It used to be the natural and normal birth that dominates the process of giving birth. However, today, the American way of birth and the normal process where the majority of women is going to give birth is the hospital. The natural way of birth is where the mother has all her time, waiting with her child to come out but importantly, the mother is in control and do not need to take drugs/interventions. Many people does not know what midwives are really is. The “mid” in midwife stands for “with” so midwife means with wife, or with the mother. Midwives have been used since a long time because the medical technology instruments have not be created or advanced, yet. However, as the medical instruments started to take place in the hospital, the mothers feel that it is much safer in the hospital than with the midwives at home if there is an error/emergency that would happen. Then, the businesses of midwives started to disappear for a period and the one who bought it back is Ina May Gaskin. She is the founder and direct of the Farm Midwifery Center (http://www.inamay.com/archive/biography.php) where the mothers can go there to give the birth with midwives there. She wrote books talking about having efficient births with not many interventions. Her center “is noted for its low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality”. Even though mothers change their minds quickly once the labor process happens, they would be yelling to give them an intervention. However I think recommended that mothers should go for a midwife and/or go to the Farm to do the birthing because having intervention is not good for the baby or mother. Thus the true American way of birth should the natural birth at home or birthing centers where there are the help from midwives and no interventions used.
Hospitals and homebirths are always being compared to which one is better, and safer. Before learning about homebirths and midwives, I thought it was “normal” to be going to the hospital and using interventions for the baby to come out faster for the mother’s pain. Watching the documentary, “Business of Being Born”(BoBB), giraffe and dolphin videos, it shows how midwives are the safer and more supportive option than going to the hospital.
In the giraffe video, the legs of the baby giraffe were dangling in the mother giraffe’s behind. On the ground, a pile of sand was near the mother so the baby can land more softly. There is also another giraffe with the mother giraffe and it resembles a midwife being there to help the mother. As seen in the video, there were no interventions used on the mother giraffe. It is also similar to the dolphin video, just without a midwife and was birthing with its own power (also swimming around). It shows how the animal mothers do not need interventions to give birth and enduring the pain so why don’t the mothers endure the process without interventions?
Most mothers do not do research on whether the hospital is better or having a homebirth/birthing center is better. Since U.S. only has less than 8% of midwives attending to the births, not many people would find out (BoBB). For the ones did and choose homebirths with the midwives, the midwives can help the mothers with the their birth plan. The midwives would go to the mother’s home before the birth and after the birth to take care and support the mother. The midwives would respect the mother’s wishes and let the mother do what the mother wish to let the mother get into her own comfortable position. So the mother is the leader and controls what she wants to do. In the documentary, “Business of Being Born”, the midwife would rub the mother’s back and elsewhere to make to lessen the labor’s pain and would tell the mother to take their time. During the birth process, the mother was able to hold the baby during the baby was coming out and after the baby was born. The midwife does not make the baby be away from the mother. In the movie, one of the female speaker said how having homebirth is a “life altering experience” because the mother gets to remember all the pain and the feeling of having the baby come out.
With the normal way of birth, the doctors and nurses are controlling the mother and telling the mother what to do, what the doctors and nurses think are right such as being strapped with a heart monitor around the mother’s belly. The mother would be also under the intervention from the belly down so they would not have as much pain or remember much of it because of the drug effects. The interventions mentioned in the documentary and what the speakers said how it could make the labor process slower and the mothers have to be in more danger in getting a c-section. In comparison, the mothers who have the natural birth seem to be more experience and actually know how it feels than the mother who has the normal birth. The doctors would recommend or influence the mother to take interventions and using their steel instruments to help the baby come out faster so as to not waste the doctors’ time. With the hospital birth, the natural birth seems to diminish and people start to forget them.
Throughout the Monty Python video, it was the doctor that was centered and not the mother. Everybody was listening to the doctor and even the mother was asking the doctor what she should do but the doctor replied there was nothing she could do. The father had to wait outside and not allowed to be with the mother. After the birth process, everybody rushed out of the room except the mother and the baby was put into the baby bed and the doctor/nurse shut the cover very loudly. It shows how the baby is like a prisoner and that no one was taking care of the mother after the process. It was only an important moment when the doctors were there. Additionally, when the baby was taken out, the mother only had a glance on her baby shows how the hospital is alienating the mother from the baby.
