****DISCLAIMER: This isn’t meant as an argumentative piece. This isn’t meant as a piece designed to give advice. It’s just me… a girl, trying to make sense of my thoughts… And I’m letting you see my thoughts so please respect them…
You would think, that this here post going up on my site on election day might actually mean it’s related to the election. But truth be known.. I couldn’t give 2 shits about the election. I actually can’t wait for it to be over to borrow a term from one of my favourite friends (@TraceyMmm) .. I’m an apathist… I could not care any *less* about it.. Truly. Not. Possible.
So onto things I *do* care about…? Yes… There are some.. Though I am a firm believer in allowing people to make up their own mind. Allowing people to have their own beliefs.. I mean half the conflict in this world is resultant from people who feel the need to impress their beliefs on others… They feel that their beliefs or thoughts or feelings on a particular subject are such that everyone should uphold them? These people feel that everyone should think the way that they do? I personally couldn’t handle that. If everyone in the world agreed with me, I couldn’t handle it… (even if I’m right! :p)
But what I am getting at here… Is that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Everyone is entitled to have their own say on a matter. No matter how much research they may have done on a particular topic. I think that some people get too caught up in their passion that they forget this.
What happened the other day that got me particularly riled up? I have a group assignment for one of my subjects this semester. There are 5 people in the group. The subject is “mental health nursing”. We have a thread going on facebook. It’s basically an inbox message that has been running all semester. We get on there and post discussions, questions, tips, plans etc. The other day, one of the group members, another nursing student, started a conversation on this thread that was not in any way related to the assignment. And it’s not the first time she has done something like this.
Let me set the scene. She is a loud-mouthed american woman with a few kids. She is opinionated. I get that. But what I have a problem with is that the other day she started an argument.. Of the 5 people in our group assignment 2 of us are double degree nursing/midwifery students. One of those is me.
So this person started an argument on our discussion thread, in the inbox about the safety and what-not of homebirth vs. hospital birth. I suspect she was just doing so to be contentious. I mean, I know she is in vehemently in support of homebirthing. And that’s fine… She is so vehemently against hospital birth that she would be the type to make other mother’s feel inadequate or somewhat “less of a woman” purely because of how they birthed their children. I’d almost even go so far as to say that she would judge to the point that anyone who didn’t agree that homebirth is the best option; that they would be ridiculed and made to feel that choosing to give birth in hospital is somehow jeopardising her baby’s health…?
But why start an argument over it? She is continuously making off the cuff remarks about the midwifery students in my class. She is one of those people who makes me feel like I can’t be a good midwife because I haven’t had any babies…
I think that it’s fair enough that she has her opinions. But her constant remarks about the midwifery class in our year and their levels of maturity drive me nuts. I get that she has an opinion and it’s something she cares about, but it’s not something she cares *enough* about to actually study.. Yes, you heard me right.. She is not actually *in* the midwifery class, no.. She watches on….
Here’s the thing.. This is my opinion on homebirth. And I don’t give this lightly. In fact, I rarely feel the need to impress my opinions on others.. I just don’t feel it’s necessary. But this here is my little bloggy blog.. And I’ll write whatever I damn well please! I guess I am feeling a little lost lately. Cos I don’t really feel I have any “safe place” to discuss this. I feel that whatever I say “can and will be used against me in a court of law” so to speak. That is, that my opinions and beliefs that I have now should they change as I grow and mature and learn more about my chosen profession, that I’ll somehow be judged on these…?
Anyway.. Here is the thing on homebirth… One side of the argument you have those who are “for” it. They argue vehemently that there is no reason why a low-risk woman with a reasonably healthy pregnancy and no complications shouldn’t give birth at home if she so desires. The contention is that pregnancy is a normal life process, and should not be medicalised. Part of the argument outlining that if a woman is at home labouring, and is left to give birth naturally that nature is simply allowed to take it’s course. It goes along the lines that those hormones that control and are responsible for causing labour to occur and subsequently progress are over-ridden by things like adrenaline. Adrenaline comes into play when a person feels threatened or scared as can happen in hospital. Those who support homebirth argue that a new surrounding, new people, fear of the experience of giving birth, etc. As well as this is the theory that a normal labour and delivery is said to be more likely in this scenario, owing to the calm surrounds, and a woman who is empowered both through her own active education on the matter as well as the fact that the medical profession is not there to interfere, to intervene when it may not be as necessary.
