I met with a few of my students today to discuss The Thinking Woman’s Guide To a Better Birth by Henci Goer. We had a really great talk about our expectations of labor and pain, and how they effect our perception of the experience itself. This book is certainly a biased account of the “dangers” of a hospital birth, and is very Pro-Midwifery Model of Care. This being said, I think that each woman at our meeting found that there was something that she could take from the book and learn from.
I intended the book to be a jumping off point, to stimulate thought about what the reader might want for her own birth experience. This being said, it is not to frighten the reader with all the possible complications of birth, or what will happen at the hospital. It is clear that our healthcare system is far from the ideal, and our hospital births are technologically managed events. It is important that we, women birthing our children, are aware of this fact.
I think that there is probably nothing worse than not knowing. The feeling of “if only I would have known then…what I know now” is not the best one to have about your childbirth experience. It really is a right of passage for women, and one that requires thought and attention to what will make it fulfilling for the woman in labor.
When discussing birth plans, it was mentioned that putting something in writing will make it much less flexible. I can understand this thought and mentioned it in my previous post on Birth Plans. However, I feel that putting your wishes for your labor and birth in writing is a great idea.
First of all, I often find that writing something down can help me to “think out” what it is that is going on inside my head. My thoughts and wishes become clearer, at least to me. Secondly, I do not see birth plans as being set in stone. As the nature of pregnancy is one of flux and movement like water, it will change from day to day. We cannot be rigid in our pregnant state, it goes against the very essence of pregnancy. We have to allow the plan to change and morph along with the situation that we find ourselves in. Lastly, I think a birth plan can help others to see our wishes more clearly, when emotion or situation makes it impossible for us to verbalize what we want.
I hope that this book helped the readers in our group think about what they want most for their own births. Autonomy is really the greatest gift that we can be given in the labor and delivery ward. The power to allow your birth to progress at it’s own pace–to accept drugs for pain, or to refuse them–to have the birth be your own. Sharing the experience with your partner, doula, sisters or friends and enjoying its gifts.
Comments 1
I did read your post on Birth Plans. I think they can be a wonderful tool for communication and for people to clarify what they want out of their birth experience. With that said, sometimes birth plans can back fire. For one thing I dislike the term “plan” - in actuality there is nothing about birth you can plan - when it starts, how long it takes, where you are when it starts, etc. Over the years I have experimented with lots of terms and my current favorite is Birth preferences and priorities. Also I have had more success with them when they are written entirely in the positive and open the door for the professionals who are going to be involved (nurse or midwife or doctor) in a positive light.
In the intro paragraph I recommend to make an invitation - along the lines… we really want this birth to be as active and upright as possible and hope you(the staff) will use all the skills and knowledge you have to help us to have as non-interventive birth as possible. We look forward to suggestions on positions, massage techniques, etc etc
And instead of writing
~I prefer not to be separated from my birth partner during hospital stay. I would encourage couples to write: my partner really helps me stay calm and focused and we want to stay together continuously.
other possible edits.
I hope to drink liquids and eat fruit - to keep myself hydrated.
I want my membranes to release on their own - even if that means the baby is born in the caul
I hope to be active and upright but also patient and let labor find a rhythm of its own - as long as the baby is doing fine I am fine laboring on and on and on.
We would love suggests on non-pharmacological ways of dealing with the pain. Please note in our chart that “patient prefers not to be offered pain medication”. We do have a code word (which we will share) that when I say that it means “don’t talk me out of pain medications anymore” But until that time, please use all your skills in offering alternatives to medications.
We would love your suggestions as to where the best place to walk is and hope you will help us make sure we have access to a ball, an armless chair, a rocking chair. We have brought our own yoga mats.
We look forward to intermittent monitoring.
We are very concerned about privacy and hope you will help us limit the numbers who are present to just our support team, the doctor/midwife and the minimum number of nursing staff.
Thanks for being part of our support team on this special day - one that we will never forget - the day we welcomed our baby.
Gotta go - don’t know why I am writing you such a lengthy email……sorry I got on a roll of thinking about birth plans! Too often as i have travelled around to various hospitals, staff sometimes admit to equating length of birth = chances of cesarean. And that’s sad when they are seen as a barrier - not a communication tool.
Posted 05 Apr 2009 at 2:50 am ¶Post a Comment