(no subject)

[eleri]

Blade called me tonight during his commute home to tell me that the Ron Reagan Show was doing a bit on cesareans. So I tune in via the internet feed, and listen to interesting conversation,pondering trying to call in but I can't find a number... and then the next caller was my hubby, singing the praises of midwives, and the social model of birth, and so forth. I was so proud of him!

He called me after and said he'd had to pull over so he could call, because he thought it was so important a view to present. Go Blade!

Comments

[farmleaf.livejournal.com]

Well, he is correct to tout midwives and the errors of automatically relying on c-sections. So many births in the US could be done at home, away from flesh eating streptococcus, away from MRSA bacteria, away from hospital-borne pneumonia and a host of other things. The average birth goes quite swimmingly, according to my mom (a former nurse). That doesn't mean that ALL births should be done at home. That's when a good midwife will know when to call for help, reducing the chance of infant/mother mortality.

I also think that c-sections are overdone in this country, at least. My mom (a retired Labor & Delivery nurse who worked in L&D for 40 years or so) used to decry the overuse of c-sections because doctors were trying to avoid malpractice suits, needed to get a head start on their vacation, felt the mother was taking too long, or some other reason. There's a valid need for sections, for sure. To use them to the degree the modern medical world does now is perhaps a bit much.

Thing is, what drives doctors to advise their patients to head to the hospital over home birth has to be the fear of being sued. The average American has become suit happy. If the slightest thing goes wrong, opinion is automatically against the doctor(s) unless he/she/they can prove they ran every test known and provided every procedure they could think of. Until we can convince the average bear that with health stuff, shit just sometimes happens even though the medical field did it's best, doctors and nurses will still advise people to go to the hospital to have their babies.

But anyway, go Blade! :)

[eleri.livejournal.com]

Yup, all of that. One of the factors is something Blade mentioned on the radio: Most OBGYNS have little to no training in *normal* birth; that is, the wide range of variations that someone giving birth can experience with no negative outcomes to mom and/or baby. They get chapters and chapters on everything that can go *wrong*, and so that's what they anticipate.

Add that to the fact that maternity wards are assembly line, understaffed, environments, and the one-on-one care that can support and assess a woman, the *feel* for 'working vs not' that you get from being around a laboring woman for hours, is utterly missing.

[kireishojo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, my mother can go on for hours about when she (a CNM) had to be the supervisor for the ObGyn residents for dartmouth university. The number of times she had to slap their hands.... she even told me she took their scissors away for being snip happy.

also did you know there is now a category of preemie which is directly related to the c-section happy doctors we have? i cant remember the proper name for it but it's basically a kid grabbed early because the doctor had the dates wrong and went for a c-section because to their math the mother was overdue.

[mokie-sassafras.livejournal.com]

Kudos to Blade for getting the message out!

I had 3 homebirths :)

[gcuvier.livejournal.com]

*confetti*

Goooooo Blade!

[docwebster.livejournal.com]

Happy birfday to Teh Buggy!