Green Options

Maybe it’s not just babywearing. Maybe it’s not gentle parenting. Maybe it’s not cosleeping and breastfeeding. Maybe attachment starts at birth.

I had two natural hospital births. The first was empowering, a group of women cheering me on while I pushed. For the second, in the 10 whole minutes I was pushing, I was instructed to stop so they could get a read on his heart and prep the room. I can only imagine what fun we would have had if I’d been there longer.

For both, I thought I could run a marathon afterward, if I didn’t have to breastfeed immediately! I was strong and able.

But I’m one of the lucky ones. I was given a good birth legacy, a “Your body is capable. It can do this!” (Thanks, Mom.) Many are not so lucky. They are told that labor and delivery will be scary, painful, unmanageable without medications.

I think for most people birth is a nightmare
It hasn’t been what a baby would want.

In our births, is it only about us? When are we going to start asking, “What does baby want?”

Money and C-sections. They go together like, uh–well, they don’t really go together. Unless you notice that cesareans cost a lot more than vaginal births. Add to that recovery time in the hospital for mama and babe, medications, and follow-up care, and you can almost hear the cha-ching!

Washington state has a new cost-cutting program that may also dramatically lower the rate of C-sections.

They’re going to start paying the same amount for an uncomplicated C-section as they do for a vaginal birth.

And because C-sections in that state cost on average $5000 more than vaginal births, this will help make sure the motive for the surgery–the most common in the United States besides circumcision–are the best interests of the patient.

We are choosing to improve quality mostly by using carrots rather than sticks.

The United States has a C-section rate of 31.8%. Yep, a third of babies born in the States are born through the belly.

But don’t worry. Because according to Dick Morris, if we somehow manage to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill, the government will force you to give birth naturally.

MORRIS: What controlling costs means is –
O’REILLY: – is competition.
MORRIS: No. It means denial of services…. And that’s what — just as right now the government is telling people, cut back on cesarean sections. Go through natural childbirth; it’s a lower cost.

Wait, the government is currently telling women they can’t have C-sections? Just where does Dick Morris live?

Check out the video:

The C-section is now the most common procedure performed in the United States. A third of American children are born through the belly instead of vaginally. Every year for the last decade, the States has set a new record for the number of C-sections.

Now that I have your attention, there is an increasing gap between the traditional Western medical community and that of midwife-delivered, woman-based care. A couple of recent articles, in Time and in the LA Times, explore this gap.

Here we are, discussing health care reform, and at the top of that discussion should be the way we bring babies into this world. One Oregonian midwife, Melissa Cheyney, has begun to examine the differences in care.

The U.S. has a limited idea of what it means to have a positive outcome at the end of a delivery. Basically it just means that everyone’s alive.

You’ve heard it, and I know I’ve said it, “You got the prize in the end!” Sure, you have the baby, but did you receive the care that was appropriate to your circumstances?

Many of you read and supported me in my “Medicalization of my Natural Birth“. Thanks, yo.

I never had to face a Caesarean section. Not with these birthin’ hips. I know, and am even related to, women who have. It’s a tough recovery for many, both physically and emotionally.

Now there’s a movement to make the C-section more “natural”. Vaginal birthing has had a natural movement over the last 20 years, and one doctor wants the C-section to have the same.

British professor Nicholas M. Fisk wants to encourage the same bonding that is present in many natural vaginal births in his C-section patients. He thinks C-sections should be more “woman-centered.”

But with 1/3 of all American labors ending in surgery (in the UK the C-section rate is 24 percent), is this something we should encourage? Do we really want him to soothe us into the decision of a C-section?! “There, there. At least it’ll be natural.”

What’s next…is he going to “naturalize” the vasectomy?!

Editor’s Note:  This VBAC birth story is from guest writer Heather Garvet. Heather blogs at A Mama’s Blog, where she has written other posts on C-sections, VBACs, breastfeeding, pregnancy, and birth issues, as well as her two boys.

I had a C-section with the birth of my first son, Ryan, in 2004, only because he was a breech baby, and refused to turn.  I wasn’t very informed on other alternatives for turning breech babies at the time, other than the external version, and accepted having a C-section was the only way to give birth to my baby.

I was thrilled of course, to have my new baby after the C-section.  The hospital was very baby friendly and I was “allowed” to nurse Ryan while I was in the recovery room.  As soon as I was out of recovery though, the problems started for me.  I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia, and stared vomiting.  That was the worse pain I have ever experienced.  The nurses were trying to get me out of bed to walk around, but I was too weak, vomiting, and almost fainted every time I sat up.  That evening, I started itching like crazy- another reaction to pain medication.  On top of that, the pain from the C-section was intense as well.

Without going into all the other details, my recovery from the C-section was very long.  After twelve weeks post-partum, I was still sore and having pain occasionally.  I had a sixteen week maternity leave, and it killed me that most of my leave was spent recovering from the C-section.

After having such a negative experience from the surgery, I decided with our next baby, I was going to have a vaginal birth, or VBAC for short.  I started researching everything I could about VBAC’s, and found out that in most cases, VBAC’s are very safe for the majority of women.  I was troubled to learn though, that the majority of hospitals and doctors don’t “allow” VBAC’s, because of the small chance of uterine rupture.

What never was said though, that just being pregnant again increases the chances for uterine rupture after a C-section, because of the baby growing and stretching the uterus.  However, the chances  for uterine rupture was 0.05% higher than having a repeat C-section.  I was still convinced I was going to have a VBAC.

We writers at Eco-Child’s Play are writing about our birth experiences this week. My son’s birth was a fairly traditional hospital birth. It wasn’t until…oh… about a week before my son was born that I started really getting into the natural movement…way to late to do anything but make minor changes to my birth plan. So, I’m going to write about a friend of mine’s “natural c-section.”

My friend, a yoga teacher, living a green and organic life in Northern California, was happy to find herself finally married and pregnant in her forties. Well educated and well informed she planned to have a home birth until she received the devastating news from her OB and another OB and a series of midwives – a prior episode with fibroids, involving surgery, prevented her from having a vaginal birth, let alone a home birth. A C-section would be required.

I felt it was important to write about her story because there are ways to make a hospital birth, even a C-section, if you or your OB feel it’s necessary, more “natural” and feel less like medical intervention.

We went to labor classes, and I was all excited. I could do this, no epidural, no drugs. I’d run a marathon, I have a high pain threshold. I was all set mentally for this approach.

As it turned out, labor itself was enough of a marathon. One month to be exact. Did you know you can be in early labor for a whole month? Real contractions, off and on, for weeks. I knew that by the time my water broke, it would be go time.

Which turned out to be 1 a.m. on a Monday morning. The doctor on call was not worried, he did not know I had been through early labor already. We packed up and went to the hospital.

I refused the epidural initially, the contractions got stronger. I allowed them to “knock the edge off” with the epidural at seven. “Keep it light,” I said. Pretty soon it was time to push. And I pushed, and pushed. And pushed. Two hours of pushing. I watched the little one’s heart rate drop with every push. Something was not right. My pubic bone slanted inward, there was no way I could give birth naturally.

They cranked on the epidural and a c-section followed. My doctor offered to try natural birth — with forceps and risks. “Get the baby out, c-section, now!” I said. I had seen enough of her struggles on the heart rate monitor.