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    Get Through Childbirth in One Piece!: How to Prevent Episiotomies and Tearing
    Get Through Childbirth in One Piece!: How to Prevent Episiotomies and Tearing
    Get Through Childbirth in One Piece!: How to Prevent Episiotomies and Tearing
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    Get Through Childbirth in One Piece!: How to Prevent Episiotomies and Tearing

    By Elizabeth Bruce MA CCE

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    About this ebook

    80-90% of women delivering vaginally in the United States will receive an episiotomy. The vast majority of these surgeries are unnecessary and preventable. Get Through Childbirth in One Piece! tells it like it is. Using only the latest research, Elizabeth Bruce, MA, CCE, shows you how to take responsibility for your own birth. Helpful subjects include:

    Proven advice for avoiding perineal damage before, during, and after delivery
    Why a tear is preferable to an episiotomy
    Optimal positioning for delivery
    The benefits of waterbirth, doulas, and midwives
    How to choose a good care provider
    Building your confidence to birth
    Inspiring stories from real women who have birthed babies, large and small, with their perineums intact!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJun 15, 2001
    ISBN9781469796833
    Get Through Childbirth in One Piece!: How to Prevent Episiotomies and Tearing
    Author

    Elizabeth Bruce MA CCE

    Elizabeth Bruce, MA, CCE, is the mother of four children. She is a frequent contributer to Mothering Magazine, Midwifery Today, and other parenting magazines.

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      Book preview

      Get Through Childbirth in One Piece! - Elizabeth Bruce MA CCE

      All Rights Reserved © 2001 by Elizabeth G. Bruce

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

      Writers Club Press an imprint of iUniverse.com, Inc.

      For information address: iUniverse.com, Inc. 5220 S 16th, Ste. 200 Lincoln, NE 68512 www.iuniverse.com

      I am just a regular person. The information in this book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice.

      ISBN: 0-595-18868-0

      ISBN 978-1-4697-9683-3 (ebook)

      Printed in the United States of America

      Contents

      Get Through Childbirth In One Piece!

      Introduction

      Introduction Notes

      Chapter One

      Chapter One Notes

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Two Notes

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Three Notes

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Four Notes

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Five Notes

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Seven Notes

      Chapter Eight

      Appendix

      About the Author

      To my children, Anders, Doug, Celeste and Jay, who have taught me so many surprising things about birth and life. To my husband, Andy, for letting me follow my dreams. To my aptly-named cat, Momma, who showed me how to give birth naturally, over and over again.

      A special thank you to all the brave women who shared their stories with me.

      Introduction

      Every child’s birth is sacred. Parents and babies know this, even when beeping machines, multiple spectators, bright lights and other distractions threaten to overtake the experience. Each pregnant woman is blessed with the intuitive knowledge of how to best birth her baby. She does not need to read a book, attend a class, or watch a video to access this knowledge. Oftentimes, all she needs to do is let go of her cultural training that birth is ‘dangerous,’ in order to create a fulfilling birth experience. Unfortunately, even the calmest mothers can be surrounded by fearful people during birth. A laboring woman’s primary need is to feel safe from harm. If left to our own instincts, we human mothers would probably behave much like mother cats, seeking out private, dimly-lit places to give birth. A woman should trust her instincts, which have been honed over millions of years, to guide her decisions about where and with whom to give birth.

      The home has traditionally been the ideal location to give birth, although today home births in America are rare. Since the 1950s, most

      U.S. births have taken place in hospitals. We have been conditioned to accept hospitals as the safest alternative, even though most of the human beings now on the planet were born at home. Mainstream childbirth books contribute to the perception of hospitals as the most desirable place to give birth. One popular pregnancy book dismisses homebirth, saying, if something goes wrong, the facilities for an emergency cesarean or resuscitation of the newborn will not be close at hand.¹ Obviously, the authors did not research homebirth, or they would know that resuscitation is available at home, and that all outcomes are statistically as good or better with a homebirth as they are with a hospital birth.² Unfortunately, on the rare occasion when a baby or mother dies in a homebirth, it makes the headlines. By contrast, babies die every day in hospitals, yet these deaths are not considered newsworthy. A logical question is, If hospital birth is so safe, why does our country have such an abysmal infant mortality rate? Holland has wonderful birth statistics that put the U.S. infant mortality rates to shame. It is no coincidence that the majority of Dutch births take place at home, attended by skilled midwives.

