Why You (Probably) Didn't Really Need a C-Section

Oh yes. I'm going there. Hate me if you will. I know I'm stepping on a lot a toes here, but if only one woman makes a change for the good of her and her baby because of it, it'll be worth it. I'm just so tired of hearing women talk about how they "needed" an "emergency" c-section and how they would not have been able to have their baby vaginally. The truth is, there is absolutely no need for a 30% c-section rate. Most women I know did not choose to have an elective c-section out of convenience; they were told that they needed one. This is a lie. Most "emergencies" are caused by hospital interventions and procedures in the first place. If you honestly couldn't push out your baby (for a number of reasons I'll list below), chances are it had nothing to do with your build, size, or capabilities as a mother, and had everything to do with your environment. Now don't get me wrong - emergencies DO happen - but they are extremely rare. Women tend to get offended when I say something like this, but really, I'm not saying anything negative about the women who have these unnecessary sections. I'm not saying that these women have done anything wrong. I'm saying these women have been lied to.

1. "My baby wouldn't fit." - This is VERY unlikely. The vast majority of women don't have babies that are too big to fit through their pelvis. The reason so many women have the trouble of "fitting" a big (or even not-so-big) baby is because they usually are made to push on their backs, either because of having an epidural, or because that's what they're told they have to do. This is the WORST position to push out a baby! Lying on one's back decreases the pelvic opening by up to 30%! If you were standing, squatting, or on your hands and knees, your 11-lb. baby probably would not have had to be cut out of your body.

2. "My baby was breech." - Vaginal birth is actually much less risky than c-sections in most breech cases (and current research is finally supporting this - something midwives have known all along). One problem is that many OBs are not trained in vaginal breech births anymore. Then there is the looming threat of malpractice suits, a threat which seems to, more often than not, take the decision-making process out of the hands of the patient. C-sections should be the last resort, and since they started out that way, most people (erroneously) assume they still are, so that if something goes wrong during a section (which happens more frequently than during a vaginal birth), people assume the doctors did everything they could, chalk it up to fate or chance, and leave the lawyers out of it. Unless your baby is completely sideways (a rare occurrence), most breech babies CAN be safely born vaginally.

3. "When they finally sectioned me, the baby had the cord wrapped around his neck 435 times!" - It is not uncommon for the baby to be born with the cord around the neck, even several times. It's actually pretty normal. You just slip it off as the baby comes out. No big deal.

4. "My baby was stuck." - This is often what people say when they mean the baby had shoulder dystocia. This is something that can often be remedies using a number of techniques, the most effective being the Gaskin Maneuver, which requires the women to get onto her hands and knees...however, if you've had an epidural (often the first in a long line of mistakes), this may be impractical (but NOT impossible). Of course, if you were allowed to labor in a secure, calm, familiar environment without being attached to machinery, you probably wouldn't have "needed" the epidural anyway, but that's another rant...

5. "My baby was in distress." - Oh really? How do you know that? Heart-rate drop? (a variation of normal in most births, but often misinterpreted thanks to continuous fetal monitoring). Or perhaps the baby was in distress due to the pitocin (the effects of which you can't feel, thanks to the epidural - no such luck for the baby, who feels every single abnormally strong contraction). These are all risks of pitocin and epidurals, by the way (you'll see them on the paper you had to sign). Babies are often thrown into distress because of the interventions they are unwillingly subjected to, leading to a truly unnecessary emergency c-section. Sure, your section may have been an emergency, but there may not have been any emergency at all if you had not been lied to and/or bullied into these interventions in the first place.

6. "I had complete placenta previa, my placenta had detached and was delivered before the baby, and the baby was sideways, sticking out an arm and waving to everyone in the room." - Ok, you needed a c-section.

Ruby Jane King is here!

Ruby Jane arrived on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 6:46pm. Here is her birth story:

I woke up at 8:00am with my son, as usual, and contractions were there, a little more uncomfortable than normal, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I had a feeling it was the day, though. I felt a strong contraction later that morning and my first thought was, “I’m in labor.” They started to get more uncomfortable, but not regular at all (they never did get regular, even at the end), so I called the midwife around noon and told her what was going on. I said I would eat some lunch and call her back to let her know if there was any progress. I called back at 2:15pm and told her to come over, since they were really starting to hurt.

