Beware

Good morning! I see have been very delinquent in writing as of late. Such is life. For most of the past week, I’ve been out in the garden during the time I would have been sitting here writing. Today I am not.

During the last week, I’ve learned that when you go to Price Chopper, your Staples Rewards card will not work. You really have to use your Price Chopper AdvantEdge card. Odd, that.

I’ve also relearned that allergies change. And that grass is not my friend. I can’t stand the smell of fresh cut grass as an adult; as a child I didn’t mind. I think that’s because I was introduced to wheat grass juice as an adult and freshly cut grass (or alfalfa) remind me of the taste. I don’t like grass seed; it makes me itch. We have an entire yard full of grass seed: in front of the house, around the fruit trees, in the back field, everywhere. I do not like it. It does not like me. I want to get rid of it. Oddly enough, I don’t mind cutting grass; I’m the only one who did it regularly in Bonners Ferry. Barefoot, to boot. And pregnant. I don’t actually remember cutting it when Joseph was a baby but I do the summer before he was born. Anyway, allergies are not nice and I would love to never experience them again but think that is probably highly unlikely.

Yesterday I read an article (actually, I think it was a blog post but honestly, blog posts are often as factual, if not more so, than news articles) about birth. I know, I know, that’s really out of character for me. The title was something like, “I Would Have Died if I Hadn’t Given Birth in the Hospital.” The author does a very nice job of validating women and their experiences and stories. Every woman has her own story to tell, her own voice, her own experience. However. . . .

The United States ranks 41^st in maternal mortality (I would give you sources here and could provide some if any of you are interested but I’d have to go looking because while I remember reading this, and some of the following information, in a few places, I don’t remember exactly where) and it is estimated that death rates related to childbirth are underreported by approximately one third. “Why?” you ask. Well, that is a really good question. To begin with, our methods of reporting leave a lot to be desired. For example, death during or immediately after childbirth is often reported but if a woman dies in the weeks following birth from a childbirth related matter, it is not reported as such. But what gets me is that we are ranked 41^st. That means there are forty nations with better birth outcomes than ours. With all of our touted interventions, interventions that are forced on women even when they are not medically necessary and are not wanted, you would think that we’d have better outcomes.

After reading this article, I wondered, and not for the first time, how my birth experiences might have been different had I given birth in a hospital. Now, having witnessed a few hospital births and even more labors, I think I am beginning to have an idea and would like to share them.

Alisha was born in the hospital so nothing would have changed. I am and will continue to be grateful that she was in a hurry and popped out less than two hours after we arrived at the hospital. Had she taken her time, there might have been time to do a cesarean and that would have had implications on the births of every one of her siblings.

Laura was a born a week ‘late’. That is, of course, very relative. She was indeed born a week after her ‘due’ date but I’m pretty convinced by now that babies tend to come when they are ready and that it is infrequent that a baby is truly late after a mere week past the due date. Anyway, she was a week late. I have seen many women in labor who were a week past due; they were there because their doctor wanted them to be induced. So, let’s say I’d gone to the hospital. I would have been put on the monitor (I was with Alisha). Even though contractions had begun, chances are I would have been put on Pitocin to make them ‘regular’ and chances are I might have also had an epidural. No, thank you. With all of that, Laura and I would probably have reacted very differently to the whole experience and who knows what long term effects would have been.

Joanna was just a few days ‘late’. Going to the hospital I would have been put on the monitors and likely would have been given Pitocin at some point because it seems that almost never do women not get it.

Labor with Daniel began on his due date and going to the hospital with him would likely have been very similar to Joanna.

Amena decided to start and then stop. That alone would have been automatic Pitocin after being hooked up to monitors. And unless they kept us for three days after the birth, it still would have meant a trip to the ER when she was three days old and surgery when four days old. It might have meant something else, as well, because with the pit and possible epidural, she might have experienced stress and delivery would likely have been augmented with forceps, vacuum, or even cesarean.  

Honestly, Laura, Joanna or Daniel could have gone the same way depending upon what was ‘discovered’ by the continual monitoring. And had I been hooked up to an IV, etc., how likely is it I would have felt comfortable getting up and moving around? Would Daniel have been born with me on all fours? Would visualizing with Amena have worked as well as it did? Would doctors have even suggested it? So many unknowns.

Cedric was in a hurry but had I been going to a doctor, I would not have been taking the uterine toner herbs and things might not have progressed so quickly. That being an unknown, however, he might have been and he might have been born on the side of the road on the way to the hospital. That would have been a blessing in disguise had I been going to the hospital to deliver.

Seth was also in a hurry and I didn’t take anything with him to get ready. At 2:00 in the afternoon, as I’ve mentioned before, I knew he was going to be born, but would not have guessed that day and certainly not less than six hours later. By the time I would have wanted to leave for the hospital, it is quite likely that he would have been born on the side of the road. Since he was born with a nuchal cord (the subject of another blog post I read yesterday), I think birth on the side of the road in a vehicle that might not have been warm enough would not have been good for him.

Joseph followed in Laura’s footsteps and was born a week ‘late.’ Being my largest baby, would I have been encouraged to have a cesarean? I don’t know. Obviously I was capable of giving birth vaginally. Still, I would have been hooked up to everything and wouldn’t have been able to relax in the water, and things would have happened differently.

It is important to remember that had I given birth in the hospital, I would likely have been going to doctors rather than midwives (although we did have a doctor with Daniel—he just happened to do home deliveries). The ob/gyn I would have had with Laura had the highest cesarean rate in the county. Joanna likely would have been born with her as well. Daniel even, maybe. Had I had doctors for prenatal care, I probably would never have learned to trust my body when it came time for the actual births. In spite of losing my faith in the omniscience of doctors with Alisha, I probably still would have felt that they knew more than I did and the pervading mode of thought in the medical world isn’t ‘trust your body’, it’s ‘trust the system’.

And that’s what you get when I read something.

Have a wonderful day!