RE: 10 Good Reasons I Haven't Been on Steemit in a Month - Big Announcement!
Hi @evecab! How great that the Panama Mamas come together here :) I heard women say this all the time about their first (and other) births, (about being too much of a chicken) but remember, midwives usually have much more 'hands on' experience, and a lot of doctors are men...they will never know what you feel. I believe people put too much trust in doctors for their births, when in reality, the midwives know as much, if not more about healthy pregnancies and birth. Doctors tend to work more from protocol and because they're dealing with a lot of issues, they work from problems. There is a video of Ina May Gaskin where she says that she asked 89 Ob/Gyns at a conference for birth to raise their hands if they had seen a natural birth. None raised their hands... It's kinda like this: the man with the hammer sees nails everywhere. Any way: How are you feeling? I hope everything is great and you get to enjoy your pregnancy fully!
This is quite true and I definitely prefer a midwife. Sadly, Panama isn't pro-midwives. I am having a hard time finding anyone outside of Panama City (and I'm not sure I'd go with an indigenous midwife). Even the doctors who allow homebirth in Panama City are a husband and wife team. They have a pic on their website with Ina May!
Oh hehe, that's cool. I hope they learned from them. I always get the chills when I hear people say 'the doctor allows' or 'I wasn't allowed to move' or similar. It implies that the doctor or even the midwife is the boss and that birth is not autonomous. Every woman everywhere should have full autonomy on how and where she wants to birth in a healthy pregnancy. Doctors often hide behind the words: But if you do this, we can't guarantee...' while the fact is that they can never guarantee anything. They will simply never know how any birth will be or end. I'll have to find that website :)
yeah I agree...and I also really want to avoid a C-section =(. Here they just looove to administer them because it's easy and quick, and good $$$...
The 'trick' is to know what you want in advance and have a birth partner who will be your voice. Fear is the worst enemy and in a lot of hospital settings, that's exactly what they will play on during birth (i.e. making you feel guilty for wanting or not wanting certain things). In my case, with my second, I asked about literally everything why they were going to do it and if it was absolutely necessary. In the end, none of what the midwife wanted to do was needed...and the things she did do in the end, were also un-necessary but she told me it was for something else. I once did an interview with a midwife who had been working in a hospital for 6 years and independent for 25 years and when she told me that she 1. had never cut a cord before it had stopped pulsating and 2. never 'cut' a woman or anything remotely in that area, I asked her why she had never done that. (I didn't know much at the time) She replied: Because it is never necessary. That totally opened my eyes to a lot of things. Most interventions are done for their comfort. And with even just one intervention, also comes fear in the mother sometimes, which is simultaneous to adrenaline release in the body. The very last hormone anyone wants or needs during birth. I learned one very valuable thing during my last two births and that is to 'check the jaw', if the jaw is relaxed, the body is. You can't have a relaxed jaw with a tense body and the other way around...It may sound weird, but it's true.