This is probably best read if you have something calming to do at the same time, say, while Nursing Johnny Depp. The oxytocin released from breastfeeding may calm you more than you’ll be fired up in our comparison of ‘medical birth for all’ issues and out of hospital birth debates today to the Vietnam era.
Can we ever be on the same team?
“Domino theory” is the phrase coined during Eisenhower’s presidency in the 1950s to justify the hastening entry of the U.S. into foreign nations in order to stop the spread of communism. Swap out the players of Eisenhower’s era with the ‘natural childbirth’ era you’ll have an idea of how ACOG fights the legal battle to erode the protection of normal birth ~ if not home birth ~ as a right for all women living in the USA. If just one state votes to protect home birth then neighboring states will and so on and so on. Home birth will spread like wildfire and healthy birth outcomes for healthy women will be the norm. Incredible.
Basically, with a normal birth experienced care provider you can expect that:
- You will receive quality evidence based information not cheesy rationales.
- You will not be exposed to pitocin or dangerous medical inductions.
- You will not be exposed to internal fetal monitoring requiring the artificial rupturing of the bag of waters and penetrating your baby’s fetal scalp.
- You will not be falsely lead to believe all women need pain medications because labor is difficult.
- You will have a lower incidence of infections because there will be infrequent vaginal exams if any at all.
- You will not have limited mobility because you are not connected to monitors.
- You will not have limited mobility to deliver your baby because your practitioner isn’t planning to control your baby’s emerging from your with an episiotomy, through “super crowning” or otherwise ensuring you are on a bed in certain positions (usually some form of the “C” or semi-reclined position).
Women and babies laboring normally don’t typically fall like a line of dominos towards a cesarean, episiotomy, forceps or vacuum delivery. It’s the interventions that push them over. Remember the pit to distress order? Start your birth un-naturally or make it un-natural at some point with pitocin and/or an epidural, you’ll arrive at a greater risk ratio for mechanical or surgical delivery. The domino theory espouses there is no time to wait, each intervention must be applied now because of the one applied previously, until eventually the penultimate goal, birth, must occur now.
Natural childbirth is currently your best insurance against un-necessary interventions and insurance for a normal and healthy birth. If, laboring at home or in an independent birth center you are transferred it is not likely to be an emergency scenario but a scenario where the need for medical observation is warranted.
Certified Nurse Midwives are on the rise as a result of increasing numbers of women seeking midwifery care. Hospitals and OB practices that have midwives in their group “look better” to consumers. In order to employ midwives without risk to their own profit however they must show midwifery care as the practice of medicine, which midwifery is not. To these practitioners only such a person with medical training, in these instances nursing, is recognized as a ‘midwife’ then. Is it a coincidence then that midwives find themselves engaged in an internal battle themselves?
The domino theory today is alive and well, hobbling maternal and newborn outcomes. Dominos don’t always fall, but ‘medical birth for all’ advocates will always try new set-ups. Stand up for birth. Choose the integrity of midwifery care. Deliver with both feet on the ground!