She arrived at 3:00pm and checked me. I was dilated to 5-6cm outside and about 4cm inside, but stretched to 6cm during contractions. They helped Brandon set up the pool and everything. Around 4:30pm I told Brandon to fill up the pool, because it wouldn’t be long – the contractions were killing me. I got in the water around 5:30pm and she checked me. I was dilated to 6-7cm. The water was such a relief, though! I asked her to check me again around 6:30pm or so because I was feeling a lot of pressure and slight pushing. I was 7-8cm, but she said my cervix was so soft it would probably open with some pressure from the baby, so if I felt the urge to push to just go with it. About 5 minutes later I had a really bad contraction that pushed at the end, and I said, “Oh, she’s coming right now.” Then the pushing started and my body began to push her out – about 5-6 in a row with no time to breathe in between, but I really didn’t have much control over that – she was pushing herself out. Another few of those and her head was out. I felt it hurting in the front, so I pushed her toward the perineum a little to avoid the bad labial tear I had last time. No contractions for a few minutes, then another few pushes and she wiggled her body out at 6:46pm. I reached down to catch her and Brandon and I brought her up out of the water together. The cord was around her leg and pretty short, so I unwrapped that and laid her on my chest.

The placenta was born about 20 minutes later. We didn’t cut the cord for about 1 ½ - 2 hours. I stayed in the water for a few minutes after the placenta was born, then decided to get out and lie down in my bed, so off we went. We popped some pink champagne and made a toast. The midwife took a look at me to see if I had torn. I had one very tiny labial tear, but no stitches required and it’s not even in a place where I can feel it, so no pain at all. She nursed like a champ within about 10 minutes of being born, and nursed about three times in the first hour or so. We finally decided to cut the cord, but not to clamp it. Then she pooped and we did the newborn exam while I ate some dinner. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 ½ inches long.

She went out to the living room with daddy to see all our visitors while I nursed Leonidas to sleep. Then she and daddy came back and we all went to bed. I didn’t sleep much – just watched her a lot. Leonidas did great with her – a little jealousy once when nursing, but other than that, he was amazing with her.

As of today, she is 5 days old and doing great. She has a clogged tear duct, but nothing too serious. Leonidas has some jealousy, of course, especially when she is nursing, but today he's been really great with her and just loves her. The tandem nursing thing is going well so far - I've got the nursing-both-at-the-same-time thing down pretty well. The family bed is working well, too. We've all been getting plenty of sleep, and as of right now, are sleeping at the same time. I'll keep updating this of course...

Adventures in Childbirth - Part 2

Still no baby...still waiting...

Progress is being made, I suppose. Dilation, as of Monday, was 2cm. That's something, right?

So it looks like I may be making it to my due date after all - whichever date that may be, the 4th, 5th, or 6th. Maybe longer. Who knows? I'm still having contractions, and they're there all day long. Sometimes I'll go for hours with regular contractions 5 minutes apart. Then they'll stop or at least slow down for the next few hours. Maybe I'll be lucky and just labor like this all week long instead of super-painful, quick laboring all in one day! That would be ok. That would be well worth it, I suppose.

In the meantime, we are ready for her. I was in a crafty mood again today, so I hit up Jo-Ann for some elastic ruffles and fabric flowers for making headbands. Haven't made them yet, but I bought the stuff. One step at a time! Maybe it will give me something to do while I'm in labor...

We have our birthing pool, brought out of storage. We have the pump to blow it up. Unfortunately, we're not quite sure how we're going to fill it...last time we used a hose with a connector that attached to our faucet. This time, we don't have the connector, and our faucet is weird so it wouldn't work anyway. I guess we'll have to do buckets. Lots and lots of buckets.

Aside from that little hiccup I think we're all set. We've got our birth kit ready with all our supplies. We've got plenty of clothes for her. I got an extra waterproof wool pad for our bed (half-price remnant at Jo-Ann - score!). Now all we need is Ruby!

Have an opinion? Write a blog, but leave me out of it!

I am so sick and tired of everyone telling me that I am doing everything wrong with my child! Everything I do gets some kind of criticism, or at the very least, condescending skepticism. I really don't want to hear it anymore.

I don't keep my baby on a schedule. I know your baby goes to bed at 6:30pm and sleeps until 10:00am. Good for you. As for me, I don't force my baby into a schedule. I like to think his needs come before my comfort, but hey, that's just me.

I use cloth diapers and elimination communication. No, it's not a hassle to wash them, and at least I'm not polluting the world with human feces in landfills and chemicals used to manufacture disposable diapers. In addition, elimination communication is not really infant potty training, but that's apparently all anyone understands so I bill it as such. I am not training my baby to go to the bathroom through EC any more than I am "training" him to eat by breastfeeding. He just does it naturally. Really. I'm just not "diaper-training" him like most people in this country do, and then wonder why they have such a hard time "potty training" when they've constantly reinforced elimination in a diaper for two years. Yes, it's a commitment. Yes, they DO have some control over their bladder and bowels from birth. No, it is not "mommy training". It is simply communicating a need and fulfilling it. You can laugh and call me ridiculous all you want, but I don't remember the last time I changed a poopy diaper and my 3-month-old has not worn a diaper in three days. How much money have YOU spent on diapers this week? Yeah, so shut up.

