Yesterday was my first day of OBGYN clinicals, and I can now see why so many people are terrified and scarred by childbirth and are asking for elective C-sections. You know how from the 20s to the 60s or so, when women were pain flat on their backs, bolted down with leather restraints, knocked out with chloroform, and had their babies yanked out with forceps by a cigar-chomping obstetrician who claimed that he was the savior of "the terrors of childbirth?" Things haven't changed much, at least not in hospitals. If a woman is in labor, she was not allowed to get out of bed, eat anything, and she has to deliver flat on her back. God, delivering on one's back is the worst thing you can do because it crushes the inferior vena cava and nullifies the assistance of gravity. It's purely for the convenience of the doctor. Heck, women used to give birth in special chairs or in kneeling positions until doctors took over deliveries. The obstetrical field was designed by men who thought that they were doing huge favors for women, when in fact they totally patronized them and rather than let them listen to their bodies and listen to the women, they decided to take total control total of the situation.
The first girl was a young thing whose baby's daddy decided that it wasn't his problem. The poor girl was scared out of her wits. She was totally doped up on narcs, and the doctors soon decided that it was time for her to start pushing. There were 2 doctors, 1 resident, a nurse, and 2 nursing students in the room. All of them except me were screaming at her to push. I figured that I was doing her the biggest favor by just being quiet and letting her hold my hand. The fetal monitor soon started showing signs of distress (no shit, I would be freaking out too if I had a room full of people screaming at me), and she wasn't allowed to rest out any contractions, even before the distress showed up. The birth was exactly like they're dramatized on TV, with the woman screaming, "I can't do it, it hurts too much!" She ripped a bit (she was forced to push and not let things stretch), and asked God why this was happening to her. The poor thing was terrified, and passed right out after the birth.
The behavior of the medical staff was pretty disgusting too. It was so IMPERSONAL. It's so true, doctors advocate themselves and nurses advocate the patients. The doctors and residents were chatting about their work, telling her to push, and totally not listening to the patients. They were bossy and impersonal, nothing like the wonderful stories that my mother told me about being attended by nurse midwives. My mom said that her first birth (me) was obstetrician-delivered, and she hated it. The other 5 kids were all nurse midwife delivered, and she said that they stayed by her side the whole time, let her do her thing (she even caught some of us), and she felt like they actually listened to her.
The second birth was a woman with discordant twins (one twin was getting deprived of in-utero care, so Twin A was 6 lbs while B was 3 lbs). One was cephalic (head down), the other was transverse (sideways). They induced her with pitocin and further sped her along by rupturing her membranes. She screamed for an epidural, but not even that spared her from the pain of what they did to her. They wheeled her into the OR in case of an emergency C-section. They yanked out Twin A with forceps, and then maneuvered Twin B into a breech birth. The poor woman was crying and screaming, and the dad was waiting outside because he was too squeamish.
No wonder women are terrified by childbirth. The intervention that was supposed to save them is totally controlling the process.
The other thing that disgusted the hell out of me was the lack of participation of some of the fathers. I swear, most of the fathers were so useless that they might as well have been chain smoking in the waiting room like they did until the sixties. To the men reading this: If you're too immature or squeamish to go through childbirth, then you are too immature to reproduce. Don't give any bullshit excuses of, "I can't stand to see her in pain/ I can't stand the sight of blood." Remember, you can leave the room during the ouchy or icky parts. SHE CAN'T. Women have no choice but to be present during the whole process, and they have to mature damn quick because of this lack of choice. You are just as responsible for that kid as she is, and you'd damn well better support her. This kind of stuff happens when you have a kid. Seriously, if you don't even think that you could look "down there" during birth, then keep on using condoms.
Note: I don't totally condemn medical intervention in childbirth. I think that it is a woman's right to have pain medication, and emergencies do exist. However, in this stupid litigatious society, medical care is dominated by threats of lawsuits rather than what is best for the patient. I dont' blame doctors for covering their asses like they do, as too many people see doctors as jackpot lottery tickets.
Unless there are risks, I refuse to subject myself to this. Birthing centers and midwives for me! Oh, and this experience has not made my biological clock tick any faster. I am still putting off kids for another decade or so.



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