One born every minute USA

[Froslass]

Oh and I do know my body but I don't know if my baby is in distress, if my contractions are making progress or if I am fully dilated before I push so I am happy that I trust midwives and their years of experience and continuing learning to get my baby safely into the world. That is THE ONLY thing that matters to me x

Well said

 

[Constantstar]

Totally agree my main concern is baby and my welfare and mws know what they r doing and wouldn't suggest anything if it wasn't for mine or baby's welfare! they were rude to the older midwife. Midwifes r thereto help us!! If she needs to examine me she needs to, If she suggests something I will listen to her u know x

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

Humans have been giving birth successfully for generations longer than we have had things such as midwives

Trust yourself thats what i say

 

[cosmicgirl]

Totally agree my main concern is baby and my welfare and mws know what they r doing and wouldn't suggest anything if it wasn't for mine or baby's welfare! they were rude to the older midwife. Midwifes r thereto help us!! If she needs to examine me she needs to, If she suggests something I will listen to her u know x

I agree, 100% xx

 

[AugustMum]

I think my midwife should move to america. She kept strapping me up to those bloody machines for ages!

I think they have such a high epi rate because theres just isn't alot of other types of pain relief offered which is just rediculous. I all for epis if you want them, but I don't believe you should just walk into hospital at 3cm and be offered one because its whats considered normal :/

I did also notice they were just sat on the bed. Urgh.

I didn't like that natural birth couple. I dont think they were put across as being crazy, I just think they were being put across as being stupid in how they were treating the midwife. I didn't feel she was being too forceful at all and they just kept looking to their doula. Now if I have another child I will have a doula there, but the midwives have been trained and usually do what is best for your baby (I say usually due to my own experience) so to constantly undermine (this is what I felt they were doing) the midwife was just annoying to watch!

Fair play to her though for doing it all and being in control. But I do feel they shouldnt have dismissed the midwife so easily and lets face it, they might as well of slapped her round the face with a rubber chicken when they asked for the younger woman to come in!

 

[cosmicgirl]

Humans have been giving birth successfully for generations longer than we have had things such as midwives

Trust yourself thats what i say

Mortality rates also have dropped considerably over the years, thankfully ladies are now safer delivering and death of mum is not as common now x

 

[cosmicgirl]

Yeah they were rude and disrespectful, didn't like the way they treated her at all x

 

[cosmicgirl]

I couldn't live with myself if I didn't listen to my mw and something bad happened to my lo, I would never risk that. Completely agree with women maybe not wanting pain relief or epidural (if you handle the pain, fair enough) but when people don't listen to mw advice/concerns re: baby/monitoring for distress/progression it doesn't make sense to me x

 

[Froslass]

Humans have been giving birth successfully for generations longer than we have had things such as midwives

Trust yourself thats what i say

Midwives have been around for centuries assisting women in childbirth. A lot more women also died during childbirth before midwives were able to learn and understand the process of childbirth.

I agree that no one knows your body like yourself, but for some women (and I'm sure some women on here will agree) labour gets wildly out of their control and if it wasn't for the midwives and doctors neither mother nor baby would have survived the birth.

The couple in question obviously took a dislike to the midwife, it was nothing to do with natural childbirth as they happily let the other midwife check.

I hopefully will be having nothing other than gas and air during my labour, but if the midwife advised me my baby could possibly be in danger or be getting distressed, I'd certainly listen to her - it would be totally irresponsible not to.

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

its very very different in this country though, midwives are trained to assist natural delivery, not trained in highly medical procedures and taught (by a system that has made medicine a business) to use as much intervention as possible. The politics are entirely different when dealing with British midwives.

I also think if you don't feel a connection to a midwife and have been used to dealing with another one, you have every right to go with that connection and follow what you think is right. Its not about making the midwife feel comfortable, its about making the Woman feel comfortable.

the death rates around labour are far more to do with things like scans and mointoring post-natally, more sterile living environments and our ideas on hygiene etc. Nothing to do with over medicalising birth (though there is no doubt it is fantastic that for the FEW births that need medical intervention that intervention is there... but with a 90% intervention rate in America, compared to a 40% intervention rate in Britain, we are talking about a totally different kettle of fish here!