I breastfeed my kid. I breastfeed in public without a cover, because I don't think it is obscene, and neither does the state of California. If this offends you, stop staring. I shall continue to breastfeed him until he weans himself, whenever that may be. I will not force him to wean by any means. If that means that I will be nursing a 5-year-old then so be it. He's not gonna be chewing on your tit, so what do you care? Back off.

I intend to practice baby-led weaning. I will not be giving my baby cereal or pureed "baby food." He can eat regular solid food like everyone else. That's what he was intended to do. That's what God made teeth for. Babies can't move food from the front of their mouths to the back before they can chew, and they can't chew before they can pick the food up and put it into their mouths themselves, so if I allow him to naturally follow his own development, there should be no problems. I happen to think that letting him control what goes into his mouth is better and safer than shoving pureed foods down his throat and teaching him that he does not have to chew his food.

And since he is breastfed, he DOES have to be fed more often. Babies are actually efficient at digesting breast milk, so no, it doesn't last long. The fact that he is eating every hour or so does not mean he is not getting enough from the milk!. He has been gaining weight at a rate of almost 1 lb. per week. Trust me, he's getting PLENTY of food. I don't need to supplement with cereal early just because he's frequently hungry. He is hungry because he's growing. That's what most babies tend to do. He will not die without cereal. I promise.

I don't carry my baby around in a car seat everywhere. I wear him or carry him in my arms, because I realize that wearing or carrying your baby has tremendous benefits on his cognitive and psychological development. Not only does it assist him in forming proper attachments, it also helps him learn balance and movement, which drastically improves physical and cognitive development. I know it's inconvenient at times, and he is getting heavier, but at least I'm getting a workout and losing that baby weight. Besides, his brain and muscle function are a little more important than my convenience anyway. I'm not asking you to carry him, so leave me alone.

I do vaccinate my baby, but I do not intend to give him all the vaccines recommended, and I delay many vaccinations. He's not going to die from any STDs as a baby and he's not going to give your child some deadly illness just because he hasn't been vaccinated for it. Measles doesn't just appear out of thin air - it has to be contracted from someone, and when was the last time you saw a kid with measles? I've researched the risks, and by "research" I don't mean talking to my pediatrician about it. I'm not going to explain my reasoning to you. If you think my kid is gonna give your kid diptheria then stay away from him. It's probably for the best anyway.

I co-sleep with my baby. Lordy, Lordy, God save her soul! Don't go preaching to me about how "dangerous" that is. If anyone cares to actually READ the studies, rather than just quote what they've heard, they will see that bed-sharing is only dangerous if one does not take the same precautions one would take under ANY sleeping conditions. If you are not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and make sure your baby can't be strangled by loose bedding or wedged in between pillows or mattresses and headboards, co-sleeping actually DECREASES the risk of SIDS. Bed-sharing helps to regulate an infant's heart rate and respiration and allows the mother to wake more easily if something is wrong with the child, in addition to facilitating breastfeeding and reinforcing good sleeping habits. So wipe that shocked look off your face and let me sleep!

Of course, I AM planning to have my next child at home as well. Don't even approach me on this one. You will not win. That's a whole 'nother blog. Go read it.

So yeah, just stop condemning me and let me raise my child. I have enough stress trying to take care of a baby - I don't need your constant bitchy comments as well.

Thanks.

Why I'm such a home-birth nut...

When I was pregnant and I told people that I was going to have my baby at home, I got one of two responses: "Wow, you're brave," or, "Yeah, that sounds like you!" I wasn't really sure how to respond to either of these. What I really wanted to say was something like, "No, I'm not brave. In fact, I think the women who have their babies in the hospital are braver than I am." Of course, that would have sparked a full-blown dissertation on the safety of home birth and the dangers of hospital births, and I really was never up to that, what with the morning sickness and all. Of course, I'm not sick anymore...

So let's talk a little about homes, births, hospitals, and paranoia. I'll get to each one in turn. It's quite obvious that the comfort factor of the home birth is unrivaled. Be it ever so humble...you get the idea. There are no I.V.s, no hep-locks "just in case", no fetal monitors, no elastic girdles, no hospital gowns, no adjustable beds, and no interference from the woman laboring down the hall. What is there in a home birth setting? Whatever you want! Candles? Incense? Your own bed? You got it. Your baby is monitored intermittently, which (according to every study on the matter) is equally as effective as continuous monitoring, but has a LOWER rate of c-sections. That is because there is such a margin of error for misinterpreting the fetal monitor readings and thinking the baby is in distress when it's really just going through normal birth. So there's a plus.

