Strollerderby

"Must not be claustrophobic or uncomfortable in confined spaces."

Like - rooms?  Is it a common practice to confine laboring patients to small dark closets in some hospitals?  I spent all my time in rooms which were big enough to hold beds and other people.  If I'd been at home I also would have been in a room of some kind.

It's sort of cute, but tries too hard and certainly doesn't apply to all hospitals.  My hospital-based doctors and nurses never confined me to a closet (?), asked me not to eat and drink, put me in a flimsy blue gown, told me not to make loud noises, or had me share a bathroom.  This was sort of the "Are you a candidate for birth in a lousy, borderline abusive hospital?" list.

The writer is trying to hard here for sure. This is just another trying to be cheeky hate on the  women who choose to birth in the hospital shtick. Your birth plan at home may have to be ignored as well. No amount of this hospital birth trash talking is going to make me risk mine or my babes well being. I want access to medical care. If you don’t that is your deal. Oh and the “ Must not have a rebellious or questioning nature”part is B.S.  Above IT.

Totally agree with the other two comments.  It's obvious that this author is trying to be sarcastic towards women who chose a hospital birth.  I have never commented on one of the articles before, but I will this time.  It gets old.  There are many, many, smart and educated women that chose to deliver in hospitals, with perhaps even *gasp* an OB.  In an attempt to support alternative birth options, home births, midwives, doulas, etc. etc. the writer repeatedly puts down  those who would, shall we say, opt for what modern medicine has to offer.  I am all about women choosing to have whatever birth they desire.  Is it that hard to be supportive of all women and their right to birth however they chose?  Is it absolutely necessary to be sarcastic and demeaning towards those who do not share your beliefs in order to further your own agenda?  And for what its worth, I just had my third cesarean.  My first child wouldn't be here if that weren't an option and I chose to have the other two the same way as well.  They were GREAT experiences.  I will spare the details as to why they were needed because really it all just boils down to the fact that I am ignorant according to this and other *similar* articles, right?

Not very funny or informative. I would certainly find a list that was pro-home birth more persuasive, constructive and informative than this.

These are pretty absurd, but I've lost my ability to get angry with people who care too much about where/how I gave birth.  I find  some of the options other women go with loopy to merely unappealing, and that's why.... I chose something else.  

Just to make my intent more clear, I've lost my ability to get angry with people who care too much about how/when *anyone* gives birth.   I absolutely acknowledge that what was great for me might seem horrid to someone else.  So she should go with what's comfortable for her.

I gave birth in a hospital and got to move around, too.  I'm not sure where that's a common practice, but thankfully it's not in my area, where we also have tubs (in private bathrooms!) at the hospitals that they encourage you to  use while in labor, birthing balls, etc.  The room I was in was bigger than my living room, not to mention my bedroom.  They also gave me free fuzzy socks to keep my feet warm and they had good food.   Not every hospital is like this, nor is every hospital birth, but I would venture to say that not every homebirth is ideal, either.  To each her own

What I like about this list is that it turns taken-for-granted assumptions on their heads.  While my partner and I decided that a hospital birth was best for our family, we knew that there would be certain things about hospital practice and culture that bothered us (many of the things on this list).  I don't think this list is meant to dismiss women who choose to birth in a hospital (or have no other options).  It's a critique of hospital culture.  It never hurts to question the practices of our social institutions.

I find t strange that so many of you are taking personal offense to this.  No one is saying that you are a bad person for choosing a hospital birth, but the point seems to be more about knowing before hand what is in store for you, which changes from hospital to hospital.  Just think about the ridicule most women face that choose not to have hospital births.

I can say that I know for a fact claustraphobia would be a huge problem for the hospital my ob/gyn practices at.  I visited the hospital interested in their birth center (which my doctor refuses to use) and saw that the birthing rooms were ridiculously small.  I live in an apartment in Brooklyn and was amazed by how small the room was.

I am someone that wants to have a home birth or a birth center birth.  I am not anti-medicine or technology, but why go overboard with care that is generally not necessary?  I know a few people were worried about the idea of me having a home birth, but you know what, I live fifteen minutes walking from the nearest hospital.  My major problem though right now is that my insurance company is super big on restricting my choices.  I am now finding out that my insurance company is quite infamous for that, so much so that my dermatologist has recommended that I change insurance.

