Baby Talk: What's Wrong With Our Birthing Plan.

Hello and welcome,
I'm Laura, I'm an artist, this is an art blog but I'm taking a break from art to talk about becoming a mom.  Thank you for understanding.
So the significant other of someone I know and love posted what follows:

Fact of the day: The United States has the highest infant mortality rate of a developed country.

 It also has one of the highest maternal mortality rates.

 I am inclined to believe that.   Here's why.  You go to the hospital they hook you up to monitors and if you're having contractions close enough together and you're dilated 4 cm they keep you.   And they keep you there hooked up to those monitors. Some times they make you go walk for 20 min if your contractions slow down but you just sit. Gravity helps babies out in the labor process but only if your standing, squatting or walking. When laying down your biggest assets are gone and gravity doesn't help your 8 lb chub of love whose never crawled before worm his way out a very tight space. 

No pain management yet and I'm still determined to smile all the way through despite the IVs burning my arm.  Bonus: i never cussed or got mad, at least I followed through on that goal.

In the name of medicine we have to lay or sit in a very reclined position so we can be constantly monitored by a machine instead of a nurse or midwife. They check in every 15 or 30 look at the paper make sure your alive and leave. Then when they see your contractions are going away because your laying down like a dumb bunny they put you on pitocen which is synthetic oxytocin which is the hormone your body should be releasing since your supposed to be pacing the floor to cope with the pain. So you have this pain inducing pitocen making you cry and curl in a ball ( because your not aloud to stand very long, they have to time your contractions and the baby's heart rate.) then you need something to manage your pain like an epidural. the anesthesiologist comes in and tells you all the things they legally have to tell you "i'm threading the iv in your spine you wont be able to walk or feel your legs temporarily how ever it could paralyze you permanently, you and a witness need to sign these papers here) so you have your drugs and your monitors and your pain has dulled down some, now you feel the need to push that's good, your dilated and ready to do the real labor. problem, you can't stand, walk, squat or do anything. your not in control from mid chest down enough to trust your legs worth anything. you may as well be paralyzed and you're trying to give birth. All of this is extremely frustrating and counter productive. 

on pitocen, wrestling with myself to get an epidural

mmm epidural...ok maybe i hammed it up for the pic

Did you know the female body can stop and reverse the birthing process if its scared or stressed? fantastic right? one of those cute little survival instincts no one tells you about until its happening. so after hours and hours of all this they decide that the baby is experiencing fetal stress and must be removed from the womb right now ( why didn't they think of this 20 hours ago when this was inevitable all along no one knows probably because your dumb self thought you'd get a natural birth like you planned) but your babies heart rate drops every time you push and at this point your like i don't care about anything except the babies safety and at this point it really is safest for baby to be cut out via c section. so but in 90% of births this could have been prevented at the beginning.

I'm checking out my BC probably forgot the nurse had my camera.  Like the curtain so i didn't watch the surgery?

This is my birth story. BC's healthy as a horse, thank God, I almost died twice in the following 3 weeks... I just started gushing blood like some horror scene. First I was diagnosed with an infection which is the most common reason for that, not that they checked. So I go home happily with more drugs and less blood. It happens again they do an ultrasound they find bits of placenta that are flapping around and preventing healing so the vacuum all that out. I'm lucky that only happened twice. A friend of a friend went back 6 times in the following 3-4 months from her second c section. She had 6 opportunities to bleed to death. I got 4 or 5 doses of blood in one day how many did she get? Apparently this kind of thing is pretty common with c sections. Of the 4 at the hospital that gave birth in 12 hours all 4 of us ended in emergency c section. The doc on call specializes in natural labor but because of the way they have to do things its futile.  She had me push on the operating table, she wanted me to give birth but my body decided to collapse around BC, his heart rate kept dropping and his cord was probably getting squished. 

Holding my chattering jaw shut.  I was in loads of pain and didn't know it the general anastesia is about to put me to sleep for two hours but its slow enough to at least let me meet BC face to face.  Isn't that a handsome lil pudge?

Why do so many babies die in the US when we could do so  much better? Maybe we put too much emphasis on monitoring the lazy way, (a nurse could check with a stethoscope every 15 min and be just as accurate) which then requires speeding things up which then requires masking pain all to have surgery when the body needs to experience labor to allow all the functions to kick in that are supposed to. Many c section babies can't nurse because the hormones weren't released by the detaching placenta and never made it to the brain and back to the breast. Our technology focuses on convenience rather than health, birth is a pretty good example of that. I don't know why infants die. I could blame the insurance that the hospitals are required to have that ties their hands from doing anything that wont look good on court papers ( if a dr is sued for mal practice they don't believe they did everything within their power if they didn't resort to c section, dr's may go to medical school and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that natural birth is way better yet their hands are tied by what they think the judge and jury will think if they are accused of medical mal practice). The hospital 7 min from my house wont take "at risk pregnancies" if i developed gestational diabetes during my pregnancy I'd have to switch doctors and drive an hour away to the nearest hospital qualifies, and only pas 3 or 4 others to get there to have a C section because my doctor's medical group wasn't insured for at risk pregnancies. I could blame medicine, depression meds in particular cause unwanted abortions. We have the highest population treated for depression. That could be a factor for sure. I could blame birth control, does it make sense to prevent children then when you get them any to expect them to arrive safe?  Its kinda conflicting but good grief I only want to take a birth control that can promise wont harm a my baby if it doesn't work.  I don't want to potentially harm my next child if I don't get them spaced apart like I want.  That's not right. I'm glad to know that they are teaching in collage that laboring on your back isn't good for mom or baby.  Apparently that's the reason behind our high infant mortality rates: a counter productive birthing environment. The student was accurate when he said "they put mother and baby through unnecessary measures which end up hurting more than helping" I agree.  Next time I give birth I want 2 things.  If I have to be monitored I want a cordless monitor otherwise I'd rather be without one and have the nurse keep an eye on me.  and 2 I want to ditch all the IVs Pitocen AND penicillin. Apparently I have group B strep which is some bacteria that 25% of women have and its potentially harmful to baby.  Could weaken their immune system before they hardly build one. Bye the way group b strep is not an STD, don't treat me like its my fault, the doctors don't know what cause it.  I do intend to find out more about it and see what the hard core birthing hippy camp has to say about it.  I kinda want to go to a Birthing Center honestly.    I want to be encouraged to do what is healthy and not sit so I can get drugs shoved in my arm and spine and watch the monitor show what my contractions are doing... I like watching BCs heart rate but that was about it.  Granted it did give my hubby something to do, he told me when I was going to have another contraction... haha love him any ways.

Ok I'm way too tiard to expect to sound intelligent.