Posted on 01/04/2007 12:40:27 AM PST by bd476
My first child was 8 lb. A strapping healthy boy. During labor, I was given demerol at the wrong time, and my "used-to-be healthy baby was born distressed, seriously drugged, and with meconium staining, and very low apgar tests. After several days of observation in the hospital, to gauge whether or not the meconium had damaged his lungs, we were discarged...of course at a significantly increased cost.
My next child was fine but my episiotomy was botched...need I say more. She was a 6 1/2" girl, but because I was forced to deliver on my back with feet in stirrups, doctors often feel the need to perform episiotomies. As I learned later, during home births, this is not necessary in different positions. I gave birth at home on hands and knees and everything went perfectly.
Third son was 9 lbs 11 oz. Doctors decided at the last minute that this baby was too large for me to deliver. They reached in, broke his collar bone and ripped me from one end to the other.
At home, on hands and knees I delivered a healthy 9 lb boy in five hours with less pain, less stress, and certainly less damage to myself and my baby.
My last little girl was born in 1988. She was 7 lbs, and posterior. On hands and knees I delivered her just fine, with no intervention necessary. After home delivery I received better care, more personal care, and better outcomes.
I hate to break it to you folks, but childbirth is not a medical event. Unlike surgery....it is natural, and will happen whether or not their is one single, medical license that exists on earth. I knew the risks, I wasn't stupid. I had wonderful care and monotoring. If a medical emergency would have occured, I would have gone to a medical professional.
their = there :(
When I gave birth 7 yrs ago my doctor didn't give me a episiotomy. He said that he would rather I tear as it was now the thing they were doing. He said that it was easier to stitch up and I would heal better. I don't know what they do now . I had it done with my other 3 children. I didn't notice any difference except I don't seem to have any bad scar which I thought I would have from the tearing. I trust my doctor so I went along with what he wanted.
You forgot breech delivery (4% of all births). I think that having the "lush experience at home" is a great way of winnowing the gene pool of morons who are too arrogant and too stupid and too wrapped up in "feminism" to take advantage of modern medicine (and incidentally get rid of their offspring who might have a similar personality too)
excuse me....but your ignorance is showing.
And with a tag line like yours you want more govenment intervention in something that is natural?
Do you happen to know what percentage of full term, otherwise normal infants, delivered during breech births resulted in infant death, before hospital delivery became common during the mid part of the 20th century?
When I was a hospital administrator in El Paso, Texas in the late 70s, there was a charlatan with a midwife license (no test required; $3.00 license fee) who had a clinic on the Rio Grande. Mexican women would wade the river and pay him $200 each to deliver their "anchor baby". He killed at least a dozen babies and mothers each year. I went to the El Paso Times; but they did not want to print anything critical of midwives.
Helping a baby being born doesn't require a medical degree. Heck, guys have midwifed babies' births in cars and elevators. Its a stupid law that makes no sense whatsoever.
Seven of our ten children were born at home with a midwife. Our midwife has delivered more than 2,000 babies.
Many of the nurses at our local hospital use the midwife. While it's important that a midwife get training and work under supervision, most problems can be identified early or can be handled by an experienced midwife.
You forgot breech delivery (4% of all births). I think that having the "lush experience at home" is a great way of winnowing the gene pool of morons who are too arrogant and too stupid and too wrapped up in "feminism" to take advantage of modern medicine (and incidentally get rid of their offspring who might have a similar personality too)
Breech isn't something that just pops up seconds before the baby enters the birth canal. If a baby's breech you go to the hospital. The doctors just don't want someone else taking the easy births when the doctor could charge $10,000 for a couple hours work. Come to think of it, I wouldn't either if I cared more about money than I did the patients.
I'm trying hard to excuse you, but you're such a belligerant jerk that it's almost impossible.
And with a tag line like yours you want more govenment intervention in something that is natural?
Actually I believe that I was all for the "lush experience" of squirting out a kid at home all on your own with some the assistance of some untrained self professed "midwife" - just that if something goes wrong then the do it yourselfers and their offspring are potentially in deep sh!t. Did you read my post? If you did you obviously either failed to comprehend it or were searching for something to be offended by.
Tell me, are you all for the "lush experience" of do it yourself interventional cardiology? How about the "lush experience" of setting your own broken bones or maybe the "lush experience" of home mandibular repair.
Government licensing is motivated and promoted by trade groups that want to limit entrants into a business or profession to limit competition and monopolize the business for themselves. Why Americans are willing to give all of their power to ambitious and grasping lawyers is a mystery to me. The Romans had it fine, caveat emptor.