What the hell-ever.  If I wouldn't have been in a hospital, my daughter and I would both be dead.

While hospital births are getting better and many of these things are starting to go by the wayside. I have been to several births that were as restrictive as this list makes them sound. One where the doctor actually mocked the mother's pain. Which is why I chose to go the other route.But I think every mother should make her own informed decision and go with what works for her.

I agree with Miriam that the majority of items would need to be re-written but the idea of this sort of list is fantastic! As a doula I encounter a huge amount of naivete about what hospital birth is like (and I serve families who choose and experience lots of different types of births, not just the folks who choose "natural" birth).

You DO have to accept that your wishes will likely be ignored, that at some point someone will manipulate you, that you will have to go for long periods of time without eating anything more substantial than a popsicle, with having strangers inserting their hands into your body, that you will lied to at some point, that students will often be monitoring you and performing clinical tasks, that you may not see a medical professional for up to four hours at a time unless you request assistance, that medical staff may talk to your vagina, talk about you as if you aren't there, talk to you as if you were a child and scoff at your desires, fears or observations.

Many people have hospital birth experiences that they feel satisfied with. Many accept that questionable care methods are how it's done and don't realise that they may have been treated improperly, a lot of people don't have enough fore knowledge (something some professionals count on) to know that some practices actually cause harm to moms and babies, placing them in jeopardy that the OB then seems to save them from.

And, of course, none of these things is applicable in every case, and sometimes when some of these things happen, it's pretty subtle and a labouring mom probably wouldn't notice or know enough to object (just found out there is no official policy preventing moms from eating in labour, though I've witnessed nurses telling woman (and scolding them like bad children) that it's against hospital policy. Last week a nurse bitched one of my moms out for drinking PowerAde in labour and quoted a policy I learned 2 days later didn't exist!

But the important thing about choosing to give birth in a hospital is to be informed ahead of time that all these things are possibilities and then be prepared to make a choice for yourself in labour whether you will question policies and procedures you don't feel right about. For instance, go ahead and tell that nurse to bring you the policy stating you have to wear an ugly hospital gown and until she does so you'll happily leave your tank top and track pants on, thankyouverymuch!

Strange, but I gave birth in a hospital in a room that is roughly 3 times the size of my own sizable bedroom.  That room had it's own private bathroom, tub AND separate shower.  My own house only has one bathroom and you can bet that our water heater wouldn't allow me to take a two hour shower without having freezing cold water in about half that time.  I got to listen to music and if I wanted to scream, I could.  I had my first child vaginally, my last two by csections that were medically necessary.  The nurses were great.  Food was awesome (um, lobster and filet anyone?)  and I had my baby with me the entire time.  So, I don't think my choice was all that bad.

Ummm, wasn't lied to by staff.  My doctor was in my room every 15 minutes to check up on me.  Didn't have a student check me.  I was checked 3 times during a 10 hour period and was allowed to drink.  The only reason for not allowing me to eat was that my son had a couple of times where his heartrate slowed and in case of needing to do an emergency c, they didn't want me puking (and neither did I so I didn't eat).  My OB (a male) held my hand as he explained what was happening to me and why.  

Does this happen all the time???  Probably not.  But not all hospital experiences are the hellish nightmare people envision them to be.  Not all medical professionals are liars who want to strap you down to the bed and hurt you and your baby.  

I could have had my first at home with no complications.  The last two wouldn't have made it.  You do what you have to do to insure that you and your baby will be ok.  I'm all for natural as can be, but it didn't work out that way.  

I agree that the article's author is trying a bit too hard, but I also agree that there is a high level of defensiveness is the responding posts.

I think the point of the article is not to criticize the choices MADE BY expectant mothers, but to criticize the choices AVAILABLE TO expectant mothers. These are very different things.

I know people who had home births, hospital births, caesareans, birth centre deliveries (me), drugs and no drugs and guess what? We are not mortal enemies.

