OK here goes, by popular request (so what if only EllysMommy requested it) my opinion on the latest hot topic starting with my smallest opinion first.
Disclaimer, I have a very tolerant medically inclined mind however I may make fun of you behind your back.. hehe just kidding, really I have a very tolerant medically inclined SARCASTIC mind!
1) Treating a doll like a baby= needing psychiatric medical help! These are the women who eventually move on to cutting a child out of a pregnant womans stomach!
2) Breastfeeding: I understand the health perks, I am doing it myself, I applaud the women stick with it past the first week, it is in my opinion one of the many parts of yourself that you give up as a mother for the benefit of your children. If you ask a woman this question " How would you like me to fill your breasts and then deflate them at least 6 times a day about twice their normal size and then deflate them like a balloon for the next 6-12 months leaving them wrinkly, stretched out, misshapen, and hanging to your bellybutton?" I am sure that you would receive a slap in the face and a giant "HECK NO!" from most women. But ask a woman if she is going to breastfeed and she readily answers "YES!" (I urge you not to ever describe the former scenario to a first time expectant mother who plans on breastfeeding, lets keep that between us :o)
You see being in the field that I am in I see 90% of my patients try breastfeeding in the delivery room. According to the National Center for Health Statistics 77% of women have breastfeed their child at least once and 40% still breastfed at 6 months.
I must say I personally don't enjoy breastfeeding. I do believe it brings Annie and I closer and I love the health benefits for she and I. However I don't think it will be all to difficult to wean and I do not plan on breastfeeding over 1 year, we will see if I make it past 9 months. With all of that said I may change my mind the kid is only 3 months old! (Sorry to disappoint you KB :o) I find it a little odd to see a child walk up and latch on with 3 feet of body and legs swinging around, I half expect the child to hop down and say "thanks mom!" before going back to playing.
I once had a pt's mother tell me about how she was trying to breastfeed her 2 year old while she was in labor with her youngest but the labor was going too fast and the child in utero was showing signs of distress so the medical personell were rushing to deliver the baby quickly and she was all upset because they were trying to get her to put her 2 year old down to deliver the child she was giving birth to! Well I should think!! There was so much Ni**le stimulation that her uterus didn't know what to do with itself!!!!
3) Home birthing.... (deep breath) I have to say that in one sentence I agree with Dr Donnelly when she said "Home delivery is for pizza!". Now again disclaimers: I work in a high risk labor & delivery unit. I get the worst cases flown in to me. However I also see my fair share of what is supposed to be a "normal" delivery. It is too risky! Why would you want to put yourself or your child at risk? Giving birth is not a medical procedure doctors are not needed at the foot of the bed to catch the baby. However, when a woman is in labor for too long, her blood pressure is too high, her water is broken for too long and she gets infected, her pelvis is simply too small for this giant baby head she has grown, she starts hemorrhaging after delivery (which is a huge risk for women who have had multiple baby's and women who have baby's at home tend to have a lot of them :o) , the baby poops and aspirates meconium, the cord is around a body part, the head delivers and the shoulders are unexpectedly large, the cord prolapses, the baby is born and simply decides to not breath, and many, many, many, more possibilities that I have seen, that is when the doctor is needed!
I understand a womans desire to give birth at home, I love being at home! It would be very peaceful and nice to not have your blood pressure taken so often! However I honestly don't remember the BP being bothersome after my delivery. I agree that most of what we do in the hospital is not necessary and has become protocol for liability reasons. It is my opinion that if a woman wants a medical free labor that she should find a midwife who delivers in a hospital or birthing center write a birth plan and go over it with her midwife and have the midwife explain to the patient why we do the things we do and if her desires are realistic and what medical procedures are negotiable. For instance it is our policy to have an IV, negotiation with the consent of the Midwife and a signature from the pt refusing, the RN can get an order for nothing or a hep-lock which is IV access in case you start to hemorrhage after delivery. One pt told me that if I was a good nurse I could quickly start and IV if needed... that shows me that she is uneducated on the process because if she is hemorrhaging her blood is going to flow first to her major organs and not to her extremities therefore making her veins virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get an IV into! I tell my patients that if you want to float around in a pool, you want to wear your own clothes, you want to hang from the ceiling by your toenails thats fine as long as you let me listen to your babys heart beat every now and then (once an hour).
I feel sorry for women in this area because it is very difficult to find a midwife who will do home delivery's. There aren't even any birthing centers close by! Why? Because liability is too high! Home births are GREAT when everything goes fine, but when things go bad, things go VERY BAD! And instead of taking responsibility for the decision they made to stay at home parents sue the midwives and live with millions of dollars instead of what... a child?!?
Laura Shanley author of Unassisted Childbirth and advocate for home births including "Freebirthing" which is having your child at home without ANY skilled person present (Just plain stupid, nothing gets better than your local friendly midwife who has at least had some education!) had 3 successful deliveries at home, her 4th died shortly after birth from an undetected heart condition. She has by the grace of God (whether she admits that or not) accepted that there was nothing that could have been done for the child. But that is definitely not what most women would have done. They would have forever lived in guilt of thinking that their child's life could have been saved had they been at a hospital. Now I don't know if the child could have been saved or if this woman is living in the extreme denial, but I can say... Go to the hospital!!!! I know what a bad experiace hospitals can be, I know about Nurse Ratchet I work with her, I know about the Dr who did a C-Section just because she was tired of being at the hospital with the laboring pt. So I say pray!! Ask God to grant you a WONDERFUL birth experiance,
keep an open mind for when medicine is necessary and thank God for the healthy child that this Doctor has just assisted in bringing into the world! Instead of dreading pitocin to speed up a lingering labor and the research you have done on it's ill effects, do research on the brain damage not realized until the child is older from anoxia in prolonged labor! Doctors have done so much for our children thank God for modern medicine and for the ability of easily doing a C-section when the baby is too big instead of the child dying in the 4 day labor process and then the mother dying of infection later. However graphic I recommend the book
Birth by Tina Cassidy it made me appreciate modern medicine even more! So unless you are willing to break you baby's clavicle when the shoulders are too big to deliver go to the hospital and let the trained people do their job! ( and thank your nurse if she does a good job :o)
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