33 Weeks - Thoughts on birth

33 weeks down, 7 to go! I had my midwife appointment this week and everything is going really well. Caleb is growing right on track, and his heart rate is perfect. I am also doing well - my blood pressure is back in the normal range (it was elevated while I had my cold) and my weight gain is still on track. I'm not +22 for the whole pregnancy. I feel fine about that. Like I said before, I just want to keep it under 30. Obviously Caleb is getting bigger right now, so 1 pound a week is expected for the next few weeks. 1/2 of that goes straight to baby, who is gaining .5 pounds a week.

This was a busy week. Of course it was Valentine's day. We had a great V-day. Ethan got me delicious chocolate covered strawberries which were delivered on Thursday, and then on the weekend, we made a very tasty meal together with steak, twice-baked potatoes and a chocolate cake for desert:


We also had our hospital led birth class this week, which covered c-sections and post partum recovery. Basically the class reinforced my idea that I don't really want visitors for the first week after the birth, because honestly, I'm probably going to be a mess and visits won't be fun for anyone. If any of you have seen me when I'm sick or just tired, you'd know that I'm not pleasant to be around :p

We also had our first hypnobirthing class with our doula. Hypnobirthing, in case you don't know, is basically a relaxation technique to help women relax and deal effectively with contractions without tensing up. Tensing up during labor is bad because it can slow the rate of labor and cause additional stress on the baby. Hypnobirthing is useful whether you are planning a natural labor or whether you plan to get pain meds, and the techniques are good for any scenario. I really like meditation and relaxation, and so far I'm finding the classes valuable. My doula also teaching the hypnobirthing, so it's a good way to get to know her better and bond with her before the birth.

Speaking of birth, it's obviously something I've been thinking and researching a lot about lately and I definitely have some opinions on the matter :) I'm about to get up on my soapbox now, so if that bothers you you might want to stop reading.

One thing that I've noticed a lot since becoming pregnant is that our culture surrounding birth is pretty screwed up. No offense to anyone out there, but almost everyone I talk to describes birth as a traumatic, scary, and painful event. It's interesting, because I really don't think it has to be that way. I think it can be a beautiful experience, although of course bad things can happen as well. I get frustrated with hearing birth stories sometimes, because often it seems like a lot of the choices are left out. For example, I might read a birth story about someone who planned to have an intervention free birth, but then their water broke at home, so they went to the hospital and within 1 hour of being checked in, were put on pitocin. The pitocin made the contractions too strong to bear, so they got an epidural. The epidural made them unable to push effectively, which lengthened the time of pushing. That combined with the strength of the pitocin led contractions caused the baby to be in distress, so the baby was sucked out with a vacuum extractor. That's an example of someone's birth plan going out the window right? But hey, the baby was born healthy so it was a successful birth, because ultimately the health of the baby is more important than the type of experience the birth mother has.

Uh...I guess it was a successful birth, but it was also a lucky birth, because as soon as pitocin is introduced to start labor that has not started on it's own, the risk of c-section goes up to 50%. I don't want to take those kind of chances for no good reason! (by the way this is not based on anyone I know - I read this birth story on a message board today)

So I would ask the mom, why did you let them put you on pitocin right away in the hospital? Was the baby in distress, or did they just want to speed up labor to get the baby out sooner because your water broke? Hospitals routinely start pitocin within a few hours of a woman's water breaking, whether or not she is experiencing contractions. This is because they want to deliver the baby within 24 hours. Studies have shown that after 24 hours the chance of uterine infection goes up. What they don't tell you is that the main reason that the incidence of uterine infection goes up is because bacteria is introduced, primarily through internal exams. On the other hand, if left alone, 85% of women will go into labor on their own within 8 to 12 hours of their water breaking with no additional intervention. Part of the reason I'm choosing a midwife and a doula is because I know that they won't push those kinds of interventions on me and in fact will support me in my choices not to have interventions unless the baby is in distress.

The whole water breaking = pitocin story is just one example. There are several of these scenarios. Another common one is inducing a woman at 41 weeks because it's hospital policy. Another one is that the baby is going to be too big (based on a growth ultrasound) to be delivered normally if he or she is allowed to continue to grow. It's really kind of shocking how many women are induced, or "augmented", in this country. There are OBGYNs out there who have delivered thousands of babies and only seen a handful of successful natural births!

I think it's because our culture sort of espouses the theory that women's bodies are not actually capable of giving birth, and if left to their own devices, we'd just all suffer gruesome births and even death. The reality is that most hospitals have a 30% + c-section rate and despite all our interventions, we have one of the highest maternal/fetal death rates in the developed world. On the other hand, countries like the Netherlands, where 1/3 of the women have home births, have much lower c-section rates and better outcomes for the mother and baby.

So anyhoo, I will get off my soapbox, but it's just something to think about. It's not even that I really feel that strongly about experiencing a natural birth (Although I'm genuinely not scared of labor. Even though I accept that it will be painful at times, I think it's a meaningful type of pain, and it's necessary, so why waste time being scared about it). The truth is I hate the idea of getting a c-section, I'm scared of pitocin and what it could do to me and my baby, and I really don't want to be stuck in a bed on an IV drip and unable to move my legs and walk around. Also, the recovery time is faster during a natural birth. If I all my plans go out the window, then so be it. I'm not going to be depressed over it, as long as Caleb is healthy. But at least I'll know it's not for lack education about the process.

It's getting late now and I have to work tomorrow, so I'm skipping the baby update for the week. This coming week is our last baby class and we'll be taking a tour of the labor and delivery section of the Birth Center! We also have a home and car seat safety class where Ethan will learn how to install the car seat. Should be an interesting week!