Re: [ozmidwifery] I've had a baby (long)

[Justine Caines]

Title: Re: [ozmidwifery] I've had a baby (long)

I agree Jayne, and BLOODY GREAT job Jackie.  Remember our chat in Darwin.  I have ‘borrowed’ your marathon analogy re being rescued from natural birth! Thanks

Also Sylvia.  I think you need to consider a few factors of current maternity services in Australia.

To have a natural birth today  is hard enough, to secure a homebirth is near impossible and the resultant exhilaration is shared by so few.  I found this when I (naively) referred to the birth (at a local mother’s group) of my first (HB) as the most beautiful, sacred thing I had ever done and that I later felt like Xena, Warrior Woman!  I was greeted with “give me an epidural any day” Gawd I was so out of it for 2 days after etc etc. I was totally ostracised as a zealot and made very unwelcome.

Re the C/s stuff.  Women who genuinely need a C/s have my upmost respect and sympathy, but these are so fewer than the numbers performed.  I also really admire the women who realise they were dudded and make different choices for subsequent babes, they have achieved real personal growth.  I never make women feel bad for having a C/s, but the same respect is not afforded homebirthers who are often made feel very guilty for indulging and putting their babe at risk etc.  But what I AM SO ANGRY ABOUT is that it is the fear and lack of information sought from so many women  continues the misinformation and the very real public perception that C/S is the safest, nicest way to give birth and that women like me are zealots. With so many women researching more about the purchase of a car or major appliance than the birth of their child the perception and lack of evidence and subsequent high morbidity  continues.  What we know is around 1% of women actually choose an elective C/s for no medical reason and yet there has been so much media around this being the ‘new way’  the majority of women are lied to and scared half to death and then believe they “had to have a C/S”.

Women like me are denied their basic right, unlike the woman who schedules her C/s to suit her diary (remember as a taxpayer I pay for the unnecessary C/S then I go and fully fund my homebirth).  To make midwifery care and homebirth a real option is not to deny women the choice of C/S or Obs or anything else and yet the polarity of the debate continues to be down on those with little or no rights/choices!

For the few women that have experienced the amazing high of natural birth (esp at home when a woman is totally in her domain) the high is like no other.  I defy any woman on the planet who has experienced this to say she would choose another way. Welcome to the club Jackie, and so glad you had a soft landing Ena! Bet Dad is also grinning!!

Justine



Oh Sylvia, you are right but I honestly don't think that Jackie meant to imply anything :(   She is obviously on a wonderful high after the birth of her baby.

Jayne

 
----- Original Message -----

From: Sylvia <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 11:04 AM
Subject: RE: [ozmidwifery] I've had a baby (long)

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter.  What a happy story that was.
However, whilst I in no way support the Today show story and a 'live' caesarean was just terrible and sensationalist television you finish your letter with the comment 'that's not childbirth'.  And I agree with this - it's not vaginal birth, but an operative 'delivery'.   

What upset me was your closing comments which I felt smacked of a superiority in having done it 'naturally' .  This type of belief only adds to the pain and confusion of those women who have been subjected to caesareans.  As a neonatal nurse and a midwife I often see mothers who, rightly or wrongly, have had an operative delivery followed by their baby requiring admission to a tertiary neonatal unit.  Not only as these women having to cope with the stress of a sick newborn but they must also cope with their perceived 'failure' to deliver naturally.  It's devastating to witness and I would like to remind those of us fortunate enough to have experienced a wonderful birth such as described here that women whose children are born via LUSCS are already mourning, and do not need others implying that they are somehow lesser mothers because of this operation.
Thank you.


Vance & Edwina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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Dear Jackie, Andrew and Ena,



Congratulations to you all!  What a wonderful birth story, I can see the smile on your face from here!!. I am so happy for you, especially Jackie whom I have met and always admired as a midwifery role model and a mentor during my grad program.  Lots of love Edwina J



-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jackie Kitschke
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 12:05 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ozmidwifery] I've had a baby (long)



Dear all,

I have been lurking on and off over the last few months with a midwife and consumer view as I have given birth myself to a girl, Ena, on the 19.11.03. Having loosely followed the thread of fetal hearts, Today show etc along with my own experience I have a couple of comments.

We had Ena at home and employed the services of the wonderful Roz Donnellan-Fernandez. She came and saw me about 5 times antenatally and would be here for a couple of hours so that even though I didn't see her lots of times (the frequency was my choice) I had plenty of time to convey to her how I felt, what outside factors may influence me etc and my husband Andrew had plenty of time to ask questions etc.

We also invited a midwifery student, Jessica, to share our experience and so the four of us welcomed Ena into the world on a stormy evening.

I used the lessons taught to me by the many women I have met over the years including telling no-one our due date (handy as we went a week over), restricting visitors till 2 weeks, (handy as we had some postnatal issues), preparing lots of food before hand and taking plenty of time off before hand (well I am an elderly (38) primagravida!!).

The birth was the hardest, bestest, most overpowering thing I have ever done and gave us a girl (first one in Andrew's family for 48 years) in our bathroom. We needed to transfer to hospital for Ena which was fortuitous as we discovered her platelets were 20,000 as I have an antibody on my platelets which were destroying hers and my platelets were 50,000 as I have a lupus anti-coagulant on mine (very unusual to have both or even one but it was a week where everything was unusual!!). So it was lucky I had a normal birth as an operative birth would have been dangerous for both of us and as it was a 6 hour ROP labour I am not sure if wouldn't have elected to have pain relief or what heaps of monitoring would have done. I am now at home with a baby who is wondering what all of the fuss was about (there were a few other issues which I won't go into but were all resolved! ). I used the maternity services as necessity required and my birth experience was great. I am so glad I didn't have to recover from a LUSCS as I was pumping etc as Ena spent some time in the nursery asleep from phenebarb due to some twitching.  I wanted there to be lots of milk for her when she woke up, which there was (not bad considering my Hb was 7.4 due to a retained placenta and PPH) all thanks to the LW staff at the WCH keeping all visitors out, keeping me in LW and having Andrew stay with me. (I was treated like the Queen of Sheba by everyone and I don't know how Ican ever thank all of my friends and colleuges for what they did for us).

Watching part of the Today show really angered me as that is not childbirth. Mess in the bathroom, exhilarated mother, exhausted and relieved support people and beautiful, 4.230kgs, caput and moulded head  daughter is childbirth!!!!!

Jackie

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