"Natural" Childbirth vs.....um "UNnatural" Childbirth?
When you get a bunch of mom's together, for some reason how your child came into this world/your birth experience never fails to be brought up. Especially if you are a new mom, other moms seem to want to dissect and comment on what you went through, comparing it to their own experience.
Why? I think it mostly is because women desire a feeling of acceptance and one of the most important things some women will ever do is give birth to her child(ren). That makes it exceptionally important for us to find acceptance with our childbirth experience.
I tend to stay out of conversations like this (I’ll explain) and stand back and listen. Here’s what I’ve been hearing:
“After they gave me Pitocin my contractions got worse.”
“After Pitocin I stopped progressing so I had to have an emergency C-Section.”
“I wanted to go without an epidural, but the Pitocin made the contractions to strong for me to deal with the pain.”
“My epidural only numbed half my body.”
“I had to have an episiotomy.”
“I didn’t get to see [baby] for a couple hours after the C-Section.”
"I elected to do a C-section. That way we could just schedule when the baby would be born."
When I hear them say things like this they seem really uncomfortable or even a little sad, but another mother will try and reassure them that they dealt with the same thing and that it’s “natural”. This is when I have to bite my tongue. In my opinion all of those things are as far from natural as I can imagine. My first daughter was born at home assisted by two midwives in a labor tub and my second was born (using the same midwife) at the local Birth Center in the tub.
Midwifes are trained professionals that assist women in the stages of pregnancy and birth, and are licensed by your state (if they are legal in your state). So you can imagine my image of natural. It’s completely hands off. No IV’s or fetal monitoring except a Dopler. No yucky and uncomfortable vaginal exams every hour or so. Just my body bringing my child into the world. My body feeling every necessary contraction. My body pushing my child out into this world. Natural? I guess so, but I just think of it as child birth. Maybe it’s because I’ve known no other way.
Continued on the next page