Okay, this woman is a whack job.
First let me say that all women who have natural childbirth are way better than me, I arrived at the hospital with all three asking for the epidural before anything else. With my first I was so naive, I watched a movie in childbirth class and the woman pushed like 5 times and out came the baby. I about died when the nurse said I would need to push for 2 hours. Needless to say having had 3 children I was definately not the woman you would film for the beauty of childbirth. However, since I was low risk my OB gave me the option of a midwife for my third. I saw her at my prenatal visits and she did deliver my son, although I did deliver in a hospital-had to have the epidural. She was great from the get go. Personally I could never imagine having a baby at home, I am a wimp. But, if a woman feels that a home birth is fine for her and her family it should be nobody else's business.
You sure like the word "lush." I suppose you are one.
BTW, there is plenty of time to access a need for medical aid with infant delivery, including premature labor, breech presentation, and malformation....unless, of course your drunk.
Do you go get a doctor to fix your broken leg before it is broken? In that case he might just very well break it and reset it for you, just to let you think he is earning his money.
Here are some facts. They often times work better than sheer conjecture when it comes to determining just how "helpful" medical intervention is.
Recent Rates of Vaginal Delivery for Breech Presentation By Country
• Sweden 52%.12Findings: No statistically significant difference between vaginal birth and cesarean section babies for perinatal/neonatal outcomes.
• Norway 40%.13• Finland 39%.14Findings: Less birth trauma for vaginal breech deliveries than vaginal vertex deliveries. More trauma for breech vaginal delivery than breech cesarean section , but lower long-term morbidity for breech vaginal than breech cesarean deliveries. Breech vaginal death 0.07%, vertex vaginal delivery death 0.02%.
• Ireland 23%.16Findings: No nonanomalous perinatal deaths, significant trauma, or neurological dysfunctions for vaginally or cesarean section delivered breech babies.
• Denmark 15.3%.17Findings: Higher rates of puerperal fever and pelvic infections for cesarean section breech delivery.
• California 4.9%.18Findings: Neonatal mortality, asphyxia, brachial plexus injury,and birth trauma higher for vaginally delivered breech than cesarean section . If woman had a previous vaginal delivery no difference in neonatal mortality by delivery mode.
LOL, yes, and "cozy", "lovely", and "lush" makes you really wonder what medicial aids the midwife was using.:)
Our daughter was carried a full nine months and no problems - until the last few hours. The fetal heart monitor belt told us that the baby's heart rate was going up and down like a yo-yo. Bless her active little body, she'd managed at the last to wrap the cord twice around her neck. Without that information which led to an emergency C-section she definitely wouldn't be the very bright, sunny cross-country runner that she is today.
Well there's the crux of the matter - you go to the hospital, so why not just go to the hospital in the first place and not take a chance?
The problem with "midwives" is that there may or may not be any specific training and there may or may not be any licensing requirements. Some may be good and some may be totally out of their depth of something goes wrong In addition home deliveries don't have the equipment that a hospital nor do you have the trained on call personnel.
It's kind of like nurses administering sedation in colonoscopies. Most of the time nothing happens; however, periodically a colonoscopy patient arrests due to vagus nerve problems. At one major hospital I know of they have a couple of them every month that arrest. Now an anaesthesiologist should know what to do, but a nurse? It's a combination of depth of training issue and lack of certifying standards. There are national standards for MDs they have to pass tough written exams just to become interns. They have to go through residency which is hell on earth, and then pass even more written and oral exams befor they can claim to be an ob. No "midwife" is going to have anywhere near that amount of training.
Don't misunderstand me I don't care if anyone or everyone wants to download their kids at home or even out in the woods to be even more natural. It's their right to take as many chances as they want. It's just that I think it's stupid to do so.
ColorCountry, thanks for your comments.
Some women have more difficult pregnancies and deliveries; others (me included) do not require medical intervention to thrive. We had the assistance of midwives for our first two children (my husband made the actual delivery in each case). Each was an excellent experience. For our third, we were forced to use a medical doctor, as there are no readily available midwives (hospital-based or direct entry) in our region, which I found astonishing.
The differences in midwifery versus the medical experience were HUGE, and *not* favorably slanted toward the medical side of things. For a totally normal, no complications or concerns pregnancy, the nervous (experienced!) doc required FIVE ultrasounds, consistently miscalculated growth... we had a good outcome (as in, baby came out and lived--husband caught yet again when the doc and her "trained" staff ignored me when I told them the baby was coming now--they obviously knew best as they had "just checked a minute ago.) While in labor, the nurses and doc even commented that they'd never had so little to do--between my husband and my friend (who has assisted with multiple births, and was selected to "wife" for me as needed), we just didn't need the medical staff for anything.
