Hi all,

I have no intention of perpetuating the thread on birth place and
practitioner, but something was said on a post that I wanted to comment on. A
statement attributed to Doris Haire or Lester Hazell said the existence of
intensive care nurseries was a reflection of the risks of hospital birth. WHAT
ABSOLUTE NONSENSE!!! I don't know what percentage of babies in the NICU are
there because of inappropriate birth interventions, but during my 4 month
sojourn in the NICU with Katherine, the majority of the babies were in the
NICU due to prematurity, SGA or severe birth defects. Katherine was born at 26
weeks and yes, my doctor did use forceps, but only because Katherine was about
to die in the birth canal. Her Apgars were 0 and 2; she was rescusitated in
the delivery room. BTW, my OB (who does the gentlest pelvics known to
womankind) apologized the next day for the roughness of the birth. A lot of
the babies in the NICU do have interventions at birth, but in some cases at
least, as it was with Katherine, these interventions save their lives. I
suppose you could say that these babies wound up in the NICU because of
interventions, but remember the alternative was the grave.

Just my .02
Carol Kelley, LLLL  who's Been There and Done That
Taylors SC
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