drink lightly. This cultural warping began in the 1940's when anesthesia was being given to nearly all birthing women by mask and vomiting and food aspiration were risks associated with this. Eliminating food and drink, they felt would eliminate this risk. Today, however, anesthesia methods have improved and this is no longer the problem it once was. Improved intubation techniques make this problem virtually a thing of the past. Doris Haire, a maternity care writer, in looking at 20 years of medical literature on aspiration during surgery found that the cause was not eating or drinking prior to the surgery, but caused by incompetence of the anesthesiologist.

General anesthesia is given to approximately 4% of those who undergo cesarean section. Approximately 0.3% cesarean surgeries will require intubation that will be difficult to do yet not all women who require intubation will aspirate. This translates into denying all laboring women food and drink because 1 cesarean sectioned woman out of 10,000 may aspirate.

Although IV's are supposed to keep the stomach empty, a glucoseIV actually works to slow down the emptying of the stomach. It also may encourage tissues to swell so that it makes it moredifficult to intubate, if that becomes necessary. IV fluidaccumulates in the bladder and that may slow down labor. Somewomen may have sensitivities to the IV and have a reaction fromone. It restricts the woman's mobility. The needle in the arm ispainful and inhibits free movement. The baby also may suffer from the mother's IV, as studies are being done to determine if the excessive sugar administered through a glucose IV may harmthe baby.

About The Author: Yvonne Lapp Cryns is the owner of Midwives.net - http://www.midwives.net/ Yvonne is the co-founder of Nursing Programs Online at http://www.nursingprogramsonline.com/and a contributor to The Compleat Mother Magazine athttp://www.compleatmother.com/ . Yvonne is also a law school graduate, a registered nurse and a Certified ProfessionalMidwife.