Natural Child birth: Closing Thoughts

There is no way I can address every possible argument that people might come up with against natural child birth but I will try and answer a few of the common questions. Some of which I had when I was looking into it myself.

I would like to preface it with the fact that there are a few exceptions to being able to have a healthy natural birth. For example if I was writing about how to have an active healthy lifestyle I might talk about walking and using weights. It would be ridiculous to pose the argument “That’s not a good idea because not everyone can walk and use weights so it’s better not to risk it.” While there are people that may have disabilities and have to find other alternatives for a healthy lifestyle the VAST MAJORITY are capable of following the guidelines for a basic workout. Apply the same concept to childbirth, the average pregnant woman is a candidate for natural childbirth contrary to what you may hear at the doctor’s office. With that said let’s start with the first issue one might have with natural childbirth

1. What if something goes wrong?

Most natural births are out of the hospital and let’s face it, things don’t ALWAYS go as smooth as we'd like. My birth class suggested that around 5 out of every 100 women are not perfectly eligible for an out of hospital birth. The good news is you can discover almost all of these problems before you are in labor through ultra sounds, blood tests, and physical examination. Your midwife will help you to transfer over to a OBGYN along with all of the prenatal records up to that point. Most problems such as cord around the neck, getting the baby to breath, and hemorrhaging can be dealt with on the spot by a midwife. My mother hemorrhaged with a home birth and everything was handle totally professionally without any further complications. Every once a while a laboring mother is transferred to an ER and again these rare exceptions are taken seriously and dealt with promptly.

2. What if my baby is too big (or my hips too small) for natural birth?
Sorry, but this one really gets me. I think it is insulting to God's perfect design. This is an excerpt from birthingwithguinever.com concerning a woman who’s doctor wants to induce due to her small pelvis.

"Your pelvis is not fixed in place. Hormones right now are working on softening the ligaments, loosening your pelvis so that it may move and widen and change shape to accommodate your baby. And your baby’s head is not hard and fixed in place either. Your baby’s skull has plates that move and mold to fit through your pelvis. These are the baby’s soft spots. This is why some babies are born with pointy heads; their heads have merely changed shape so they can be born and will quickly regain a more normal shape within hours. Please just be confident in your ability to birth your baby! Put the word c-section out of your head. There is a huge mind and body connection when it comes to labor. If you believe that you can’t birth your baby, or if your doctor’s words are in the back of your mind, then it might come true."

3. Why would anyone choose a natural birth when they could just get an epidural?

There are some documented risks to getting an epidural, but that is not the reason I chose the birth method I did. There are a lot physical and psychological benefits. If you read about my birth plan I would not have been able to do most of those things if I had gone with the typical American birth. The postnatal recovery is also easier without having to have an episiotomy, abdominal surgery, forceps, drugs, or other interventions. You are more likely to NOT have to be separated from your newborn and have a high breast feeding success rate. I could go on and on, but once again it is a personal choice.

There is so much to be said about natural childbirth I have just barely scratched the surface. I haven’t even begun to share about the absence of episiotomy, the fact that hours of unbearable pain are not inevitable, the statistic of lower mortality rates are in countries that are predominately out of hospital births. I guess I may have to have a natural childbirth week part 2 someday. Until then I just want to mention, I am not this evil childbirth dictator that thinks everyone should do it my way. I cannot say enough how it is a personal decision and you have to weigh the information out for yourself. I hate to see woman and mothers accusing one another and bickering over differences when we have so much in common, we all just want our babies delivered safe and healthy. For me, I opted to go for a natural childbirth, I plan on doing it again again and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That is my side of the story and it has been an awesome opportunity to be able to share it with you. I will leave you with this quote from indiebirth.com

(Note to Free Thinkers: Please don’t make your birth decisions based on statistics alone. Numbers, statistics and studies can be skewed to support either side of most arguments. That’s why you’ll find tons of folks bantering back and forth… quoting study after study after study. Your birth choices are not about “studies.” They are about you. About your life, your baby and your choice. Studies support your choice. They don’t have the power to make your choice.)- Maryn Leister www.indiebirth.com