British study promotes home birth
NPR has had a series of childbirth related stories recently. And this one is great: Should More Women Give Birth Outside The Hospital?
There is an excellent quote by Dr. Neel Shah that I believe really sums up the care in the U.S.: "We're taking excellent care of high-risk women," he says, "and leaving low-risk, normal women behind. We're the only country on Earth with a rising maternal mortality rate."
Can you believe that?! A rising maternal mortality rate in the U.S.? And yet it is true with our intervention heavy birth process and high cesarean rates, which average 33 percent in the U.S. compared with 26 percent in the U.K.
They interview another obstetrician and he reveals his arrogance. And that is what I have come to believe is the root of the criticism of alternative care sought by pregnant women in the U.S. We have been conditioned to think that we should seek an obstetrician care giver for the best care. When in reality, these doctors are trained and schooled to look for problems and assume the worst case scenario. Their training is intervention heavy and discouraging of a woman's ability to give birth on her own. The interventions they put upon a healthy woman giving birth have been shown to be unnecessary and dangerous for baby and mom.
The more I learn the more research I find that proves minimal intervention and confidence in the woman's body to give birth are the most healthy and satisfying ways to give birth. Personally I think it is the arrogance of the obstetricians and their philosophy of care that make them reluctant to believe that a woman can give birth on her own.
There is an excellent quote by Dr. Neel Shah that I believe really sums up the care in the U.S.: "We're taking excellent care of high-risk women," he says, "and leaving low-risk, normal women behind. We're the only country on Earth with a rising maternal mortality rate."
Can you believe that?! A rising maternal mortality rate in the U.S.? And yet it is true with our intervention heavy birth process and high cesarean rates, which average 33 percent in the U.S. compared with 26 percent in the U.K.
They interview another obstetrician and he reveals his arrogance. And that is what I have come to believe is the root of the criticism of alternative care sought by pregnant women in the U.S. We have been conditioned to think that we should seek an obstetrician care giver for the best care. When in reality, these doctors are trained and schooled to look for problems and assume the worst case scenario. Their training is intervention heavy and discouraging of a woman's ability to give birth on her own. The interventions they put upon a healthy woman giving birth have been shown to be unnecessary and dangerous for baby and mom.
The more I learn the more research I find that proves minimal intervention and confidence in the woman's body to give birth are the most healthy and satisfying ways to give birth. Personally I think it is the arrogance of the obstetricians and their philosophy of care that make them reluctant to believe that a woman can give birth on her own.
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