When They Know What They Know and Do It Anyway

On Homebirthdebate.blogspot.com today,

From Lee Passman:

Amy, you were replying to *my* post, and I did not mention neonatal mortality. I had a look at the butcherer's newspaper, ObgynNews. But even there one finds a ton of information how harmful c-sections are:
Elective C-section Revisited; Dr. Elaine Waetjen; August 1, 2002
C-Section Linked to Stillbirth in Next Pregnancy, 05/15/03
Maternal Morbidity Rises Sharply with Repeat Cesareans, 03/15/05
Prior C-Section Assoc. with Worse Outcomes – ICU Admit, postpartum infection, 03/01/05
Study Shows Elective Cesarean Riskier than Vaginal Delivery, 05/01/04
Asthma Associated with Planned Cesarean, 05/14/03
Cesarean Birth Associated with Adult Asthma, 06/15/01;
Steep Rise Seen in “No [Medical] Risk Primary C-Sections, 01/01/05
Offering C-Section ‘On Demand’ Can Be Ethical: ACOG, 12/01/03
Cesarean Rate Portends Rise in Placenta Accreta, 03/01/01
Placental Invasion on the Increase – hike in C-Section may be responsible, 01/15/03
Placenta Previa, C-Section History Up Accreta Risk, 09/15/01

A vaginal birth clears the baby's lungs and stimulates the hormones. C-sections are profitible. Premature births are HUGELY profitable.

Safe Baby Partners:

A human being has in "inherent blue print for health" (Osteopathy). That plan includes the biologically, neurologically programmed need to begin labor and to work in relationship with his mother throughout labor and birth. The baby is known in science to send the hormonal signal to the mother that begins labor.

Induction is a serious disruption of this process and has severe consequences -- it is showing up in the behaviors and health of our children. Narcotics further interfere with the mother and baby working together. Mother is DRUG IMPAIRED. The drug gets to baby, so baby is also impaired --- while doing the most important and defining, foundational process of his life and their relationship. BIRTHING from his mother's womb to becoming a physiologically separate being IS the FIRST and most defining action of the human's lifetime.

WHAT is goin' on in this society that this one, single act is so minimized and so interferred with? Why is the human baby so disregarded?

PHYSIOLOGICALLY speaking, ANATOMICALLY speaking, every single aspect of labor, birth, and baby coming to the breast is critical. The pressure on the head, the turning within the pelvis, the pressure on the lungs, the membrane sac in tact, the cord pulsing until placenta delivers, baby being covered in combination of his protective substance and mother's fluids (amniotic fluid, urine, vaginal, and even some feces) as immune protection, the first breastfeeding that re-connects mother and baby and provides a primer for the newborn's guts and intestines, etc. ALL of these are within in the moments that his heart and lungs are transferring from water to air breathing so all other systems can function optimally. Each one is part of a collective, systemic, and physiological purpose for the health and wellbeing of the human being.

Every day it takes compassion and understanding to not see obstetricians and nurses as some of the most ignorant and brutal humans on the planet, and to not see women as the most gullible (also ignorant) and fearful creatures. And, policy makers as the most self-centered and money-driven at the expense of people, especially the newborn. The survival rate in the hospital and in cesarean birth is a testament to the ability of the human being to survive, but at what cost to the physical and emotional health of the human being? DUH!??!??!

When they know what they know and they do it anyway --- that is incomprehensible. It is criminal. If one is not part of the solution, one is part of the problem. It is ignorant to fight so over the safety rate of 1% of the homebirths in this country when the data clearly shows there is not a significant difference between hospital and home. Research in MISSOURI in the late eighties showed that homebirth was safe with trained caregivers. The post is here. The debate is futile BECAUSE of the small numbers. Homebirth has not been shown to be more dangerous with 1% of the total births in this country happening under such conditions of poor quality of care between midwives and doctors/hospitals. The numbers are too small; the obstacles to homebirth too great, too disruptive, and too damaging. Medical rancor makes homebirth more stressful and dangerous.

A post today on homebirthdebate.blogspot.com titled, Dangers of homebirth says:

"Amber sent me a link to her blog Dangers of Homebirth. She wants other women to know how her homebirth went terribly wrong.

As she says:

"This type of story was not out on the internet when I chose to birth at home and is still not one of the first 10 popup ups on the net. My hope is that someone considering a home birth will read this and become as informed as possible to be the strongest advocate possible for themselves and their baby. I want to be clear that I support the ideas behind midwifery and natural childbirth and that I liked my midwife as a person. While I feel she made some critical errors in judgement, my goal is not persecute but to educate."

I read the blogger's one entry and found a heartbreaking story of a woman who had a terrible hospital birth and wanted something better for her second child. The heartbreak includes a HMO/health insurance nightmare (typical), distance from the hospital, and the always present conflict of anti-homebirth sentiments of the medical system. Informed choice and consent are empty phrases in the care of pregnant, laboring and birthing women and their baby.

The conditions under which midwives practice and women much live with in order to have a homebirth are created by the power-brokers, doctors and hospitals. Homebirth is not safe in the US because it is inherently unsafe, but because of the conditions and lack of access to respectful and quality care.

The blogger states towards the bottom of her article, "I still believe that birth should take place in a peaceful environment, with as little intervention as possible. But I think Midwives and doctors should work together and combine the best of both worlds, nature and science."

She so aptly echoes my charge and mission --- We need a reform of the malpractice laws and of the use of interventions and drugs in birth that keeping leading to the findings of the research published by ACOG itself, all while they systematically beat down midwifery and the women and babies they serve.