This is just a beautiful hospital birth. The way a birth could be if the medical community would just allow it to be so. A couple of things still bothered me about it. The banging on the wall to make the woman be quiet during labor was annoying. Natural unmedicated childbirth is very vocal and that's a good thing. I also didn't like that the narrator (not sure if she was a nurse or a doula) was so quick to resign the woman to surgical birth.
But what I loved was the naturalness of the woman in finding her own birth position and of the doctor for just going with the flow. He was simply awesome.
Navelgazing Midwife: A Birth Unfolds in Photos & Words
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3 comments:
The narrator is me, the Navelgazing Midwife - and I am a Licensed Midwife. I wasn't "so quick to resign the woman to a surgical birth," but I had only worked with this OB once before and had she had ANY other doctor, she would have had a cesarean quicker than you could say, "Boo." Plus, it wasn't just me. The nurses, too, were frantic to get a baby out whose heart rate was 100 and lower, for goodness knows how long.
I am a very, VERY hard-working midwife - working to keep women OUT of the OR... I am a homebirth midwife, not a hospital midwife. I do VBACs regularly. I would never just flippantly suggest a woman go to have a cesarean. I was genuinely concerned about the safety of her baby.
In the hospital, doctors *can* stretch the boundaries of safety whereas I cannot with homebirth. If I had heartrates of 100, we would transport to the hospital because I cannot just wait it out like they can. They can do a cesarean at any moment it gets worse; I cannot.
I was very, very thankful we had THAT doctor at THAT moment and that he was SO calm and loving and HE was the one that made the decision and not me - I admitted that.
But, please don't think I am always so quick to think, "cesarean" - there was a very real reason. It turned out great, thought, didn't it? And for that, I am infinitely grateful!
Thank you for suggesting reading the story. I appreciate the link. Very much.
NgM
Thank you for explaining NgM. I have a lot of respect for homebirth midwives and I applaud you for all that you do to help women have safe and natural births. Your blog is becoming one of my favorites.
Thank you! I am flattered. You and I are soooooooooooooooooo different (on MANY levels) - but it speaks volumes of your heart that you are able to see into the commonality of birth and our desire to see women respected and treated humanely at one of the most amazing times of their lives.
I find your blog fascinating! Far, far from my life - but great to read about because you are a wonderful resource in our birth community. Thank you for being there.
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