Birth Story Part 2 - A Natural Childbirth?

This is the second of my three-part birth story series. This post is about my experience of wanting a natural childbirth for my baby, and how it actually played out on the day, particularly given the preparation and forethought that Charles and I had put into ensuring an intervention-free birth. The first part of my birth story looked at the day just as it happened, which you can read here. The third and final part looks at the natural methods we employed to assist in various ways both in preparation for and during the birth of our baby. 

Part 2: A Natural Childbirth?

One thing that Charles and I had been very certain of during my pregnancy, was that we wanted to have a natural childbirth for our baby. No unnecessary intervention, no use of drugs and procedures 'as a matter of course', just allowing our bodies and our instincts to guide us. We are of the opinion that babies have been successfully born for a very long time, and modern medicine, with all it's bells and whistles, has been around for a very short time - so are these interventions really necessary? You can read more about my thoughts surrounding my desire for a natural childbirth in my post Planning A Natural Childbirth.

What we found was that in Australia, the rates for normal, physiological childbirth are as low as 5% of all births [source]. A normal, physiological childbirth is one that does not involve medical intervention of any kind - just birthing a baby, the way nature intends for us to do. The processes involved, the interrelations between mother and baby bodies and hormones, the intricate ways of the body during childbirth - these could never be replicated by any medical procedure, and for me, any thought that a medical process could be 'better' than allowing nature to take it's course, is sheer arrogance on the part of the medical profession, and utter nonsense. Acknowledging the necessity of medical intervention in a very small number of actual emergency situations [don't be fooled - the terminology used suggests there are more emergencies than there actually are].

We educated ourselves very well. We attended a birthing course, we researched, we looked at different options for places to give birth, and we considered what kind of support we wanted. We established very early on that we did not want an obstetrician present - as the rates of intervention are higher [sometimes significantly] when an obstetrician was in attendance. Thankfully for us, the closest hospital just started up a new midwife led birthing model, and we decided that this was a good option. Not the best, but the best we could get in our location. I commenced antenatal care with one of two midwives involved in the program, Tom, and we made our desire for an intervention free, drug free childbirth very clear. A second midwife joined the program much closer to our due date, Colleen, who we didn't get to spend as much time with, or make our desires fully clear with.

Anyway, fast forward to the day we turn up with me in labour. Within five minutes of being in the birthing suite, I tripped up twice in my efforts for a natural childbirth - and in ways that we had been coached to look out for. Such is the strength of the medical model. Colleen just asked me to hop on the bed, I can't remember what the exact terminology was, but she didn't say 'I'm going to attach a foetal heartrate monitor which will see you strapped to the bed for the next 20 plus minutes and make contractions extremely painful' [and increase the risk of further interventions], it was something more along the lines of 'just hop up on the bed and we'll see how baby's going'. As soon as I realised what was going on, and had a contraction come at the same time, I ripped at the straps until they were off. I remember repeating the words 'baby's fine, everything's fine'. Tom also suggested to Colleen that she just let it go. This was the first thing we said no to.

At the same time as getting me onto the bed, Colleen was waving a form in front of me that I had to sign - 'just sign here, we need you to sign here'. Being not fully with it, I signed the form, thinking it was some sort of hospital admission form, only to realise seconds later that I had just signed a disclaimer saying I agreed to a managed 3rd stage and an episiotomy, and there was more but that's all I managed to glimpse. Wonderful Charles got a pen and put a line through all the clauses, while I was verbally saying, 'no, I don't agree unless it's absolutely necessary'. Again, Tom was the go-between between us and Colleen, basically saying to her to just let it go. This was the second thing we said no to. The worst part about both of these potential intervention scenarios was that we knew to look out for them, and yet it still happened. If you were not prepared to deal with the way the medical system operates, I don't think you would stand much chance of having an intervention-free birth in Australia.

Anyway, for the next couple of hours we were left mostly to our own devices, me in the bath and Charles helping me through contractions. Every now and then either Tom or Colleen would check in with us, or want to listen to baby's heart rate, which was all fine. The only funny thing here, was that for a little while, I was making no noise whatsoever - I was in a space I had learned through the hypnobirthing soundtrack I had been using for the past few weeks, and was really able to breath through those contractions very calmly. The problem was, it appeared to the midwives that my labour was stalling, as there were no sounds coming from me, and this led to a few comments about potentially speeding up the labour if it wasn't progressing. I ended up going back to making noise enough for them to be satisfied that something was in fact happening, just so as there wouldn't be any talk of speeding things up.