I have noticed a lot of strange assumptions being made about home births by Babble posters. While I am sure that in freak situations, a birthing mother might die while labouring/delivering at home, the same can be said of hospital births. The fact is that in the vast majority of cases those women and their babies would not 'have died giving birth at home' because they would not been at home. In all likelihood, they wouldn't have met the stringent criteria for having a home birth, so they would have been in the hospital. Having a midwife deliver your baby at home is not the same as having the pizza delivery guy deliver your baby at home - these are highly trained medical professionals who can identify warning signs in an instant. To have a home birth is not to reject all prenatal care either. Women who opt to birth at home have all the same tests available to them as women who opt to have hospital births and they have to be having a low-risk, normal pregancy to even qualify for a home birth. (That's just ONE of the criteria.)

In normal circumstances, I personally couldn't consider giving birth anywhere I was told I couldn't eat, drink, walk around, use a birthing pool or a ball or where staff made me feel I was compromising my baby's wellbeing by not having whatever drugs they were pushing to hurry up my birth. (If someone told me I had to lie down to give birth, I'd feel compelled to explain gravity to them.)

However, I don't see any of this as a function of WHERE one gives birth; it's a function of the CHOICES and INFORMATION available where one gives birth.  Why is everyone letting their birth choices be such a dividing issue? Working together to ensure women have a full range of birthing choices should be a uniting issue.

Sheri, if you were told you couldn't eat in labour because of the possibility of a c-section and throwing up you were lied to. I'm sorry it sounds so harsh, but it's the truth and most women just don't realise they've been lied to because they lack the either the education to know better or the support to make informed decisions.

If you had that, you'd have known or discovered that firstly current scientific findings and practice support allowing women to drink and eat to satisfaction during labour and that the outdated notion of restricting oral intake due to possible c-section grows out of less sophisticated general anesthesia administration. In this day and age, with 90% of women already receiving epidural anesthesia there is no need for a general and epidurals don't cause vomiting.

Further, anesthetists are accomplished enough now that they can administer better dosages that don't cause women to vomit while unconscious. An L&D RN candidly told me last week that if the anesthetist makes you throw up under general s/he's not very good at their job! They also told me they knew of no hospital that actually had a written policy restricting food and drink in labour.

Secondly, if you were hungry, you have the right to feed yourself! The L&D staff aren't going to throw you in labour jail! The thing that irks me about the way most hospital births happen is that families are encouraged through misinformation and medical culture to give up all autonomy when they enter the labour ward.

You are in charge of your own body and only in the case of incapactiation do you forfeight the right to say "uh, no thanks, I'd rather do it my way". Sure, the OBs are experts on surgical practices and the RNs are good at data gathering and interpretation, but you as a patient are still your own person and you have the right to make your own decisions.

I work in the world of birth, so these ideas I put forth are based on my observations and research. I have a great deal of respect for hospital staff. RNs are very often over worked and must deal with a beaurocratic hospital culture that prevents them from doing what got them into their job in the first place to a lesser or greater degree. It's also a stressful job and some women get burnt out or become desensitizes to the fact that for each individual woman is the centre of her own universe. I feel for nurses and appreciate their clinical expertise.

I also recognize the amazing, life saving work of OBs. They are amazingly skills surgeons and without having them there to synthesize the info gathered by the RNs and being available to do the work of complicated deliveries some women and children would not leave the hospital.

I hope my comments are taken in the spirit they are offered. I don't intend to condemn anyone's choices. I just happen to observe a lot of people in the hospital and know about what happens behind the scenes and what the current research is regarding maternity related issues. It's my hope that Sheri reads the above and thinks to herself: wow, I never realised that, I just assumed the nurse was telling me the best info available, next time I'll known better and be able to advocate for myself more effectively if I want to.

I do an excercise with my families about making informed decisions. We use the acronym BRAND to work towards an informed decision:

B - What are the BENEFITS?

R - What are the RISKS?

A - What are the ALTERNATIVES?

N - What if we do NOTHING?

D - What if we DELAY?

Informed Choice = Informed Consent = Informed Refusal

Hmm.

They left out things like - must have a high risk pregnancy.

must have a dislike/fear of childbirth (with or without drugs).

must believe that modern medicine has greatly increased the percentage of women and children who survive childbirth.

must not want to clean up afterbirth from their own personal homes.

I think women who want homebirths should be able to have one, but I absolutely do not believe they are safe for everyone.

This is who Gloria Lemay is:

www.cmbc.bc.ca/Illegal-Midwifery-Practice.shtml

This is who you want to take advice from? An extremist? No thank you.