      Misinformation is equally rampant on the subject of episiotomy. Most American doctors believe that women need an episiotomy to give birth. The mainstream experts effectively encourage episiotomy, insisting stretching may leave the muscles a little slacker than will a carefully timed episiotomy; one in which the perineum wasn’t allowed to stretch excessively before the incision was made.³ Nonsense! It sounds credible, but there is not a scrap of research to back this statement up [believe me, I’ve looked!]. It greatly disturbs me to think that first-time moms, who may depend on these popular books for advice, are being convinced that an episiotomy is a reasonable thing to do. The desire to conform can be a powerful human motivator–maybe even stronger than the mother’s instinct to protect her young. Over the years, women in labor have permitted horrific things to be done to them and to their infants, mainly because of society’s expectations. First performed in 1742, episiotomy is a relic of medicine, long outdated. So why is it still routinely performed and accepted? In many cases, episiotomy is necessary in American hospitals, but nonetheless absolutely preventable. The surgery is often necessitated by iatrogenic causes; that is, through the use of other interventions such as epidurals and the lithtomy position. Recent medical journals agree. An article in Obstetrics and Gynecology concluded, Routine episiotomy is no longer advisable.⁴ It’s about time they figured that one out.

      Unfortunately, our American love of technology has taken birth so far from its humble intentions that we sometimes forget how natural it could be. The statistics on interventions are foreboding. A woman giving birth vaginally in America today has at least an 80% chance of receiving an episiotomy. The assumption is that her body needs help getting the baby out. Never mind whether or not she wants the intervention, she gets it. A woman going into labor trusting blindly in her doctor should beware; the odds are against her getting through it in one piece.

      At the age of 22, I, for one, had no idea what childbirth would be like, except from what I had seen on soap operas and popular books. Like so many other young mothers, I learned the hard way that good intentions are not enough to ensure a positive birth experience. Like most women, I approached my first birth with trust in my obstetrician to do what was best for me and for my baby. My prenatal visits were friendly, if a bit hasty. When my amniotic fluid seemed to be leaking at 34 weeks of pregnancy, I hesitated to call. It seemed silly to alarm anyone, and frankly, I was afraid. My instincts told me to stay as far from the hospital as I could, but reason eventually won out. Once the call was made, my doctor ordered me into the hospital for tests. I didn’t even pack a suitcase, certain that I would be sent back home. The next 48 hours were some of the most hellish ones in my life. I was hooked up to Pitocin (a uterine stimulant used for labor induction), an IV, a blood pressure cuff, and even a catheter, but still clung to my hope of a drug-free childbirth. My cervix was checked more than ten times by nurses and residents, even though such a practice is contraindicated with broken water. After two painful, frightening days, my doctor finally showed up and abruptly said, If you don’t get a cesarean, your baby could die. Like any good mother, I agreed to the surgery, and an hour later was paralyzed from the waist down, my new baby in a distant wing of the hospital. I wasn’t allowed to see him for six long hours. Although my new son was perfect, an unspeakable sadness haunted me after that birth. I knew I could have given birth naturally, with proper care and encouragement.

      For my next three births, I eagerly read as much as I could about interventions, birth positions, and caregivers. In 1993, I had my first VBAC in the hospital after 36 hours of back labor. My doula, herself a home VBAC mother, understood the insecurities most VBAC candidates have. She was invaluable for keeping me home and encouraging me. The nurses at the hospital were mean to me because I refused to move off my hands-andknees, delivering the baby upside-down. I later discovered that my baby had been in a posterior presentation, and that I had naturally assumed the optimal position for delivering him. Afterwards, I was triumphant. ‘My body works!’ was my inner refrain. Although my son was average size (7 pounds, 11 ounces), I suffered a small tear, which was stitched up. With proper patience, instead

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