In the Ina May video, Ina May talks about how the doctors use their fingers to put it in the mother’s vagina to check up on the baby. However, it just gives the mother more discomfort. Ina May says how the anxious feelings, or the negative feelings that the mothers receive would affect on how the pushing the baby out process is going to go. She talks about the sphincter and if the sphincter relaxes, the baby can come out more easily. If the doctors were male, I think it brings discomfort to the mothers because it’s rather embarrassing for the mothers on a level. That makes the mothers’ sphincter to shrink and I think that leads to having the mother to go on a hard labor. Then resulting the doctors to give the mothers’ interventions to use, making the labor go slower.
The hospital bills are more expensive than midwife bills. The hospital bills are about $12,000-13,000 but the bill that the midwife charges are around $4,000 (Business of Being Born). As I can see it, the midwife gives a prenatal care plan and an after plan to help the mothers but as for the hospital, the mothers are stuck in the bed, waiting to see their baby. I think it feels better to be on one’s bed than a hospital bed because if the mothers cannot pay enough to have a room all by themselves, they would have other mothers being noisy and the television blasting (Shera’s birth story in the hospital).
In homebirths, the midwives do not have many experiences with c-sections so mainly c-sections happen in the hospital. In the documentary, one of the male speakers said how because of the interventions’ risk that happens in the mother, and the position the mother has to stay because of what the doctors say, it makes the labor harder, leading to c-sections. Thus, I think it is the interventions’ fault and the doctors too because they influence the mothers to take it that the c-sections rate is going high, (around 31% in 2006). There is also the mortality rate where United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among industrialized countries (BoBB). I think “industrialize countries” refers to the medical technologies that America has, which equals to the hospital. Since the midwives are using natural birth, and backup interventions and instruments in case emergencies happen, mostly likely, the mortality rate goes to the hospital. Because of the risks factors from the multiple reasons in the hospital, also listed above, it suggests how trying a midwife and a homebirth can be a better choice than giving birth in a hospital.
In the “Business of Being Born” stories, a lot of the mothers that gave birth after look very happy. One of the participants in the documentary, Moritz says how the midwives give better care than the doctors who give over kill. I think it means the doctors give more than what should be given to the mothers. The documentary talks about how giving birth, experiencing the process, is similar to the rites of passage, from being a woman to a mother. Additionally, it gives a very empowering feeling to the mothers, being able to go through the hardest process a women would go through. However, the hospital takes away the power of birthing from women because the women are being drugged so they cannot feel process.
In Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, one of the mother’s names, Heidi went to the Farm to give birth. She said, “I couldn’t have labored without medication in the hospital, because I would have been too inhibited to do things that really helped (being nude, groaning, holding myself as Julianna crowned), and I would have felt constrained by the hospital’s routine”. She felt that “inhibited” being nude, and doing what she needs to do to lessen her pain in the hospital. Being “constrained by the hospital’s routine” does not help the mother to feel relax and able to give birth better. In the text, page 114, it states, “We let her eat, walk, not have an I.V. etc.,” The “we” is the midwives and by stating the “let”, it gives freedom to the mothers to do what they want, to take a walk, and able to be nude. The midwives also tell the mothers to think of happy thoughts, positive statements that can be empowering for the mother to give an easier birth.
One of the guest speakers said that she does not want to use inventions in her birth. However, the doctor mock her birth plan and the doctor keep “buzzing” her about being induced. The doctors want the mothers to take interventions so they and the people who make the interventions can make profit. Another speaker went to the hospital but got send back because it is still not time for her to give birth. Then when it was time for her to give birth, she had a physician that was a medical students. The students were not able to give any advice for the mother so the mother had to use her own strength (by listening to a cleaning lady to listen to her body and push the baby). It shows that the mother was placed with an inexperienced doctor, causing anxiousness to the mother. However, with a midwife, they are experienced so they can give better supportive energy to the mother.
Hospital births, normal births do not give as much “moment” than natural births, homebirths and with midwives. By giving births, it is a miracle for the mothers to feel in what they do and being in control in that experience. The mothers have the support of their families, especially the father and having the baby by their side once the baby comes out. Being able to give birth naturally without any interventions and having the use of midwives can help the mothers to have an experience that they never had; therefore, having homebirths and midwives are a better choice.
Continuing Thoughts & Questions:
- Will there be an increase of midwives be hired in the future?
- Maybe if the hospital don't use so much interventions, the c-section rate would go down and natural birth would come back along with the news of midwives spreading
