Letters to the Editor
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I'm thankful for our hospital birth
My wife's labor was very difficult and if we hadn't been in a hospital both she and my son would be dead.
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Let's not overstate the pros and cons
In the hospital, the baby is taken away immediately; the mother has to beg to see the baby. It was so great to have that power and that respect given to me." . . .
Epstein agreed. "The hospitals are very blasé about it. They say the baby has to go to the nursery now, or the mom has to rest, or the baby has to go to NICU [neonatal intensive care unit]. And the baby doesn't have to go to the nursery."
I'm glad that Rikki Lake is taking on this very important topic, but she does not do her cause justice by grossly exaggerating hospital birth. I gave birth in a hospital twice with a Certified Nurse Midwife and no one ever took my baby away or made me beg to see my baby. While this may happen to some, it is ridiculous to characterize this as typical. The worst thing they did to me was put the baby in a warming bed - right next to my bed.
Home birth is not for everyone. I wonder if her movie mentions birthing centers or hospital births with CNMs.
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Can't enjoy it?
I've got video of my c-section that shows that you actually *are* quite lucid and happy during a c-section, and that you in fact *can* sit up within a few minutes. Of course, mine was planned, so it wasn't like the baby and I were suffering when they began. I'm sure that's quite stressful, but because it's an emergency situation, and the mom didn't expect it to happen, so it feels out of control.
I was up and moving around in 5 days. Scar is invisible. Couldn't have asked for a less unpleasant experience.
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I'm looking forward to seeing this.
A number of my family members work in medical fields. I'm very thankful for the quality of medical care we have in this country. I don't think there's any problem with approving of necessary medical care and disapproving of it when it's unnecessary. It's not a capital offense or anything to want an epidural, the same way a single individual asking for antibiotics when they probably have a cold isn't a problem. Not "good" in the strictest sense of the word but it's unlikely to hurt you and it might help. The problem is when such treatment becomes systemic.
My SO and I are not trying to conceive yet, but I'm saddened by the number of my friends who have children and tell stories filled with phrases like "I just couldn't handle it" or "he wouldn't fit", when they say things like "the doctor wouldn't let me carry past 40 weeks so I was induced and that didn't work, so I had a C-section." That from a girl who had no real idea when she'd conceived, making her "due date" primarily an estimation. That terrifies me way more than pain, the idea of putting control into the hands of someone else before anything has gone wrong, of being confined to a bed and denied food and water so that any sane person would quaver in the face of such effort, of being rushed along because a doctor thinks that an episiotomy is no big deal.
Okay, so that sounds pretty rotten. And if something goes wrong, maybe I'll end up there, and it'd be better than something happening to me or the baby. But if nothing goes wrong? My SO and I will be home with our kitties, our comfy bed, some stockpiled yummy things and some DVDs of British comedies that we know and love. Just add midwife. Maybe I'm peculiar, but I think that sounds a lot better than ice chips and an epidural.
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Hospitals are improving their "cold" image
I can appreciate that some people have felt the medical community stripped birth of its natural quality, but hospitals are getting that message. Some near me offer water births, doulas and massage all in a quiet, serene environment far from the sterile image most associate with feet-up-in-the-stirrups birthing back in the day.
I too have had personal experience with home births going horribly bad: a boyfriend's sister is mentally and emotionally handicapped because she was deprived of oxygen during her birth. She nearly died. Her next sibling did die as a result of the same thing. Her parents were what you would call religious about the home birth movement.
I think holding extremist views either way deprive people of the variety of choices out there. Bringing the best both experiences offer together- as many hospital are doing- seems to be the general trend. Instead fitting birth into a personal philosophy, we should approach it with a mind free of ideology so there is more room for facts.
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Bonding
I am the mother of a son who was born six weeks ago by cesarean section. My preference was for a vaginal delivery, but medical circumstances necessitated surgery. I have a really hard time with the assertion that mothers who deliver by c-section somehow have impaired bonding with their babies. My bonding with my son was not contingent upon his being born via my vagina, but upon his being my son. Our bonding was not postponed until the moment of or contingent upon the pathway of birth; it began when I learned I was expecting him, and continued as we weathered what fortunately turned out to be unfounded concerns about how he was developing, and continued still when I felt him move inside me, and as we made preparations for his arrival. To define this bonding as an experience that can be reduced to a single event--and to assert that having one type of birth or another is necessary for bonding to occur well--is to completely miss the concept, in my opinion. I think it's great that Ricki Lake had a wonderful experience with her home birth, and I am sorry Ms. Epstein was not able to have that experience if she wanted it. Not everyone who has a hospital birth, surgical or not, is disappointed, particularly if that birth results in the delivery of a healthy baby.