Now, my younger sister is high risk. She DOES need the help of a very experienced high risk baby doctor. Her first baby died just before delivery, and that experience was brutal for everyone involved. (The baby was under full medical oversight by a licensed doctor, I should point out.) With the huge overload of maternity patients in areas like ours, I'd far rather utilize a midwife for myself (multi-para with extremely low risk, no history of complications) and reserve the medical doc's time for my sister.
I've NEVER met a midwife who would not consult with a medical doctor at any point along the way, if she had the slightest concern for mother or baby. Midwives with any sort of training (not necessarily through a drawn-out medical school) will screen patients for low-risk before agreeing to take them on, and will recommend them to the care of a doctor at any point along the way if they feel the situation warrants it.
We're now engaged in the oh-so-fun search for a medical professional willing to ignore the "common wisdom" of no liquids, go for drugs, schedule everything... the norm for our area. So far, I've not found one who's comfortable with an unscheduled, non-inductive labor and delivery. The docs don't want to have to wake up in the middle of the night. I've already watched as the nurses were instructed to prolong a young lady's labor by nearly 10 hours, because the doc didn't want to be disturbed during the night. He is a member of the largest, most respected maternity practice in the area. Yep, that's enlightened medicine.
Right now, the option of heading to my Mom's for a two-week visit near the delivery time, and using the local midwife there (who is lovely, very experienced, very calm, very careful) is looking better and better. It's a ten hour drive each way--my first labor was 4 hours, second was 4 hours, last was 3 hours, so we'd better get there a week early. :)
Midwives have been "under assault" since the earliest days of our country, actually--when the burgeoning "medical" establishment sought to push them out of practice, as they were not "trained" or "licensed"--this coming from "medical men" we'd now consider the worst kind of quacks, with bleedings, purgatives, and other harsh, unnecessary things done in the name of "science". The medical community, when it comes to childbirth, still recommends some pretty brutal and archaic things for their own convenience.
Prosecution of midwives who've done nothing to harm mothers or babies is foolish. Licensing schemes have *always* been used by various professional guilds to limit the number of persons able to enter that profession. The bestowal of a medical license does NOT guarantee a positive outcome in any medical situation. Home delivery does not carry some of the risks of hospital birth (staph infection--2007's version of purpureal fever--not to mention the various other antibiotic resistant nasties in most hospitals). Neither is 100% guaranteed for anything.
But it's not up to the government to tell me I have to give birth in front of state-registered people. Prosecution will simply create a new class of "criminals" who've done nothing worse than helping a laboring woman safely deliver a baby.
You are partially correct. This is true, but it also sets minimum standards of training an knowledge in something that you don't get a chance to go back and do over. The answer would be to allow natural practictioners, witch doctors, midwives, etc, to advertise their services and let people choose who they want to go to.
Okay now you're forcing me to AGREE with you. Right on!
Well there's the crux of the matter - you go to the hospital, so why not just go to the hospital in the first place and not take a chance?
Why spend an extra $9000 or more for the 96% of the times when it's unnecessary? There are also risks involved in hospitals such as infections that are not a risk at home.
Assuming, too, that midwives are incapable of finding high risk factors and difficulties as soon as they present, also neglects acknowledging the skill the vast majority of midwives have. They aren't quacks looking to make a fast buck--every midwife I've ever met is vitally concerned with the safety and health of mother and baby.
You want to be concerned? How about a medical OB with 15 years experience, licensure in multiple states, thousands of deliveries under her belt--who needs an ultrasound to tell where the baby's head is? Our first midwife showed us how to feel the baby's position; it's not difficult in most cases. In every case, I was able to tell the doc very accurately where the baby was laying, which direction, face left/right/up/down, etc... which she was unable to do by physical examination, requiring ultrasound intervention to check. My then-nine-year old daughter was able to feel my abdomen and tell how the baby was laying. Doc also tried really hard to talk me into lots of drugs, and expressed concern that anyone would choose to go through a non-drug labor.
Concern? How about my husband showing the OB nurse how to take a blood pressure *without* the little computer-machine thing? She knew how to work the machine, but not how to use a stethoscope to find it. She had a license, too. And a diploma. Cute as a button. Didn't have skills I'd consider basic for a nurse.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.