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Old March 14th, 2014 #6
Breanna
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A few modern trends worth discussing:

1. All decisions made about pregnancy and birth are based on doctors and hospitals fear of being sued. Decisions are not made based on what is best for the baby and the mother. If there is the slightest risk of something going wrong, the woman is pressured to accept a cascade of interventions. And it is only because the doctor/hospital is afraid of legal liability. 1/2 of all pregnant women are induced and 1/3 of all pregnancies end in cesarean, I do not believe for a second that HALF of all women need to be induced in order to give birth or that there is a valid reason why a third of all women need surgery in order to have a baby. And a cesarean may slightly decrease the risks to the present baby, but increases the risks in every future pregnancy that the woman has, with uterine rupture etc. So all it does is transfer the risks from the woman's current birth, onto her next pregnancy and birth. And the inductions are unnecessary and increase the risk of cesarean. Unfortunately it isn't just doctors but midwives as well, I like my midwives a lot but they still try to pressure me into things because if they don't they end up losing their hospital privileges. I have also noticed how hostile some hospitals and doctors are to midwives and have contempt for them. It all leads to the idea that birth is a scary thing and that something bad could happen at any moment, rather than the view that birth is a natural and normal thing. And it has been found that fear is actually the cause of nearly all pain in childbirth as well as slowing progress and causing problems. The obsession with risk is destroying normal birth. Everything we do in life involves risk.

2. The concept of a due date
There is really no such thing as a 'due date' and it's a completely man made concept invented so that people can fit babies and births into their neurotic schedules. Women should not have to spend their pregnancies and births fighting with their health care providers. At my hospital for example it is policy for women to schedule an induction at 41 weeks if they don't go into labour by then (in my case they want me to schedule a c-section at 41 weeks because I am a VBAC, which I absolutely refuse to do). A baby will come when he or she is ready. Doctors don't even know when a woman became pregnant, it's all only an estimate, so how can anybody schedule a date that a baby is supposed to come? Any women can be "less pregnant" than she believes she is, and it is best not to mess with nature's plan.

3. The pressure for men to be at the birth
This is such a new concept, throughout nearly all of history, birth has been a woman-only event. Western human post-1970s is the only being that has the male present during the female's labour, in all of history, of all peoples and species of animal. Childbirth was always considered to be woman's business.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...rth-child.html

Quote:
Leading obstetrician Michel Odent has been instrumental in influencing childbirth practices for decades.

Here, with a view that will outrage many - but will strike a chord with thousands of others - he describes why he believes that when a woman goes into labour, her partner should stay well away.

For many years, I have not been able to speak openly about my views that the presence of a father in a delivery room is not only unnecessary, but also hinders labour.

To utter such a thing over the past two decades would have been regarded as heresy, and flies in the face of popular convention.

But having been involved in childbirth for 50 years, and having been in charge of 15,000 births, I have reached the stage where I feel it is time to state what I - and many midwives and fellow obstetricians - privately consider the obvious.

That there is little good to come for either sex from having a man at the birth of a child.

For her, his presence is a hindrance, and a significant factor in why labours are longer, more painful and more likely to result in intervention than ever.

As for the effect on a man - well, was I surprised to hear a friend of mine state that watching his wife giving birth had started a chain of events that led to the couple's divorce?
Quote:
The final question I would like to see answered is what, if a man is present at birth, will be the effect on the sexual attraction he feels towards his wife over the long term?

When men first started standing at their partner's side during labour, I remember my mother's generation saying, very matter of factly, that the couple's intimate life would be ruined as a result.

And, given that the key to eroticism is a degree of mystery, I am left believing they had a point.

There are many things we do in private in order to preserve a degree of modesty and mystery.

And, for the benefit of our sex lives, it may be worth adding childbirth to this list.

I have three children and wasn't present at any of their births.

My first two were born before it was considered normal for a man to be at the birth of their child. But my youngest son was born in 1985, at home.

As it happens, at the exact moment our son arrived in the world, the midwife was on her way down the street and I, having made my excuses realising he was about to be born, was fiddling with the thermostat on the central heating boiler downstairs.

My partner did not know it, but I had given her the exceptionally rare, but ideal situation in which to give birth: she felt secure, she knew the midwife was minutes away and I was downstairs, yet she had complete privacy and no one was watching her.

If there are any doubts, we only have to look across the rest of the mammal world in order to see that no other female, save the human female, invites her sexual partner to witness her giving birth.

Of course, it would not be possible for women to give birth alone.

But the optimum situation for women is to give birth with an experienced midwife, or another woman - known as a doula.

The key to the perfect birthing partner is finding a mother figure who can help, keep a low profile and remain silent.

It is only 35 years since men first entered the delivery room, yet we have welcomed them in without question.

At the present time, when birth is more difficult and longer than ever, when more women need drugs or Caesareans, we have to dare to smash the limits of political correctness and ask whether men should really be present at birth.

When we take into consideration the effects of this on male and female, it seems the answer is not.

It is time to go back to basics, and turn modern convention on its head.

When it comes to the delivery suite, men would be well advised to stay away.
I also believe that the reason many women want their husband to be at the birth is because they want to make him feel guilty for the struggle that she has to go through.

I have even spoken with women who scheduled inductions because they could not find somebody willing to be on-call to watch their older child when they go into labour. I always thought, why can't their husband do it?
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