this is your birth on drugs

[primroseburrows]

I thought I'd lost my wtf about the fuckery that goes on during hospital births a long time ago, but hmm, guess not.

From Molly Remer's Talk Birth blog:

'I recently finished reading the new book Birth Space, Safe Place by Adela Stockton (watch for my full review and a giveaway on the CfM blog next week!). The author lives in Scotland and

Comments

[patchfire]

Heroin ftl?

That's so very mindboggling, for so very many reasons...

[primroseburrows]

Heroin isn't actually any worse than a bunch of other opiates. But that's mostly because all those other drugs suck, too.

[patchfire]

It's more the whole thing where heroin is all "BAD BAD BAD" for drug addicts, but it's OK if the medical profession wants to give it to you...

[primroseburrows]

Because God forbid you should have a natural birth, on account of that's too OMGdangerous, but the heroin? That's medicine. It's there to help you.

[erebor]

I'd like to rant about this and other results of patriarchal societies merging with corporate greed motives ... but it would make me seem a shrill femininist. But, I'm not really shrill at all.

[primroseburrows]

I'd like to blame insurance companies for this one, but Scotland doesn't have that problem.

[primroseburrows]

I know, right?

[nmalfoy]

There is a GREAT documentary about birth called "The Business of Being Born" talking about birthing in America (1 out of 3 c-sections!) vs. Europe where the majority of births are at home with midwives, and the growing trend in America for home births, doulas, and the use of midwives. Me personally, were I ever to give birth (which I won't)... I don't know if I'd be willing to subject myself to that much pain without a little relief!

[nmalfoy]

P.S. It's on Netflix and you can watch instantly.

[primroseburrows]

Yeah, I've seen that one. It's a great one because it isn't made by 'fringe' midwifery/homebirth groups, but by Ricki Lake, who isn't afraid to put her story out there to get birth politics into the mainstream. <3<3

[nmalfoy]

I'm glad she did. It's got people talking, and thinking, and, above all, providing positive support for women to make informed choices about the birth experience they want to have.

[dragonflymuse]

While the idea of using heroin as an analgesic for labour and delivery is very wtf-erish, I will be a naysayer to the quotation's indignancy by saying that heroin is a known, controllable variable: things get dicey with it? Hell-OOOOO Narcan! I flag-wave for IV access because the last thing I want to do when a patient starts bleeding out is to try and pop a vein that's flat (personal experience speaking, with a four-year old). Water-labouring seems benign, but I don't want to haul someone out of a bathtub if they start seizing or some other unforseen emergency occurs (yes, more personal experience speaking: I will never put another neuro kid in a bath again!)

[primroseburrows]

I agree that heroin isn't really all that different than other opiates, but IMO they all suck for labour.

And yeah, maybe I wouldn't want someone hospitalized with and/or for a seizure disorder hanging out in a bathtub, but a healthy pregnant woman is at a really low risk for seizure.