Thoughts on homebirth

A local dramaversy is unfolding surrounding a baby's death during a homebirth gone wrong. According to the WashingtonPost, a 43-year-old woman wanted to deliver the family’s first baby at home. She sought out an Alexandria, Va., midwife practice, BirthCare & Women’s HealthCertified Nurse-Midwives. But there was a complication; the baby was in the breech position, meaning that it was upside-down rather than having its head closest to the birth canal. BirthCare advised the mother that the case was too complicated for a home delivery, but she preferred to deliver at home. So she sought out a midwife with a reputation for experience with difficult deliveries. The outcome was tragic.

The discussion about the incident, and homebirth in general, has gotten a bit out of hand, though, as seen on the DC Urban Moms (DCUM) website thread.

I had a homebirth myself, with a midwife from BirthCare, a certified nurse midwife (CNM), and my Bradley birth class teacher is the birth assistant, allegedly connected with the case. While I feel sorry for the woman who lost her baby and I can't comment on the qualifications of the indicted midwife or the details of the case (since I was not there), I will say that, reading many of the comments on the DCUM thread, and comments on a post from the notoriously psycho Dr. Amy on the recent homebirth of The Feminist Breeder's new baby, pisses me off a tad bit.

The attitude that a healthy woman with a normal pregnancy having a homebirth is somehow reckless or selfish or in any way worthy of reproach is ridiculous. Sadly, the woman in the Alexandria case who lost her baby was risked out by moderate—some would argue conservative—homebirth midwives (who also practice in their own birth center and have hospital privileges at RNs) because of her age AND the position of the baby (and possibly other undisclosed factors).

So, in thinking through what I had to say about this all NOW—as someone who's had a homebirth safely and found it very empowering, but is cautious in recommending it wholesale to others because I really do think it takes a certain kind of mindset/personal makeup to do it—I came across something I'd written when I was pregnant that addresses why I made the choice I did.

Misunderstandings about birth

This is from the Boston Globe last summer. I stumbled upon it tonight while looking for stats on what percentage of women give birth naturally…

The author completely ignores any data on how interventions beget more interventions and thinks that women who choose natural childbirth do so as some rite of passage in which pain ushers them into some quasi-religious experience.

“It’s an interesting secular variation on a religious narrative where unbearable pain suddenly transmutes to boundless joy – just as it is believed that the brutal crucifixion of Christ led to the opening of heaven’s gates, or, for that matter, just as men blowing themselves to bits with suicide bombs think they will immediately appear in a paradise of virgins,” he writes.

He later says, “If anything, reliance on pain to create meaning during childbirth indicates a constricted imagination. Surely there must be more innovative challenges than voluntarily refusing effective, safe, and available pain relief during labor. ”

For me, I am choosing natural childbirth not because I need to feel pain to create meaning during childbirth, but because I believe that giving birth is a natural body function and that my body was designed to do it–so why should it be treated as an illness? Additionally, I believe that each medical intervention one accepts opens the door to another and another, and that can snowball to a situation where it’s not about the mother and baby but about hospital protocols and schedules. Furthermore, I’m not convinced that I will feel this pain that’s often described because I’ve read about and heard from other women who say differently.

He is completely closed to the idea that it is possible not to feel pain, as is explained in Grantly Dick-Read’s books and the HypnoBirthing book, or that the pain may not be “unbearable” but manageable with the proper preparation. What’s more, he quotes Sylvia Plath, using her description of labor as an illustration. For those who don’t know, she was NOT a healthy, well-adjusted woman!

Anyway, I’d be curious to hear other women’s reasons for choosing natural childbirth…and whether one-sided articles (the Ina May quotes notwithstanding) piss them off too.

I was much less rambly then, I guess! Need to work back toward that...

People who "hate" just don't get it, and I imagine no amount of going on is going to change their view. I guess this can be a lesson for me that might be applied to other matters I used to want to argue with people about online.