Of course, you CAN have just about all these things in the hospital as well, if you're up for a fight (or just happen to be lucky enough to find a mom-friendly hospital). But there is one thing present in a home birth that will NEVER be found in the hospital. Know what it is? GERMS! That's right - YOUR germs, to be exact. You know, the ones you've been getting used to for months and months and building up an immunity to. You make antibodies to fight off the harmful germs in your own house, and you pass those on to your baby. So no matter how "clean" the hospital is, unless you've lived there throughout your pregnancy, you're not immune to what's out there. What you ARE immune to are the germs in your very own home, and since that is what your baby is exposed to during a home birth, HOORAY, no infections! I know, I know, I'm stepping on a LOT of toes, but it really just make sense to me. Why would I want to take a newborn baby - whose immune system isn't functioning on its own - into a big building full of sick people? Whose brilliant idea was this? I can't tell you the number of people I've known or talked to whose babies have had MRSA. This is a hospital infection, everyone. You don't get it from your house. You get it in places where they've killed off all but the strongest of bacteria and thus created an army of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that you can't get rid of. This is exactly why I no longer have antibacterial products in my home. You can't kill them all, and if I'm going to have bacteria all around me, I want them to be weaklings! I shall not be exposing my newborn to staph any time soon.

And we won't even go into the statistics on the OUTRAGEOUS rates of c-sections and unnecessary interventions in hospital, or the astonishingly high rate of injuries and deaths caused by medical intervention (the stats on that one are hard to find, but they ARE out there). Seriously, a 40% c-section rate is ridiculous.

"But what if something goes wrong?" I love this one. You know, it takes 20-30 minutes for them to prep for surgery when you need an "emergency" c-section. If you live less than 30 minutes from the hospital, you can call when you leave, and they'll be all ready for you when you arrive. Same waiting period. Either way, if you need help in less than 30 minutes, you're screwed, even if you're in the hospital. And that's IF you need one. There are so many things you can do for various "complications" (as they are often erroneously called) that don't require surgery or panick. Seriously, people need to relax.

Now I'm not one of those people who think that doctors are just out to "get you." I don't think that at all. They really do want to help. I think the problem is no one told them that birth is not a medical condition. They are trained to help when things go wrong, and of course, they want to be helpful, so they tend to see things that maybe really aren't there - or aren't what they appear. I've done it, myself, in other areas. It's hard to feel helpful when there's nothing to fix! It's only natural - of course, so is childbirth. We have all been trained to think of birth as a medical emergency. Thank television and cinema for that! Most doctors have never even seen a normal, natural birth. It simply is not their area of expertise. Midwives, on the other hand, ARE trained specifically in natural childbirth. A certified nurse midwife has a Master's degree that includes years of training in birth only. Doctors have a rotation for a little while and then move on to something else. They simply do not have the training necessary to assist a natural birth. Just because they have the "higher" degree does not mean they are right for the job. When my car breaks down, I don't take it to a neurosurgeon! I take it to my mechanic who, although he hasn't had as much "schooling" as the neurosurgeon, is the expert in fixing my car. It's just common sense. Midwives do normal birth - doctors do surgery and emergency fixes. Go to the one that specializes in what you're going to do!

When I recently went to the emergency room (for an unrelated ailment) the triage nurse asked me if I had a primary care physician. I said that I didn't and she asked who my O.B. was. I replied that I didn't have one. With a confused frown, she asked, "Who delivered your baby?" "I did," I said, "after all, I carried him. Ain't no one else gonna have him for me!" She kind of laughed a little and just said, "wow," like I had accomplished some great feat of daring and bravery. I am not brave. I like to think I played it safe by having a home birth. I didn't do it because I wanted to be a "hero" or because I wanted to "prove something." I did it because I wanted my baby to be born in the safest place, in the safest manner, and with the best of care. I did my research, and I made my decision. Women have been having babies at home for simply dozens of years and the human race has not died out.

I am, indeed, a "hippy jungle girl" (as I like to refer to myself) and think life would be wonderful if we just lived a little more simply and didn't get so worked up over little things. If having my baby at home makes me brave, then having a baby in the hospital must make one a superhero, and you couldn't pay me enough to do it! If home birth is safe, comfortable, relaxed, simple, natural, and beautiful, then yes, home birth definitely "sounds like me," and I consider that a compliment.