December 2015 Moms
flyingmombula
member
SaveSave
Options
Antiquated Birth/ Pregnancy Customs
flyingmombula
member
So at lunch with my grandma the other day, she told me that she was put under anesthesia and unconscious for the birth of her three children. She's 87. Any idea why? I thought this thread might be a good place for us to share crazy things about pregnancy and birth that we've been told by mothers and grandmothers. Or anything else wacky that has historically been done during pregnancy or childbirth. Ok go!
Re: Antiquated Birth/ Pregnancy Customs
I have a sister 12 years older than me. My mother talks about being given something to be put into "twilight" sleep during her delivery. She doesn't remember any of it, just waking up and being told she had a baby girl. The doctor told her she was awake and pushed when she was supposed to, etc. but my mother remembers nothing.
My grandmother also was given a shot to quell her milk supply and had her breasts tightly wrapped right after birth and was told to only bottle/supplement feed. So crazy, I can't even imagine having that happen to me and not even knowing really. Scary
Ether- scary stuff back then.
Yeah I totally get the no exercise but bed rest is a different story! They'd literally lay in bed all day for 40 days. I at least plan on walking.
I don't have any crazy stories about how childbirth from back then but I'm interested...this is very interesting thread!
There is still interesting information in there, but hopefully you consider the source when watching it.
Fact of the matter, when you give birth in a hospital today in the U.S., you are also taking on national average a 30% chance of having a c-section. perhaps some people are totally cool with that. For me, I would like to be informed of why this might happen, as it is not normal in any other industrialized country, and educate myself on how I might avoid a 30% chance of getting major abdominal surgery.
I totally understand that csection is very necessary in some cases and thank god we have the ability to do so. However, 30% is waayy too high...without asking questions and women educating themselves, along with the medical community of course, how can we help change and improve this?
I hope when our daughters are of child bearing age, they are not facing this scary statistic, and are not scared about birth at all, wherever their births may be.
If so, that is different than the average person who goes to the hospital intending to have a vaginal birth and ends up having a C-section.
How many times have you seen, just on this board alone, women who know very early on in their pregnancies (and therefore not caused by position or failure to progress or fetal distress) that they PLAN on having a C-section?
I have yet to see a statistic that separates out the c-section rate from those that were medically unavoidable or elective or neither.
I believe that movie also ends with an intended home birth that gets transferred to the hospital. Talk about a change in birthplan. It's all a matter of personal preference and risk assessment. Plenty of uncomplicated births can be safely done at home. But if the unexpected happens, would you rather be at home or in a facility equipped and accustomed to handling the unexpected? Doctors want the best outcome for mother and baby. If that necessitates a C-section, that's what happens. I've never met anyone who would risk their child's life for the sake of avoiding surgery.
Jamie
Like I said, csections ARE totally necessary in SOME cases, exactly like was displayed in the movie. Thank god we are able to receive this surgery IF an emergency happens to save child and mother. Yes, SOME women are high risk and need a csection. 30% of women? I dunno about that... Why doesn't any other industrialized nation have this high?
If people want to plan a csection, to each their own. I'm not bashing csections, knock on wood that my labor and birth go well enough that I can deliver vaginally, but I will be very happy if for some EMERGENCY reason I need one. All I am saying is that for women that want to have a vaginal birth, walking into a hospital where you have a 30% chance of having a csection is pretty intense. And just doesn't seem kosher to me.
Additionally, if you want stats on "other industrialized nations" I'll provide the link below with statistics on that. Many aren't that far off from the U.S. Stats. Scroll to page 18 for the table of countries with higher rates. Spoiler alert: the U.S. is not the highest.
https://www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/financing/healthreport/30C-sectioncosts.pdf
All I'm saying is it doesn't hurt to ask "why" we do things the way we do and really understand all the implications and consequences (both good and bad) of procedures. To say there isn't room to improve our care would be foolish (just to clarify, i am not saying you said or implied that). There is a lot that is fantastic, necessary and life saving and life changing about obstetrics today. There is also some stuff that makes me ask "why" and wonder if there are things we are doing and accepting as "standard care" that creates unnecessary intervention and heightens risk for unnecessary intensive surgery.
And what I think you're saying and/or would agree with is that everyone needs to be their own patient advocate (by asking "why?" or "why not" something else?). The Internet is a double-edged sword but it does provide more access to information that patients/women/people just didn't have before. The trick is to differentiate the fact from the fiction and use it to know what questions to ask to get the best care possible and preferable for you.
For people who do not want C-sections - Regardless of whether you deliver in a hospital or not, I think the most important thing is to make it clear to your doctor(s) that you want to exhaust every possible option before a C-section. If you make that clear, most doctors will do everything they can to help you. There are some things they can do to try to delay the possibility of surgery. Once you're in the moment, make your wishes known but do whatever you have to do for your child.
When my DD was born, my labor stalled at the hospital and her heart rate was dropping periodically. They put an IV trap in my hand (just in case), hooked me up to a constant external fetal monitor, and gave me Pitocin to speed things up. They had to give me oxygen multiple times and do manual repositioning of the baby to try to keep her heart rate up. They were seriously talking with me about the possibility of a C-section but they said that they would hold off as long as possible. The real concern about waiting was that they could have to be a real emergency C-section and give me anesthesia while they got her out in 2-3 minutes--which has it's own health risks. But, happy ending - I progressed fast enough before it got critical and was able to push her out. She was perfectly healthy when she came out.
What the Business doc reaffirmed for me was my desire to stay away from epidural as it slows down progression which would then necessitate pitocin. One intervention leads to another.