Gentle birth options: Hospital births

All parents have many choices facing them right from the beginning, and one of the biggest is childbirth. We live in a culture in which birth -- one of the most natural processes on earth -- has been medicalized. Unfortunately, in many ways, this has robbed women of many of the choices we should have when it comes to childbirth, as well as the confidence that our bodies will know what to do when it's time for the baby to arrive. If you are pregnant and planning a hospital birth, here is what you must know to make your birth gentler for yourself.

1. "If you don't know your options, you don't have any." -- Diana Korte and Roberta Scaer in A Good Birth, A Safe Birth. Know your options! Talk to your childbirth educator, read all the literature your hospital offers, and talk to your obstetrician or midwife. Know exactly what they offer and what they do not. If they tell you something is "not allowed," find out why not. Ask questions and get answers, and keep asking until you are satisfied with the answers you receive.

2. Interventions don't always improve the situation. According to MedicineNet.com, "in medicine, an intervention is usually undertaken to help treat or cure a condition." The problem is that pregnancy does not need to be cured, generally speaking. It is not a disease. All interventions carry with them a degree of risks, but women are rarely warned of risks prior to the interventions. Vaginal exams and catheters can introduce infection. Epidurals can lengthen or even stall labor and disrupt breastfeeding after birth. Pitocin can increase the risk of uterine rupture, but more commonly can cause the rapid onset of powerful contractions necessitating the use of pain medications.

3. Interventions tend to cascade. One intervention leads to another intervention, and all interventions can lead to "the mother of all interventions": surgical birth. Cesarean sections certainly have their place in modern birth, but there is no question they are over-performed, at nearly 30% of births in the country today being cesarean sections. Surgical birth carries with it all the risks of major abdominal surgery.

4. Talk to your OB or midwife about your expectations and desires. If your OB or midwife seems closed off to your desires entirely, find a new one. This is, after all, your employee.

5. Knowing your options before, during, and after the birth will enable you to have more say over your birth options. You cannot control your birth entirely -- no one can. Birth is unpredictable, messy, and human. But by having a plan in place, having a strong group of supportive people surrounding you (including a doula, if possible), and having a supportive OB or midwife, you have a better chance of having the birth you want.

Birth is one of the most momentous moments of a woman's life. You may hear that "a healthy baby is the most important thing," and yes, it is very important to have a healthy baby. But it's also important that mom be healthy, too, both physically and emotionally. It's time to take back our births and have the birth experiences to which we have the right. These are our bodies and our births -- our choices.

To learn more about healthy, gentle birth options, read The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth and Gentle Birth Choices. Find a doula in the St. Louis area by clicking here.

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe. Please visit back to learn more about gentle birth options to learn about how to make your hospital birth gentler for your baby, how to recover physically and emotionally from a cesarean section, and to learn more about home birth options in Missouri.