If i were in America i would certainly rate my doula's advice above a pushy midwife, i would also have to be incredibly strong to hold to my guns and have a natural childbirth which is NOT something you should have to fight for.

 

[AugustMum]

As Miss Jessie J would put it....


It's all about the money, money, money!

 

[Froslass]

its very very different in this country though, midwives are trained to assist natural delivery, not trained in highly medical procedures and taught (by a system that has made medicine a business) to use as much intervention as possible. The politics are entirely different when dealing with British midwives.

I also think if you don't feel a connection to a midwife and have been used to dealing with another one, you have every right to go with that connection and follow what you think is right. Its not about making the midwife feel comfortable, its about making the Woman feel comfortable.

the death rates around labour are far more to do with things like scans and mointoring post-natally, more sterile living environments and our ideas on hygiene etc. Nothing to do with over medicalising birth (though there is no doubt it is fantastic that for the FEW births that need medical intervention that intervention is there... but with a 90% intervention rate in America, compared to a 40% intervention rate in Britain, we are talking about a totally different kettle of fish here!

If i were in America i would certainly rate my doula's advice above a pushy midwife, i would also have to be incredibly strong to hold to my guns and have a natural childbirth which is NOT something you should have to fight for.

I do agree with what you've said here yeah. Midwives in America are much pushier whihc annoyed me slightly, I just thought It was odd for that couple not to take her advice or even let her check for dilation considering the baby could have been in distress if you know what I mean.

I think we're very lucky in britain to have Midwives that are very supportive of natural birth.

With regards to death rate, I was meaning that midwifes can tell a lot by just checking cervix, mabe the babies head is there, but stuck as sometimes happens? After 22 hours in labour (or whatever it was) theres a good chance the baby could have been distressed, or could have been a reason for the baby not coming? I think that was the only reason she wanted to check her, as her main priority yes is the mother to be comfotable, but she is also responsible for the lives of both mother and baby - so I'm guessing would want to be on the safe side.

I didn't realise the couple had been dealing with the other midwife sorry

 

[Froslass]

As Miss Jessie J would put it....


It's all about the money, money, money!

This is probably soooo true! x

 

[tinytoes]

I totally think that a woman should be able to have a natural childbirth if she chooses , i wanted one with Aoibheann but my experience was bad and intervention and monitoring saved her life .
Now I do feel the show may have tried to put the parents in a bad light and make them seem foolish which I totally disagree with (but its entertainment and thats how television works) . I was a bit surprise to see alll the women were having hormones to help with labour in what seemed to be standard practice ? But that would account for the need for an epidural and pictocin makes contractions very brutal very fast . I didnt like they the nurses appeared to offer epidurals like sweeties I practically had to beg for one , And even then I was asked to consider it carefully as I had wanted a mobile birth (as I said nothing went right for us )
I do have to add though that if you are i a hospital , being cared for by a midwife then there is no need to treat her badly they are responsible for you and are going to treat you how they have been trained to do , in my opinion if you are not prepared to co-operate (and are therefore putting them in a bad position) then you should seek out an alternative birth centre . Manners dont cost much and I did feel sorry for her .

 

[Constantstar]

I agree natural childbirth is of course always good but I just found the couple odd, couldn't make their own decisions, were pretty rude etc. Why go in to hospital if u don't want the midwifes to help you. Why not have a home birth with the doula Which would have made sense. It's not like the hosp are going to leave the couple and the doula on their own to use the facilities and let them get on with it !! It's the midwifes job to be there if u have a hospital birth!! As I said I totally agree with natural births but come on the midwife was not pushy in there case! But i can totally see how easily they give out epidurals etc and don't even blink they just say ok but in this case it wasnt relevant!! Midwife said things like ' I need to examine you ' and also things like' if you turn to your side it will be better for baby ' but the couple were quite rude! This could be down to editing and u never know they may watch obem uk and think omg too!!