It would seem the medical profession has a lot to answer for. And if it were not for the “cascade of intervention” that seems to occur, then women might feel safer about giving birth in hospital. The cascade of intervention referring to the growing trend that one intervention in labour or birth increases the chances of another intervention being necessary. Whether that intervention would be necessary regardless of other factors we will never know.
The way in which far too many women have given birth in hospital and ended up feeling “robbed” of their birthing experience because a doctor/obstetrician/medical professional has felt that the risk/convenience of said interventions are warranted given <insert particular scenario here>.
A homebirth from what I have read and heard from those who have done it, is one of the most empowering and earth-shattering experiences for the woman. It’s all natural, it’s all the way that nature intended.
I think the medical profession means well. But really… How often have you heard of a woman being induced because well.. she’s 5 days overdue and the obstetrician wants to go away for the weekend?
On the other side, as a midwife, being asked if I will conduct a homebirth when I am fully accredited. Weeeeellll.. I don’t know.. I mean, I want to see that women continue to have choices in their obstetric care. I want to see that women are free to choose this, and I also want to see that homebirths are not made illegal. But as a midwife.. *I* don’t know that *I* would have a homebirth myself! On the same token I would not judge any other for making that choice. It wouldn’t be right for me. But that’s not to say it wouldn’t be right for anyone else!
And I am not going to go on about whether a caesarian section is better or not. I am not going to be involved in that. A caesarian section IS still major abdominal surgery. But sometimes it is the best option for mother and baby. It’s a case of the risks and whether or not they outweigh the benefits. If you like, a cost vs. benefit analysis.
As a midwife, I can see the inherent risks involved with a homebirth. Basically a healthy, low-risk woman with no complications can go from 0-113 on the risk scale in a few seconds flat. The argument is that you don’t know who it’s going to happen to, or what is going to happen. This is not meant as a scare tactic, rather a simple statement of the fact.
A post-partum haemorrhage, a shoulder dystocia, a flat baby, cord round the neck. All rather serious obstetric emergencies. Scary! I don’t know if I could handle these on my own. I mean, I don’t imagine that there is 2 midwife’s present at a homebirth. I don’t know though. I haven’t been to one.
But I think that in labour and birth and maternity care. It is probably some substantial figure of deliveries that go to “plan” so to speak. But it’s those few that don’t. It’s those few that don’t who slip through the cracks. And for me.. it’s the simple fear that if things go wrong, they can go so seriously wrong. Without being AT a hospital near the help required, then there is that fear that those are the ones who will pay the greatest price.
But the question remains is it those women who are low-risk, with nil complications paying a price by having their births medicalised? I think personally, that as long as we maintain a bottom line of a health system where every single person can have their choices and their ideals maintained then we can say we are truly doing everything we can to provide the best healthcare options we ALL deserve.
Interesting post! I have to say…. When I had my little one, I reconnected with the world on bubhub.com.au and there were so SO SO many homebirth zealots there. People who basically called you stupid if you chose hospital and *gasp* obstetrician! My Ob was great – he told me that he was ‘insurance’ and that the midwife was the one who does all the work!
I see the argument about following the natural process of things. However, most modern women don’t realise that the medical role in birth was evolutionary – it’s not like all of a sudden, overnight, doctors and hospitals popped up and intervened. There is a reason birth has evolved that way – people died. Mothers and babies. A lot of them did. Nowadays in developed countries with high rates of birth in hospitals, mums and babies rarely die. I think the HB zealots forget this. (A bit like the anti-immunisation groups who never lived through diptheria, polio, typhus etc etc etc).
Anyway, my stance is each to their own, but I’d be dead if it wasn’t for my Ob!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Emz , Emz . Emz said: opinion poll….: http://wp.me/pHBXP-5v […]
I enjoyed your post. You are so right. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and everyone is entitled to voice it. Whilst you may not have had a baby yet, you are studying to become a midwife. You are armed with information and that gives you the absolute right to have an opinion.
I like the way you provide your opinion. You don’t cut down anyone who doesn’t agree with you, yet you provide compelling reasons for your beliefs. For someone so young you are so very wise. xx