This is Why

This is why I do what I do. Because women in my town can be treated like this during birth. It is an absolute and total outrage.

Another one of my students had a c-section. It wasn't a surprise, really, I had them pegged for it. Sigh. I dont' know if it's my teaching that just isn't as good as it used to be, or is it that the medical establishment is so overwhelming for parents? I am so over teaching the hospital birthing couples. I always feel like I am sending them into the lion's den. When they call me to tell me about their birth, I always hold my breath until the very end, sure they are going to tell me about their cesarean or epidural.

The last couple who had a vaginal birth ended up getting a pudendal block because her doc was pushing it and I hadn't covered it in class, so they didn't even know what it was. I didn't even realize docs DID this anymore! Their doc actually said to her, "You are small and you're not stretching well, so I think you need this." Of course, there was no informed consent given. No risks explained. No alternatives discussed. And once she had the block, well, it blocked her feeling, she was worried about a cesarean, and blasted her baby out and tore. There was no distress in the baby. How about having her move to side lying or hands and knees?

I always feel, "If I had just been there." What can I do? Go to every birth? For free? Just so that I can help them achieve a natural birth and help the moms get up and give birth upright? So I can witness the hospital machine and become even more jaded and bitter? Arrgh. It is so frustrating.