'Assigned Week of Delivery' More Practical Than Obstetric Due Date
My mother told me (after birthing 8 children of her own) that you just add nine months and one week on to the date of your last period, and that’s your due date. She didn’t make this statement from medical knowledge, but from her mother’s knowledge passed down to her, which in turn was received from her own mother, and also from her own personal experiences. I value her comments on the length of my gestation more than the assessment of medical knowledge, especially because it will reflect the personal knowledge of my matriarchal ancestors – who better to know how my specific genes work, how long my pregnancy is likely to take to grow a healthy child?
Know what I mean? If we looked to our mothers and grandmothers to see how long their pregnancies were, if they laboured slowly or quickly, if they had difficulties, etc, they we would surely have better predictors of what to expect during our own individual pregnancies and labours. Another mother may advise her daughter to add on 9 months and 3 weeks on to the date of her last period, whereas another may advise 8 months and 2 weeks. We have lost the intrinsic wisdom of our fore-bearers if all of humanity expect to have the exact same length of gestation and, similarly, of labour...
Sadly, with the interventions of induction, augmentation and elective c/sections, etc, women will no longer carry the knowledge of our genes. Technology will ‘pull us all into line’ so that we have exact gestation lengths, exact labour lengths, or we will birth through our soft, vulnerable bellies.
So when our daughters look to us, and ask us “How long were you pregnant with me? Did you labour slowly or fast?” We will not be able to answer their questions with intrinsic inner knowledge, because we will not ‘know’ the true answers. We will have lost so much if (and I truly mean ‘if’) we invite unnecessary technology to become a part of our normal births.
Where technology is necessary, then the mother can pass this information on to her daughter, but if it may not have been that is where the impact of technology reaches further than the birth itself.
For example: For the mother labelled CPD due to a failed induction/failure to progress, etc, how damaging will her comments be to her daughter. “Sorry, dear, you may have been only 7 pounds but I couldn’t birth you naturally. You were just too big for my small pelvis. The doctors had to pull you out by caesarean after hours and hours of labour.”
Imagine the thoughts going through the daughter’s head... What does her mother’s experience tell her about her chances of birthing naturally? What is she ‘learning’ about her genes – small pelvis, difficult labour was her mother’s experience, and she was a small baby herself! Anyway, just my thoughts on “Assigned week of delivery...”
Birthing Beautifully,
Jackie Mawson.
Convenor of Birthrites: Healing After Caesarean Inc.
Visit our Website at: http://www.birthrites.org
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: 61 08 9418 8949
Please note I am not a Professional Healthcare Provider, and all opinions given in this email are not to be taken as medical, or legal, advice. Please seek such advice from the relevant professional service.
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Too many Gods;
so many creeds,
Too many paths
that wind and
wind,
When just the art
of being kind
Is all the sad
world needs...
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