Henci Goer is a medical author and activist who is able to deliver clear birth statistics and information that anyone can understand. Admittadely biased towards natural birth, this book provides mothers with information they could use to better understand the hospital systems they are working through during pregnancy and labor. Though the stats are a bit outdated, the philosophies behind them still hold truth.
Here are some great points that Henci makes:
~ Obstetric belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It has been said that a healthy person is someone who hasn’t undergone enough testing by specialists.
~ Cesarean is the most common major surgical procedure performed in the United States.
~ Baby’s head fits neatly against the cervix like an egg in an egg cup. This prevents the umbilical cord coming down ahead of the baby and getting pinched between baby and mom’s pelvis.
~ Inducing for exceeding your due date is a textbook case of how mainstream obstetric care keeps narrowing the definition of normal until practically no one fits, which tends to create the “need” for intervention.
~ The conventual 40-week pregnancy length is completely is completely arbitrary. It was established by a German obstetrician in the early 1800’s. He simply declared that a pregnancy should last 10 moon months, this is, 10 months of 4 weeks each.
~ The uterus is most sensitive to Oxytocin at night, which is why labor usually starts at night.
~ Electronic Fetal Monitoring (EFM) is said to lower the risk of cerebral palsy or mental retardation because of oxygen deprivation during labor, but this is less than 10% of cases. Continuos EFM has become nearly universal since the 80’s and it it worked it should have affected the cerebral palsy rate by now, but it remains unchanged.
~ During cervical exams, moms should find out about state of cervix, how far baby is down, and baby’s position. Mom may be making important progress even though she isn’t dilating. As a labor doula this is information I always find out for mom.
~ Natural labor offers an unparalleled opportunity to discover inner resources, capacities, and strengths you never knew you possessed. And there is great value in such an experience.
~ Labor will hurt, probably a lot, but whether this is a negative experience is another matter.
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