Natural Childbirth?

He's here! My precious new grandson made his appearance 2 weeks early on July 17, 2006. My first grandchild! How can I describe the feeling? It's like the sudden gasp you take emerging from a deep dive in the ocean. It's like the soothing warmth of stepping on the beach in spring when it's been baking in that early sun. It's like the first snow in the Rockies. It's like coming full-circle. It's wonderful. So now, I wonder why we have to inject every medical intervention invented into the birthing process. My daughter was committed to natural childbirth; she and her husband were well trained and very practiced. But from the moment they stepped onto the LRD floor the nurses were talking epidural. There was NO encouragement for the method in which she was trained. All through the night she did a superb job of breathing and relaxing through every contraction but the very moment she whispered"I don't think I can do this" the room was swarming with personnel. Prior to that point there was hardly a nurse to be found! I am convinced that she was in transition at that point and I really fault the medical comunity for being regimented and mechanized and narrow-minded. For Heaven's sake, provide your patients with support in their chosen path. This was not a case of a screaming woman in labor; it was indeed a well-practiced young woman who had reached a text-book point in her labor. By her own admission, had someone checked her dilation and stated that she was at 8cm she could have gone the distance. I'm not saying that having an epidural is a sign of weakness. Quite the contrary. I'm just saying that nurses and doctors shouldn't be so quick to take the easy way out. Work with your patients. Be an active participant. Engage. Remember all those things you went to nursing school for?
Lamaze
Women
Natural Childbirth