Comments | pepper44: Doctors are not always the best choice when it comes to giving birth.

pepper44

Doctors are not always the best choice when it comes to giving birth.

Apr 10, 2006 14:41

I discussed the idea of natural birth with Tyler last night. He is convinced that hospitals and doctors and drugs are much better for you than staying at home and having the baby naturally, with a midwife or without. Personally I would be a little scared to never have seen a midwife throughout the entire pregnancy, but I see absolutely nothing ( Read more... )

doctors, pregnancy, midwives, natural, homebirth

Comments 4

laananas April 10 2006, 13:16:37 UTC

*applauds*

julierocket April 10 2006, 16:27:32 UTC

This is why I'm applying to grad school to get my Master's in Public Health for Maternal and Child Health... all of this. You totally said it.

>>> mind painter.

(adding you, if you don't mind.)

anonymous April 10 2006, 18:52:35 UTC

giving birth at home sounds wonderful but not entirely practical. It is quite often that babies are born with breathing problems, different forms of heart conditions, jaundice, etc., things that need to be addressed in order to maintain the COMPLETE health of your very new born child. It is easy enough to deny drugs and/or what you deem unnecessary assistance from a hospital staff, simply be firm with them in your wishes and they will comply.
btw, child birth for humans is NOT the same as for other mammals. We have very small birth canals when compared to the head-sizes of our young (part of being able to walk upright was a compacting of sorts of the birth canal and womb space -- a mammal of our size should have a gestation period of almost a year, but then we wouldn't be able to push the babies out), and therefore, birth is quite difficult for us where it is not so for apes, monkeys and other mammals.

just my thoughts.

tlfoust April 10 2006, 19:29:34 UTC

I agree that our society as a whole it too quick to jump to drugs and medical intervention. I refuse to take asprin unless it really, really hurts. Afterall, pain exists for a reason. Aldous Huxley one wrote that pain initiates us: the O-Kee-Pa rituals of the Lakota tribe initiated boys into men. The pain of childbirth initiates a women into motherhood. I agree that many hospitals (like the one you were originally going to use) do not act with the best interest of the mother/child in mind. I agree that most of the time, babies are delivered just fine.

Humans are not that much different from any other mammal when it comes to giving birth. How many cats or bunnies to you see dying in childbirth?Here’s my thought, thanks to the Discovery channel and TLC: we humans have enormous heads. It's why a newborn calf can walk seconds after being born, but we take a year. In order to accommodate our huge shoulder/head structure, we're born relatively premature. It's still like pulling a pork roast through a Pringles can, and humans ( ... )