D-Day and Cave Man Style Birthing

D-Day has come and gone. The birth of my second daughter was supposed to happen yesterday. But she is still cooking in the oven. Actually, if allowed to progress naturally, I think only something like 5% of babies are born on the due date. My first daughter came on her due date, though, so I guess we assumed this one would as well. We've been scrambling for months to prepare for this day, and we are now awkwardly waiting around for those contractions to kick in with some regularity.

My wife is bad ass. Like with the first one, she wants to have a natural childbirth. No drugs, no interventions, just allowing nature to take its course and go with it. We are not such hardcore natural birthers that we are doing it at home with a midwife. We will still go to the hospital and have a real doctor deliver the child. Our doctor is cool and she has an understanding and appreciation for natural childbirth. I never thought I'd be one of these people, but after reading several books on natural childbirth and attending, for the second time, a series of Bradley Method classes, I feel strongly that it is the way to go. As Dr. Bradley states in his book (more eloquently than I am paraphrasing), modern medicine tends to treat pregnancy as a condition and illness to be treated vs. a natural process that every animal species goes through. Look at how other mammals go through birth. Cat and dog mothers are not screaming in hysterics when they deliver, they have instinctive breathing techniques and generally deliver their young with a quiet determination. Humans have lost many of their instincts for this (and other) such matters, so we can read books and take classes to reconnect and relearn what other animals know naturally and instinctively.

The ridiculous C-Section rate in this country (higher here than in other civilized countries), the many unnecessary interventions...it is an interesting topic of study. C-Sections are indeed necessary occasionally, as are other interventions if the health of the mother or child are at risk. But otherwise? Many of these things are done for convenience or the misguided perception that they make the process easier. Talk to mothers who go the modern route of epidural and various other procedures designed to make childbirth "easier" vs. someone who successfully does it naturally. I think you will find, anecdotally at least, that the epidural mother found it still to be painful and unpleasant. Talk to Bradley mothers (or followers of other natural methods), and you will find women who felt empowered, found the experience rewarding, and wouldn't even call it "painful," more like hard work. It is called "labor" afterall.

Also, it is a wonderful experience for the husband/coach. We are trained in this process as well, and play a vital and very active role throughout labor and delivery. It is rewarding for the husband, the wife, the child...a team effort. Look at babies the instant they come out and compare. The baby delivered naturally, assuming all is normal, is alert and immediately eager to interact with the world. The baby that comes out of a mother who has been doped up is, surprise, a bit more lethargic and less responsive immediately. The moment he/she enters the world, should a child be doped up on various medications? It is scientific fact that what goes into the mother goes to the child as well. Again, there are many cases where it is medically necessary to intervene in various ways, but in most cases it is not. As Dr. Bradley says, the doctor is important and has his place in case there are complications. But in the ideal scenario, the doctor should have very little to do in a normal birth. Monitor the progress and be there to catch the baby when it comes out and then make sure it is healthy once it does come out. That's it. Bradley talks about how in the ideal situation where a mother is trained and knows what to do and has a dedicated birth coach/partner, the doctor is primarily an observer on the sidelines.

I just think that many of these birth decisions are made for the wrong reasons, and many mothers have a misconception of the real alternatives. Look, I don't want to come across too preachy on this. I probably have. I know there are different viewpoints on childbirth, and I know that the vast majority of people in this country do not birth naturally and have wonderful and healthy children. So I'm not saying this is the only way to do it, and I'm not trying to judge people who do it differently than we did and than we hope to do again. And believe me, if anything goes wrong this time around, I will be the first one to jump aside and tell the doctor to use her expertise and all of modern medical science to do whatever is necessary. But this is interesting. In our Bradley class, one of the expectant mothers is also a nurse who helps deliver babies at one of our big hospitals in town. She is very familiar with all of the interventions and how it is somewhat policy at the hospital to encourage their use. Yet, personally and for her own child, she wants to do it this way instead.