Crossroads

[skjaere]

I've been drifting along, seeking a new path for a while now, and I think I may have found something I'd like to do. It doesn't look like the training is terribly expensive (compared with going back to Uni), and it's a very direct form of activism. I don't imagine there's a whole lot of money in it, but the work sounds very satisfying, which is

Comments

[superl99]

Oh absolutely, I think it's shocking that some places completely outlaw midwives, and I think a combination of overseeing doctors and 1-1 midwives is the best option. I'm sure part of why this isn't done in the US is the fucked up nature of the whole medical system there. But I think there should only be the one level of midwife, rather than the pseudo midwives you can get in the US which do not have the appropriate level of medical training.

I also definitely agree that there has often been too much intervention (as I said above, lying flat is a terrible idea), but some of that originally came from the first wave feminists, who fought for the right to have pain relief; prior to that everyone went with the whole 'birth pain is Eve's punishment' nonsense that makes my blood boil. It just went too far the other way for a while.

I have mixed feelings on home birth. I know you had one and it went fine, but personally I don't think I could ever feel comfortable doing it. A good friend of mine and her baby nearly died due to an unforeseen emergency during the birth, and if they hadn't already been at the hospital, they would have. I DO think that hospital maternity units should be as comfortable and homely and unhospital-like as possible. I also think it's very important that women who are high-risk should be extremely well-informed about the dangers of home birth for them, and if they still choose to have a home birth and the baby dies, they be charged with manslaughter.

[lyndagb]

Well it's best to labour where you feel relaxed and safe, so if HB would scare you then of course don't do it! I don't know what happened with your friend so it may not apply to them, but the UK data suggests that at a whole sample level, homebirthing (or planning to, including those who have to transfer) is associated with less chance of complications happening in the first place. It was seeing that data as a student which made me interested in having one in the first place.

That said, there are women with cord prolapses (the hardest to predict life-threatening complication as I understand it) who succesfully get from home to hospital in a mercy-dash and have a living baby, and those who have prolapses in hospital and the baby dies. These kinds of issues are life-threatening anywhere and hospital is no guarantee anymore than homebirth is a death sentance. On which note, while I strongly object to high risk women birthing at home they're not actively killing their babies by doing so (although you know, some people get classed as high risk for the silliest of reasons! I had to clear my homebirth with an obstetrician because I had UTIs as a pre-pubescant child!). Shifting the odds, perhaps, but babies die in hospital too and you can't prove it would have made a difference. I think manslaughter charges would be rather akin to the Utah (is it Utah) attempts at a foetal homicide law...

BTW, Mary, I hope we're not de-railing or anything here! If you do want to be a doula you'll be having these conversations a lot!