Well, turns out I was right although admittedly the study cites improvements in the way we administer anesthesia as one of the big reasons for the change. Over 3000 women were studied and all were ‘low risk’ for complications. The study showed that outcomes (c-section, operative vaginal birth or apgars) were no better, and no worse if a woman ate and drank or if she didn’t and there was no evidence conclusive evidence of Mendelson’s syndrome. The studies didn’t interview the women on their views of their labor experience. (Apparently that’s not important).

Midwives let people eat because practice is based on 1. Not assuming that something is going to go wrong where you will end up in surgery. 2. Women need to feel nurtured during labor and they recognize that. 3. You can eat it, but you’re probably going to throw it up during the transition phase anyway…… (at least I warned ya!)

With my subsequent two children, I was bound and determined not to be induced. With both my other children, I decided to start daily acupuncture treatments about a week before my due date. My daughter was born on her due date, and my son on the day before his. The needles create a stimulation in the body which is used to reprogram the mother’s energy in such a way as to get her body ready for labor. Acupuncture has no known side effects and as the needles do not come close to the abdomen, there is no potential negative side effect for the child.

Acupuncture for induction of labor was described beautifully by the author of the blog innerfire.org:

“Labor is a spiritual journey. When your spirit, the spirit of your child, and the spirit of the father are ready the birth will begin. Have patients and see the experience as the most amazing passage you will most likely have as a family. You are ushering a new life into this world. Breathe and observe every second with awe, love and hope for the new life. Using acupuncture to induce labor does not push you through the experience prematurely or too quickly. Acupuncture balances you and prepares you for the passage. Take a deep breath and say hello to a new life.”

If you are worried about adding the cost of acupuncture treatments to your birth-related fees, consider looking for a community acupuncture clinic in your town. Santa Fe’s We the People Community Acupuncture is a great one in my area. They offer treatments on a sliding scale for $20-40 per treatment. To find a community clinic in your area, you can visit the Community Acupuncture Network online.

However, one of things that keeps me up a night when I think about embarking on a career as a midwife (the person actually in charge of helping the baby come out-yikes) is what we called ‘asynclitic’ babies- those who’s heads are not in the preferred position to get born.  Their little heads are turned in such a way that it can make labor long, dilation difficult and can result in c-section if not resolved.  There are lots of ways to deal with minor malpresentations, and in this post, I am gathering up tips and tricks to educated myself, so every birth IN my dreams, comes out like the birth OF my dreams.

I found this one website which seems to have it all. I was very impressed. Although some of the discussion is quite technical at times, for those of you who are not into the lingo, know that a baby can be turned!! There are several important things I learned, but this one is the most interesting…

There have been (anecdotally) higher instances of OP babies in the last decade or so. OP babies are babies that are facing the wrong way and are responsible for back labor and a much higher chance of ‘obstetrical managed labor’. So….not a good thing.

One New Zealand midwife named Jean Sutton, who is somewhat legendary it seems in turning OP babies thinks that the higher instance is due to women sitting in chairs. Apparently when a woman’s hips are lower than her pelvis, and she is sitting leaning back, gravity carries the spine of the baby toward earth-making the baby posterior. She recommends that pregnant women who are 36+ weeks do a lot of sitting while leaning forward or upright to get their hips higher than their knees and their bellies lower than the spine for at least a short time every day. She has seen almost no OP babies since she began this practice. Apparently she has a really great book on the subject of OP babies that I am going to have to get.

The other important point I took away from this rather lengthy compilation was that women should talk to their babies and tell them what they need to do. Apparently many of them DO listen. : )

This relates to my older post about Preterm babies and my inquiry as to why they weren’t talking about sections.  ”There are increases across the board,” she (CDC epidemiologist Joyce A. Martin) said — in all age groups, for most race and ethnic groups and in all states. Overall, the rate of preterm births increased from 6.8 to 8.1 percent, according to the report. The percentage of induced late preterm births more than doubled between 1990 and 2006, from 7.5 to 17.3 percent, according to the report. The percentage of late preterm births delivered by cesarean rose by 46 percent, from 23.5 to 34.3 percent.

The report goes on to highlight the problems with preterm births, including the higher instance of respiratory problems and long-term neurological problems.  They mention how advances in monitoring and subsequent identification of ‘problems’ with babies (distress) are leading to these higher rates, but also the fact that technological advances have made health care providers more ‘comfortable’ with delivering preterm babies.

I guess doctors feel it’s better to avoid the lawsuit involved with knowingly letting a premature ‘distressed’ baby keep going through labor than to potentially deal with the consequences of the long term effects of premature birth. (Most likely they won’t be held accountable there, after all, they can prove that they did everything to get that baby out.) No studies that I know of are addressing the issue of premature induction-which is causing most of these c-sections.

If a baby is not full term, and the mother is induced, could it be possible that the baby will experienced undo stress simply because they are not ready to come out?  Even if a mother is supposedly full term, and an induction of labor results in fetal stress, should we not attempt to stop the labor and wait another week or so (providing that the baby is not showing signs of distress in absence of contractions).  Could it be possible that the dates are wrong?  In other words, could babies experience stress during labor simply because they are not full term?

In many other aspects of our lives, we all know that ‘staying the course’ is not the best practice when evidence shows that there is a better way to achieve the goal.  Why is it that doctors feel the need to keep going-seeing their only option as c-section?  Why not stop the induction and wait?  We have the technology to do that.

Now, I don’t mean to judge…oh heck, yes I do.  I just feel that natural labor is the better life experience-(not to mention being better for the baby, and more fun for the nurse)  I realize that some women don’t get a choice, or perhaps they chose to go naturally, and something prevents that outcome from being the final one.  These things happen all the time.  It is not my intention to tout moral superiority or anything, but I do wish that each and every woman would consider labor without pain management.

The US culture rests on the sacred tenets of ease, convenience and taking the path of least resistance. For most women (and I know there are major exceptions) labor could be the hardest physical task they might undertake in their lives.  It can seem (and is) unbearable at times.  The horror stories abound. Women scare other women away from the thought of attempting it.

I invite you to look at it another way.

Natural birth is a sacred journey.  It requires faith in yourself, and the realization of and surrender to a higher power.  It forces you to relinquish control. It requires that you depend on others. It asks you to follow your instincts. As my friend Maya pointed out,  you have to push and relax at the same time. For those of you who have older children, you might recognize that these are some of the qualities of a good parent. So, in a way,  natural labor is a intense life lesson that can be tapped in to during the trials of parenting.

Natural birth connects you primally to all mothers-as women..  The stories and understanding of hardship during birth bridges generations, builds lasting bonds and  life enhancing relationships-just as all hardship does.  I equate it to the fraternity that war builds among men.

Natural birth is an accomplishment.  Once it is over, (and that is the beauty of it-it does end, definitively) most women feel a sense of pride, not only in their baby, but in the act of birthing that baby.

Consider birthing naturally.  It’s always better for the baby, and it comes with unexpected gifts.