Technology for Childbirth

I can give you the knowledge you need about the various birth technologies, but you must have the wisdom and understanding to use them effectively at your birth. Knowledge is simply understanding of the facts, no more and no less. But wisdom, wisdom knows how to apply those facts. Wisdom knows how to handle facts that seem contradictory. Wisdom can balance the benefits and the risks to make a good decision for mother and baby.

Each of the technologies offered during labor can provide great benefits. But at the same time, they can each have great risks. It is because of these risks we are careful to determine when and if a technology should be used. In the normal labor, adding a technology adds risks. Sometimes that risk is added without significant benefit; sometimes the benefits outweigh the risks.

As the parent, it is your responsibility and right to decide which technologies are a part of your child's birth. You will make decisions based on what you see happening, advice and options from your midwife or doctor and your knowledge of the technology available. Before you receive a technology, you will be asked to give Informed Consent.

As you build your knowledge of the technologies available, pay attention to these three things:

1. Are there other ways to get the same result?

2. How likely will my labor be affected by the various risks?

3. What ways can I make the use of this technology safer if I decide to use it?

It is possible that during labor you will decide to use a technology you had intended to avoid. It is also possible that during labor you will decide to not to use a technology you had expected to use. This is normal. Although labor has a general format it follows, the details of the labor are not known until labor begins. This is why we plan for normal and prepare for the unexpected.

You can learn more about each of these technologies in the Birth Messages section. It contains the writings of Robbie Davis-Floyd, a noted cultural anthropologist, on her research into technology and childbirth.

Before you begin reading about the various technologies available at your local hospital for childbirth, here are some comments from various authors about the collective use of these technologies.

"Obstetricians work within the medical model, a model that says drugs and procedures are the answer to whatever goes wrong. However, labor difficulties usually resolve themselves with tincture of time or simple remedies. Sterner, riskier measures are rarely required." Henci Goer The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth

"Today various studies show that between 15 and 25 percent of full-term, healthy babies born to healthy mothers are spending days or wees in intensive care units." Why are they there?

Mostly as a result of the interventions done on their mothers in labor, which create symptoms in either the mother or the baby that lead health workers to believe the baby might have a medical problem." Suzanne Arms Immaculate Deception II: A fresh look at childbirth

"In a lecture at the Midwifery Today Conference (1996) Penny Simkin explained that fifty-five percent of mothers with a 'walking epidural' lose their proprioceptor sense and cannot walk. This means when they put their food down, they don't know where it is. So, unless someone else moves their feet for them, and two people hold them up, they can't walk." Pam England, CNM Birthing From Within

"It is true that the majority of mothers breeze through an epidural delivery with no immediate complications and have long-term memories of a satisfying birth experience. But as soon as that magic medicine enters your body, your birth experience changes. Rather than being an active participant in your birth, you become an observer, a patient on the receiving end of the technology that is directing your birth. Since the lower half of your body is weak, you are now dependent upon others to move you. As long as the drug is doing its job, you may get less attention from your caretakers. The media staff will turn you, check the monitor, the intravenous line, the correct dosage, and the position of the epidural catheter, do your perineal hygiene and empty your bladder, but they sometimes forget that there is a whole person at the end of the tubing." Dr. William Sears The Birth Book

"Electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) was introduced widely during the 1970s, with the assumption that it would make labor safer for the baby. Hospitals began using EFM before there was any evidence to back up this assumption, and EFM became routine in many places. For all its great popularity in hospitals (more than eighty percent of U.S. women labor with EFM), this ubiquitous machine has not been associated with any noticeable lowering of infant mortality. Research done since then shows that intermittent listening with a fetoscope is every bit as good at detecting a baby who is in trouble from lack of oxygen. From the mother's standpoint, intermittent listening is far better - less painful and less likely to lead to ineffective labor and cesarean section." Ina May Gaskin Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

"The developing brain of the baby is susceptible to insult from drugs because it continues to develop for up to two years after birth. In addition, drugs have a far greater impact on the baby than on the mother because of the baby's body size and the limited ability of a newborn's liver to excrete drugs. All drugs used in obstetrics are toxic for babies." Barbara Harper Gentle Birth Choices

"Ultrasound is a fairly recent method of putting fear into women early on in their pregnancies. Many women are worried about one thing or another after the ultrasound, which is supposedly done to reassure them. One is concerned because she is told she has 'too much amniotic fluid.' Another doesn't have enough. Someone else has the dates wrong. Many are told the baby is too small for dates, or too big to deliver vaginally.

Some ultrasounds reveal that the baby might have an abnormality. A recent study in Britain revealed that only 55 percent of babies born with an abnormality had been detected by ultrasound. Meanwhile 174 fetuses that were labeled 'abnormal' turned out to be perfectly normal. Pity the poor pregnant mothers of these 174 perfectly normal babies, who spent their whole pregnancies in needless worry. Rather than being reassured, the victim of ultrasound spends the rest of her pregnancy worrying afraid of the outcome, often without justification." Sheila Stubbs Birthing the Easy Way

"We are indeed lucky to live in a time with medical aids to labor and delivery exist, but medical interventions such as labor induction, pain relief, and cesarean sections - measures that have saved many lives - have been overused." Peggy O'Mara Having a Baby, Naturally

You May Also Be Interested In: What changes are being assessed during a cervical exam. The Natural Childbirth Directory can help you find more information about birth and locate childbirth professionals. The Coach's Notebook helps you learn tools and techniques to manage labor. Do some self exploration to discover how you will act in labor. Find out how exercise and nutrition can help you achieve your birth plan goals.

© Copyright 2000-2008 Jennifer VanderLaan and Birthing Naturally

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