Hey Anne Marie, some of the feedback I got from our Cycle Mindfulness Club members was that they’d like to read more positive stories of unmedicated birth in hospitals. They haven’t seen much of that on the website.”
When I received this email from a Natural Womanhood colleague earlier this year, I first grimaced and then smiled ruefully. At the time, I was pregnant with my fifth child (and still in the Managing Editor role at NW), and I wished I had such a story of my own to share.
My previous experience was the opposite of a positive hospital birth story
After a completely uncomplicated pregnancy, my fourth child’s birth had been unnecessarily dramatic, and even traumatic. First, my nurse had failed to recognize when I was in transition from the active labor stage to the pushing stage. This, combined with the on-call OB/GYN’s hands-off attitude after I’d refused to have my waters broken (and other proffered interventions to “speed things up”), resulted in my son being born without a doctor present, very nearly on the concrete floor in the middle of the room. That wasn’t the problematic part, though. Because no one expected him (high irony, given that I was, in fact, on a labor and delivery unit), everyone who came into the room thereafter treated his birth like an emergency.
Though my son had a hearty cry at birth, his cord was immediately clamped and he was whisked away to the warmer without anyone asking my permission first. None of that skin-to-skin time for us. Worst of all, before I knew what was happening, the medical resident was up to her elbow inside of me, tugging on my placenta without warning, let alone my consent.
Though my son had a hearty cry at birth, his cord was immediately clamped and he was whisked away to the warmer without anyone asking my permission first. None of that skin-to-skin time for us. Worst of all, before I knew what was happening, the medical resident was up to her elbow inside of me, tugging on my placenta without warning, let alone my consent.
The more time elapsed after my son’s birth, the more frustrated and angry I became at the “care” I’d received. I spoke to upper-level management at both the hospital and the OB/GYN practice, and negotiated $1000 off my doctor bill because of the poor treatment my son and I received. Still, that didn’t wipe away or cancel out the postpartum OCD I developed as a result of the utter lack of control and respect I experienced during my most physiologically and emotionally vulnerable time.
Many women I knew hadn’t had positive hospital births either
Sadly, the more women I talked to, the more stories I heard of similarly negative experiences. The circumstances differed, but invariably, these low-risk women weren’t listened to and/or were pressured to accept interventions they didn’t want, some culminating in C-sections. (And since, despite high success rates, many doctors remain uneasy about vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC), one C-section often begets another, with all the attendant risks.)
Sadly, the more women I talked to, the more stories I heard of similarly negative experiences. The circumstances differed, but invariably, these low-risk women weren’t listened to and/or were pressured to accept interventions they didn’t want, some culminating in C-sections.
It’s true that Natural Womanhood has published plenty of cautionary articles over the years about medically unnecessary C-sections, the potential harms of inductions scheduled for convenience or other dubious reasons, and other ways labor and delivery units tend not to “follow the science” of birth. But we publish this content not because we revel in it, but because we believe women deserve to make informed choices to achieve the best outcomes for themselves and their babies. All in all, when I read my Natural Womanhood colleague’s email requesting more positive, unmedicated hospital birth stories, I thought “I’d like to hear (and publish!) some of those, too.”
Why not just have a homebirth?
Of course, some people advocate that low-risk women abandon hospital birth altogether, arguing that the system is broken and simply can’t be fixed. Indeed, as more women share traumatic hospital birth stories, homebirth intrigues and attracts more women every year. But I am not among them, and I know I am not alone. (Additionally, birth centers staffed by midwives certainly represent another viable option, as my own sister has experienced twice.)
Despite my own experiences in the hospital setting, I have been determined to find evidence that hospitals could still be a safe place for low-risk women to have unmedicated, low-intervention births. And since women with high-risk pregnancies require a level of monitoring and the ready availability of equipment, interdisciplinary staff, and advanced medical treatments that are only available in the hospital setting, I knew they could benefit most from a cultural shift toward watchful waiting, one that respects and supports the labor process and only intervenes if necessary.
Despite my own experiences in the hospital setting, I have been determined to find evidence that hospitals could still be a safe place for low-risk women to have unmedicated, low-intervention births.
To sum up, when we conceived baby #5 (my sixth pregnancy, including one early miscarriage) I remained reluctant to cede the hospital space. But I had no desire to be a sacrificial lamb fighting against “the system” in the context of labor and birth. So, newly pregnant again and armed with knowledge about my options (not to mention the wealth of information available at Natural Womanhood about labor and birth), I began exploring ways I could have the respectful, dignified, and empowered birth I wanted within the hospital.
Read Part II to see what we did differently this time to have a truly positive, empowering hospital birth.