The second stage of labour saw the most pressure for interventions. I was coming under pressure to have my waters artificially ruptured, since they hadn't yet broken. I honestly don't know why this even comes up - baby is perfectly capable of being born with the membranes intact, so if the waters don't break, they don't break. Also at this stage I was on the table in a position without any assistance from gravity, and I found the pushing pretty hard going. There was constant pressure from Colleen [a trained surgeon] to make 'just a little cut' [read: episiotomy] to help baby out. Both Charles and I were starting to get annoyed by this stage, and we had to keep on repeating 'no, it's not happening' at every suggestion. I just can't fathom it - my body would be better off tearing, as it would heal better, than if I was cut. Yes, pushing was hard work. Yes, I was ready for it to be over. But not to the extent that I would even contemplate being cut to speed it up.

Even once baby had been born, the pressure didn't end - there was pressure to have the injection of artificial oxytocin to speed up delivery of the placenta [which interferes with the natural oxytocin produced by the mother, and in turn interferes with mother-baby bonding, and breastfeeding], there was pressure to have the baby's cord cut straight away [we chose to cut the cord once the blood in it had all been returned to baby - baby needs this blood!] and there was pressure to whisk baby away to be weighed and measured straight away [when this is the best time for mother-baby bonding to take place - interference here can lead to problems with bonding and breastfeeding]. We were starting to sound like a broken record: 'no', 'no', 'no'. In a perfect situation, we wouldn't have to worry about any of this; we would instead be able to focus on meeting and bonding with our new baby. But the medical model of birthing is far from a perfect situation, and we held our ground well.

Then there is baby. Standard practice is an injection of vitamin K for the baby at birth. Now, babies are not born with any vitamin K in their bodies, and there is none in the first breast milk. Which raises the question - why does baby need a vitamin K injection? Basically, vitamin K helps with blood clotting, so in the instance where baby is damaged following delivery [think use of forceps] and there is internal bleeding, then vitamin K would be essential. But does it therefore need to be administered as standard practice, to every baby born? You decide, but we didn't want this for our baby. So again, we had to say no. We also declined a hepatitis B vaccination, which in Australia is standard at birth. Again, I cannot fathom why - at birth, a child has no immune system of it's own, so we inject it with substances that can be potentially harmful in the name of protection - but at what cost? Seriously, what is the risk of baby being exposed to hepatitis B at this age? The next hepatitis B immunisation is due at 6 weeks, and we are undecided about whether to have this or not.

At the end of the day, I am happy that I had a natural childbirth. There were no drugs in my system, and Tom even commented on how clear William's eye's were, due to my not having had drugs. The natural bonding process was allowed to occur promptly, William started breastfeeding promptly, and the natural flow of hormones that control these processes was able to occur. The one area where I did receive artificial assistance was in dilating from 9cm to 10cm. I don't know/didn't know enough about that situation to really make an informed decision on the day, so I have to be happy with my decision  to accept that assistance. The reason I'm writing this story is to share just how difficult it is, to achieve a natural childbirth when you're operating under the medical model [in a hospital situation]. Intervention is standard practice, and to avoid intervention, you are stepping outside the norm, you will be considered different, or difficult,  and you need to be strong enough to back your own decisions, in the face of 'experts' telling you otherwise.

I would like to finish by noting one other point. The people involved in my birth situation, all did their jobs as they have been trained to do, and to the best of their ability. Obviously we had to say 'no' to Colleen so many times during the day, but I know that she was doing her best to help me in the way that she knows how. So I'm not writing this post to be critical in any way, because I'm not. Honestly, I'm very happy with how our birth happened. I'm just writing it to highlight how difficult it can be, in the face of modern medical birthing practices, to achieve a natural childbirth. But it is worth it. For me the proof is in the calm, happy little baby that we now have. 

Read Part 1 of my birth story - As It Happened
Read Part 3 of my birth story - Natural Methods