I was just over at Sage Femme's blog checking out her latest posts and she has a really powerful story about hospital birth...it will make you uncomfortable...but being uncomfortable can lead to change I hope.
One of her readers posted a comment about the lack of requests and desire for a low intervention birth from the women she serves. I think this is interesting because I have seen it. Some women really do believe that hospitals are the safest place for having a baby. Hell, I don't even want to be in the hospital if I were sick. They are filthy, disgusting places. I shuddered at letting my kids come to visit my husband when he stayed overnight at one after his AICD was put in.
The problem is one of education...for society as well as for providers of care. I could sit here and go on and on about the awful things I have seen but there are plenty of negative stories out there. We need more women telling about their wonderful, beautiful experiences. People are always so quick to share the bad, but we need to get the good experiences out there too. We need to stop ruminating on how bad hospital birth is and figure out what are we going to do to change it.
*sigh* I've got to get off here but stay tuned for part II of Birth.
1 comment:
I'm glad you're fighting on the front lines.
I'd love to see hospital birth become the exception instead of the norm. But in our society of fast food, heart disease, diabetes, and love for pharmaceuticals, this makes a good handful of women poor candidates for home birth.
There's always room for good CNMs at freestanding birth centers, too. You have so much power in what you can teach.
Thank you, thank you, for what you do. It will never be easy, but you will touch women in ways they wouldn't have found otherwise.
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