Sarah,
I am thrilled that you are both in the world as a practitioner and here on LN as a breastfeeding advocate.
I am also thrilled that you do not love giving mothers and babies epidurals. But, this is just not the reality
for most hospitals. When epidurals began to be really pushed in my community (and many others--this was
a common discussion among birth and breastfeeding advocates at the time), there came a tipping point
where there needed to be enough of them done to justify the doc being available all of the time. At this point
came the subtle and not-so-subtle monitoring and even silencing of childbirth educators and others who were
concerned about the effect of these drugs on mothers and babies. Anesthesiologists were suddenly showing
up in childbirth classes to spin the epidural and avert parental concern before mothers might be warned by
others. IMO, this is extremely unethical and really no different from handing out formula gift bags. It is meant
to create good will toward the drugs and those who "offer" them and normalize the intervention.
Sarah, what does concern me is when you say that:
"I do see everyone on the L/D floor when I am on
call, even if they are hoping for an unmedicated birth, are antepartum
patients, etc., because I want to at least know what their airway
looks like in case of an emergency, and I certainly talk about"
epidurals then if they are interested."
I believe it is always undermining of birthing women to present the "just in case" scenario, especially to a
laboring woman. In all honesty, would be horrified that anyone wanted to "know what my airway looked like
just in case". Approaching birth as inherently risky and dangerous is why women no longer trust their bodies
to give birth. Again, this is akin to giving mothers free samples of AIM. "just in case" their bodies do not work.
All along the way, we imply to women in both overt and covert ways that their bodies are likely to fail them.
Hospital birth has never been proven to be safe for the majority of mothers and babies, and no obstetrical
intervention has ever been proven to be safe or effective, yet we have completely normalized them in most of
the world.
You also say that:
"Anyway, all this is meant to say that virtually every anesthesiologist
I know (except for our dept. head of OB anesthesia) finds OB
anesthesia a relatively distasteful, necessary evil part of their day
if they need to be up on the L/D floor. "
I wish every OB and even more importantly, every mother you knew also found it so distasteful. I believe one
day we will look back on this period in history with deep remorse and be truly shocked at the brutality with
which we treated both the babies coming into this world and their mothers. I do not believe that obstetrics will
be in any way revered (though some obstetricians may rightly be). We do not need education about drugs for
birthing women--we need education (reminding) about our own power as women and healing of our own birth
traumas. We need to speak honestly of what is lost to all of humanity when babies are born drugged to drugged
mothers. Money, fear and misplaced power have driven the content of so-called "childbirth classes" and the
"choices" women have had for far too long.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC
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