Birthing website misleading - doctors
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/birthing-website-misleading-doctors/story-e6frfku0-1225938061309I haven't seen the website that the article is referring to, but I get annoyed at blatant scaremongering and media manipulation. Childbirth is not a disease people. Yes, as with everytihg in life, some people have complications/issues, that require medical attention, but to refer to all birthing women as "patients" is just misleading in my opinion. They are not sick (well, not most of the time).
I am also annoyed about how the article slags off homebirth, implying that it is not a valid birth option and that this option carries more risks than others. It conveniently avoids mentioning the risks of unnecessary intervention.
If I have another child, I would like to give birth at home. Leaving aside the argument that the government wants to prevent me doing this, I have another problem. Someone much closer to me is against the idea. Yes, my husband doesn't want me giving birth at home. Why? Because birthing my first child was such a complicated, traumatic procedure.
Don't get me wrong. I am satisfied with my daughter's birth. It was the best experience I could have hoped for with the limited knowledge I had at the time. Yet if I knew then what I know now, things would have been very different. Because I believe that all the complications during my daughter's birth arose due to unnecessary intervention.
Here is my story.
I had a spontaneous membrane rupture (i.e. my water broke) at 35 weeks 5 days and I went into labour a few hours later. I went to the hospital, and here is where my lack of education got me into trouble. I was planning a natural birth (i.e. no drugs, no intervention, etc), or as natural as possible, anyway. But since I went into labour over four weeks early, the midwives scared me with the idea that since I had come into the hospital, I would be admitted and would have to stay until my baby was born, which they estimated would be a few days. Well, let me tell you, I hate hospitals. Loathe them fiercely. No way did I want to stay in one for days whille I waited for my baby to be born...
It was then that I was informed that there was currently a study being done on women with pre-term membrane rupture (what had happened to me). If I chose to participate I would be randmoly assigned to either "see what happens", or to be induced and then see what happens. This is all that I was told. I was not told anything about induction or what it would involve. At the time I didn't care. I agreed to take part (all in the name of science, etc), and was assigned to be induced. At the time I was glad, thinking that this would guarantee that my baby would be born sooner, hence I would leave the hospital sooner, etc. How wrong I was...
I was induced with a sytocin drip. They put it in my arm, then took me to the labour ward. I was told that as I was pre-36 weeks I would not be allowed to have a waterbirth in the bath, which was a bummer, as this was initially what I had wanted to do. But my labour was progressing by this stage, and I didn't really care about anything anymore.
After about 3 hours, I was only about 4cm dilated. The midwives told me that it would likely be another 3-4hours before I was ready to push. By this time I was in extreme pain. The contractions were coming every minute or so and I kid you not, it was the most uncomfortable, horrible experience of my life. (I later found out that it is the sytocin makes contractions a lot more painful.) I tried to suck on the gas, but it did bugger all, so after another half hour, I gave in and asked for an epidural. When the lady came to give it to me she warned me that "it might be a bit uncomfortable as I stick the needle in." It was all I could do not to laugh. At that point a giant needle in my spine sounded like a mosquito bite compared to what I was currently experiencing.
Well, I suppose I should say at this point that the epidural was one of the best parts of the whole experience (second to meeting my baby of course, but that was still to come). I had heard horror stories about epidurals, but the reality was not so bad. Sure, it involved a needle in my spine, but I wasn't paralysed or anything. I could still feel my legs. I could still move. I could still feel the contractions, but they were not painful anymore.
After this, it seemed like a really short time before I was told that I was fully dilated and ready to push (it was about one hour since I had been told it would be three to four hours - if I had known it would only be 0ne hour I may have perservered without the epidural...) However, because the epidural made me kind of numb, I found it very difficult to push. After what seemed like the longest time, they realised that the baby's head was slightly twisted, which was why she was not coming out. I believe that the induction, which forced the contractions to be stronger caused this. Then, the epidural made me unable to push, which led me to agree to a forceps delivery. When the doctors asked me "do you want help getting this baby out?", I answered "yes" I was thinking: Umm, yes please... Anything, just make it stop. (TMI warning: I ended up needing an episiotomy - all that preparation so that I wouldn't tear wasted...)
Anyhoo - the delivery went well (although the doctor had to literally yank my daughter out - she came out with a big red mark on her eye from the forceps, but luckily had no long term damage), but I know now that I was damned lucky. I have since found out that many babies suffer long term damage as a result of forceps during delivery.
As it is, my daughter's father was so traumatised by her birth that he insists I give birth in a hospital next time because "what if it happens again?" Well, if I hadn't gone to hospital and had intervention, I truly believe that the whole thing would have been a whole lot less difficult.
Which leads me to conclude that unnecessary intervention during childbirth is much more dangerous than an informed homebirth. As with everything, education is the key. Women need to be educated to trust in themselves and their bodies. Childbirth is not a disease. Unless there are underlying medical issues or complications, it should be prefectly safe to do at home or whereever you are most comfortable.
No comments:
Post a Comment