No I'm not pregnant. That doesn't mean I can't rant about it.

[lace_belmort]

No I'm not pregnant.  I just spend a lot of time thinking about it.  It's almost like a hobby?  Maybe more like an obsession.  No biological clock jokes, please!  ;)

This rant was precipitated by a post I saw about how this nurse couldn't imagine anyone choosing to give birth outside of a hospital setting.  I wanted to post a reply, but it got

Comments

[eve_the_just]

I was just going back and reading old stuff in your blog. I did read this back when I was pregnant but didn't comment because I hadn't been through birth yet so there wasn't much to say. Having now given birth in a hospital I can address a few of your concerns...

c-section - I live in a place that has a higher incidence of these things than anywhere else in the world and I didn't get one. Research your hospital and your doctor's record and you can avoid this easily.

not letting me eat - you won't want to eat a burger. That said ice chips are insufficient (my mother in law actually said to me "they give you ice chips" in the same cheerful way that Fezzik said to The Man in Black "you can wiggle your finger" and was met with about the same response). I had a last meal before I went in and then lasted for 2 days on crackers, dried apricots and popsicles and it was tolerable. Yes I needed more than ice chips to keep going, but I didn't want to eat more than a mouthful at a time either. Be honest if they do ask when you last ate, but don't tell them where you're getting it from ;)

epidural - depending on how its done you can move around. I was pushing in a squat while on one. I did end up on my back in the end because squatting for 4 hours after 44 hours of labour was more than my endurance could handle.

on episiotomies and tearing - I didn't get cut. I did tear. I did feel myself tearing despite the epidural. It sucked, and the after-effects still suck, but there's not really anything that could have been done to avoid it. I know lots of women who home birthed and also tore. I definitely would not recommend getting cut, but it's not common practice any more (again, check your doctor's record and attitude on this one) but nothing you can do will guarantee not getting a tear (other than maybe having a surrogate ;)

For the most part my hospital birth was a lot like a home birth except I didn't have to clean up after. They mostly left me alone and other than giving antibiotics (my water broke first thing, which is rare and I was strep B positive so that had to happen) didn't intervene until I'd been at it by myself for 40 hours. I think they checked on my 2 or 3 times in a shift and other than that we had the room to ourselves.

G did get put to the breast within about 30 seconds of being born and sucked like a champion. And we did have to cut the umbilical immediately to make this happen as it was too short. I don't think she suffered for it and Jason said it wasn't pulsing any more anyway. As for the measuring and weighing, that happened too, but down here they have to give you 2 hours alone with the baby by law. I imagine Canada has a similar law if you look into it. They did bathe my baby, which was great because after 48 hours there was no way I could do it and Jason was still in the "scared I might break her" phase. Jason followed her every step of the way though, so she was never out of sight. And she was always by my side after that. Never wheeled off to the nursery except for daily weigh-ins and blood tests relating to the jaundice, and again we were with her the whole time.

I'm not advocating a hospital birth if that's not your thing. All I'm saying is that there is a lot of negative propaganda on the internet, and I read it and was scared too, but based on my personal experience I have to say it's not likely to be as bad as all that. The most likely scenario for all this stuff that goes wrong is if you don't pick your health care providers carefully and do the research before you need to get in that ambulance. If you've got your back-up plan as carefully thought-out as your first choice plan you'll be more comfortable and more likely to get what you want. Home births are great, but don't be afraid of hospital births.