 

[AugustMum]

Some insurance policies in the US dont cover homebirths Its sad really. They really aren't given a huge amount of choice really which is surprising. We really are very lucky to have the things that we do here as well as the nhs.

The first lady baffled me. Walk in, get an epi and push! lol. How simple was that!

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

you can usually predict dilation of a labouring woman by how spaced out her contractions are, and also what sort of noises she is making

This is something midwives in this country are very trained to do (hence me not needed loads of internals) just by sound and sight they can tell so much.

As for medicalising birth, some of the lowest health insurance plans dont cover childbirth at all, that costs extra and some only cover ceasarians.

to put it into perspective, if you are on the highest level of medical insurance available in america and your baby has a very low survival rate or quality of life when you have your 20 week scan, your insurance will pay for iron lungs, drugs and treatment to keep baby alive even if it does not have kidneys or a bladder or has a massive skull deformity which means its brain is outside of its body and it will suffer immensely with whatever life it is given.

If you are on the lower health care schemes in america, and your baby is found to have a hair lip, which in most cases means it will need a small operation costing around $200 when it is born to correct the slight issue, then the insurance doesnt cover that, so you have some babies born with no quality of life and kept alive with medical treatments on one side, whilst small minor issues on babies have to be aborted as the health care doesnt cover it.

Its ALL about money, if you can afford it you can get ridiculous things, if you cant afford it you are not even allowed to give safe passage into this world to a health newborn baby

Absolutely warped! And they think WE are socialist nazi's for having a public health service and almost overthrew the Obama government for trying to put a similar thing through.

so you can see how silly it is to compare the service we receive in Britain to what goes on in America, where nearly 50% of their births are ELECTIVE Caesarians! Its an entirely different kettle of fish!

 

[Froslass]

you can usually predict dilation of a labouring woman by how spaced out her contractions are, and also what sort of noises she is making

This is something midwives in this country are very trained to do (hence me not needed loads of internals) just by sound and sight they can tell so much.
!

Yes but my point is, this wont be true for every single woman. Why take the risk when you can just check to be safe?

The midwife wanted to check her to be safe as she was in her care - the noises that woman was making didn't sound very normal to me, but that was the way she dealt with labour.

There are some women who are in excruciating pain and are only 1-3cm...Others have very speedy deliveries and are at 10cm before they even really realise. Every woman has a different pain threshold, and the midwife was just doing her job by wanting to check her for the safety of mother and baby.

I agree about the over medicating, I totally am no disputing that one bit, and good on that couple for sticking with their natural birth - but they were still silly not to take the midwives advice.

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

the noises she was making were actually perfect for a labouring woman Low throbbing moans will keep your body relaxed and flexible, high-pitched noises tense everything up - this is a very simple hypno birthing technique

Try it next time you have sex, make a low throbbing noise and then follow it with a high pitched noise, you will feel your body react very differently to either one.

It is true that there are exceptions to every rule, but that is why one internal is reccomended, to see wether the moans match the contractions and the contractions match the dilation. Her labour was text book and she did not need to be rushed because she was in labour for 15 hours, this is actually very, very normal.

The more intervention you get, the more medical assistance you need, its a vicious cycle and where as i agree in this country it is not likely you will be pushed into a situation where you have to fight for a natural birth, in America it is very, very different and i can totally understand why she just needed time and space to labour alone without being messed about with because a midwife felt like it.

 

[Constantstar]

I don't think the midwife 'felt like it' lol I think she was doing her job but that's my opinion and I don't really know much about labour in America I guessing can only go on my personal preferences and wishes and I'd say the midwife wants to know how I'm doing and if I'm ok -she can go ahead- I only want gas and air if I can help it. I dont see why her checking on me and the baby is a problem! I'd be quite pleased I was being looked after !! Xx