My son, Erik, was born at home on September 6. However, two years ago a home birth was pretty far from my mind. When I got pregnant with Katherine at the end of 2008, my mantra was "give me the drugs". There was no reasoning for this, good or bad. I basically had no idea what childbirth was about and just assumed (rightfully) that it would hurt like hell and why should I go through that kind of pain when modern medicine has so graciously developed things to take that pain away?
Well, that changed sometime around my 6-7th month of pregnancy. Charlie asked me if we should take a childbirth class, but to be honest I really did not feel like spending a couple of hours over the course of 6 weeks in a class. So instead, we got a video from Netflix. I'm serious. "Laugh and Learn About Childbirth" done by RN Sheri Bayles. What I was really looking for were the facts about childbirth: how it happens, what to expect, etc. All of that was covered in the video (which was actually really good....) but I started thinking about having a non-drug natural childbirth with Katherine after watching the part of the video in which Bayles gives information on the intervention procedures and medicines that can be done during childbirth. What became clear to me was that with every procedure comes a risk, and the risk of having a Cesarian section increases with the more interventions done. I had always felt that a C-section was a last resort for me, as it is in fact major abdominal surgery. I was happy to have the surgery if there was an emergency or necessary due to previa, etc., but I really wanted to avoid it if possible.
After watching "Laugh and Learn", Charlie did a search on Netflix for other videos about childbirth. We figured it wouldn't hurt to learn more, so he put one on the list called, "The Business of Being Born", which was produced by Ricki Lake.
WOW. Seeing that movie pretty much sealed a natural childbirth for me. It put my own soon-to-be experience in a different light. While the nurses and doctors are 90% of the time so caring and wanting to do what is best for everyone, modern medicine has made it so that we are afraid of childbirth and are looked at as patients when those of us with low risk pregnancies are really just doing something humans have done for millions of years. But today in America, a non-drug childbirth is rarer and rarer each year.
We hired a labor doula after that to help me get through a natural childbirth. I had a friend who had her first kid at home but I was not mentally ready to take the step into a home birth, so having a doula gave me that help with childbirth with the comfort of a hospital. However, I wanted as little intervention as possible because I did not want to become another statistic. Fortunately for my peace of mind, the hospital in which I would deliver Kat had one of the lowest C-section rates in Houston.
Katherine was born naturally on August 11, 2009. I labored in the middle of the night, and the nurses kept asking me if I wanted pain medication. I think hearing my grunts, growls, and screams made them really uncomfortable and a nurse being a nurse doesn't want to see a person suffer. I used my doula to help me through every contraction, and the only super unpleasant part was when I was told I had to lie/sit in the bed with my legs in the stirrups so that the doctor could catch Kat. I was perfectly happy laboring standing up and when I got into the bed the contractions hurt about 100x worse than when I was standing up. Pushing down to get a baby out seems a lot more logical than pushing laterally......But I did and after a few more pushes she came flying out and after that the insane pain was gone. Totally gone. I remember having that experience with my miscarriage, that once everything was out there was no more (physical) pain. The same with laboring at 9/10 months - no more pain after she was born! When I looked into those knowing eyes of hers I was so happy to see her alert, looking around, and also proud of myself for growing and delivering that baby. Every woman can and should labor as she chooses. For me, I chose a non-drug childbirth and after having Kat that way, I knew I would do it again.
Thanks, Christi, for such a lovely, well articulated post.
Posted by: mgmason | September 27, 2010 at 15:00