Did you hear that?
It was the sound of birth junkies across the globe clicking the little red "x" button up there in the upper right hand corner.
Yes, you read the blog post title correctly. I do not trust birth. I do not put my trust solely into birth.
First let me say that this post is
not in any way directed at any particular birth movement, at anyone involved with said birth movement, or at any one person anywhere on our fine planet. It is merely observation and my own thoughts as a midwife.
Read that again if you need to. Carefully. Got it? Big girl panties on and adequately secured? Good. Let's begin.
Within the birthing community at large there are so many different views and ideas. Views and ideas about how a woman should birth, where she should birth, who should attend to her, what is safe, on and on and on and on. Some of these views and ideas are evidence-based. Some are not. There are some who fully and absolutely trust the medical community. There are some who fully and absolutely trust midwifery care. There are some who fall between the two. There are some who do not trust either and fly solo through pregnancy and birth. I completely support anyone who is asking questions, researching, and making a decision that is best for her pregnancy and birth. If you want to plan a cesarean section on April 20, 2012 (a FABULOUS day to be born I must say) at 8:43pm at Happy Mommy-Baby Hospital with Dr Who, great! If you want to hire a doctor and birth your baby in the hospital, great! If you want to hire a midwife and birth at home, great! If you want to go through your pregnancy and birth unassisted, great! As long as a woman is making an informed decision about the risks and benefits of her choice and is ready to accept what those risks and benefits might manifest, I believe she has every right to choose.
Because I am a midwife and serve women who choose to birth outside of the hospital, my professional circle is primarily those who either do the same or the women whom we serve. In the circle of out-of-hospital birth junkies there are equally as many differing views. There are
varying types of midwives. Some midwives who attend home birth run their practice just as an obstetrician would. Some midwives are very anti-medicine and avoid interaction with the medical field. And just like the women described above, some fall in between. The majority though realize that while we believe in midwifery care and the safety of out-of-hospital birth, we know that the medical system can be beneficial when a situation arises necessitating intervention.
Within this circle you often hear phrases like, "...just trust birth." or "I trust my body" or "I trust my midwife" or "I trust the birth process and don't need the medical system". Every one of those statements is good and important. I want my clients to trust the process and I want my clients to trust me. These statements, made by either client or midwife, are good except for when there is a total lack of openness to the fact that sometimes unexpected and unplanned events occur.
And so, I do not trust birth.
But I do.
I simply do not put all of my trust in birth itself.
Trust, as it relates to this discussion, is defined as "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something...one in which confidence is placed...dependence on something future or contingent..."
I know that a woman's body was made to reproduce, gestate, and birth new humans. Because of this, the body functions accordingly when it gets the message that a new human is present, that it must be cared for, and that it must be expelled from the woman's body. A vast majority of the time this body function works and we can have "assured reliance on the ability" of the body. However sometimes there are glitches to this system of gestation and birth, whether self-inflicted (edited to add: I realized that this sounds as if the woman herself is at fault if something varies from normal during pregnancy or birth. That was not my intention. By "self-inflicted" I am referring to a variation such as Preeclampsia, an occurrence which could have been prevented, or one due to unnecessary intervention) or unexplained. We can not have complete trust in birth.
There are some absolutely wonderfully attentive medical care providers in our world. Those who take time to know their patients, who do preventative care, who keep the traditional OB mindset out of their practice, etc. The reality is that they are few and far between. So for this discussion we will be referring to midwifery which has a long tradition of wholistic care and allowing the pregnancy and birth process to unfold without unnecessary intervention. In that light midwives should be trusted. The safety of skilled midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth has been proven better than medical care in several studies. Even those involved in developing some of the technology used for labor admitted that being outside of the hospital is safer (eg
Dr. Edward Hon, inventor of the external fetal monitor). Birth requires trust in the care provider regardless of the place it will happen but it is essential for a family opening up their life and home to a midwife. They should have a healthy base of trust in their midwife. It's vital to the birth outcome (that's a blog topic in and of itself!!). But the family should not have
complete trust in the midwife. The woman must also rely on her own intuition.
I don't trust birth because I have "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, and truth" of God. I trust the One who designed our bodies and this process. With that comes the trust that He knows that we live in a world where perfection does not exist and that sometimes, with His help, we must alter our perception of a situation and change the course of action. Early on in my midwifery education I learned this valuable lesson from my preceptor. She has the amazing ability to focus in on her own intuition and to His voice as she was preparing for a client's birth. She would tell me, "Something's just not right. I'm going to take her for an ultrasound." Or, "We need to be prepared for a little extra bleeding." And every time, she was right. Those times taught me that we can't simply trust birth. That we can't simply trust that if we do no intervention when it might be indicated and let the process unfold naturally everything will be unicorns on bright double rainbows. In my practice I must evaluate what is before me and act accordingly (edited to add: That evaluation includes relying on my knowledge, experience, and the wisdom of other midwives.) but I must be tuned into what God is trying to tell me about the unseen.
Not long ago I came across this article on Facebook,
When Midwifery Works. This midwife acted on her findings and the knowing that intervention was needed. About 98% of the time, birth works. We can sit back with attentiveness and know the process will work. If you know math then you'll know that 98% is not 100%. The 2% can happen with unnecessary intervention(s) or from not intervening when the situation requires it or from completely unexplainable events. It is because of the 2% that I can not say I trust birth.
It is far more important for me to trust that still small voice than to trust birth.
