First off, I LOVED Jennifer's comments titled choices and changes, it was
excellent!

 This is several days delayed but I wanted to comment on something Betsy
wrote to Jennifer....how it isn't the doulas job to watch the monitor.
Generally, this is indeed true...but I cant tell you how many times I have
seen significant heart decels (in the 40's or 50's) and CANT FIND A
NURSE.... gratefully, I know what to do....it is outside my scope but I
don't want anything to happen to baby...and the nurses are always extremely
grateful that I have assisted.

This has been a very interesting thread that I have devoured, interesting to
me both as a doula and as a breastfeeding advocate.

I have said this before and I'll say it again. How we birth matters, it can
impact how we feel about ourselves as mothers, can impact our breastfeeding
relationship and it can ever impact our next births. Some births are so
traumatic, women refuse to have more children or suffer from posttraumatic
stress disorder. However, some births are empowering and profoundly impact
women in a positive way, that is life changing.

For mothers who choose a hospital birth...or have no choice to birth there,
some really think they are being proactive and informed. The problem is,
that often they are lied to by their Dr's. For example we have a group here,
that for EVERY BIRTH...give their mothers an epidural, an episiotomies and
use a vacuum whether it is indicated or not. They also insist on continuous
fetal monitoring from 4 centimeters on. They are as smooth as smooth can
be...women LOVE them! They DO NOT tell their "moms to be", of their
"standing orders" of an I V, monitoring, epis, vacuum or c-section. If moms
state in pregnancy that they DON'T want an episiotomy, the Dr's will tell
them " we will only do one if it is necessary" and guess what? *Moms believe
them*. I recently was a doula for a mom who went to this practice and when
we arrived at the hospital, the nurse...who is also a doula, when finding
out who the Dr, was said "I'm sorry I cant be your nurse, I don't do Dr. XYZ
births they upset me too much" Second nurse...refused to check mom, because
if she was at a 4...then mom would have to be on the monitor. The third
nurse was scared and nervous because mom was at 9 and didn't have an
epidural and was worried the Dr., would get mad. Gee whiz.... what's a lady
to do?

 I do want to emphasize their are Dr's out there who are excellent and more
like a midwife than a OB.they have my deepest respect, unfortunately they
get allot of grief from their peers for the way they approach birth.

I think it is imperative that we look at our stats in the US and encourage
women to demand change. We are the "richest" nation in the world but our
maternal mortality rates are extremely high....we rank 21-26 worldwide I
believe. Countries who have the Midwifery care model blow us away with their
statistics. Why is it illegal in my state to have a homebirth, why are
interventions pushed on women, why is birth not appreciated? Birth,
breastfeeding and MOTHERING are inherently female and until we respect
birth, we will have to continue to fight to improve breastfeeding rates.
Until women are respected in our culture we will continue to be "second
class citizens".

Mary Anderson

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