Dear Colleen especially: I would dearly LOVE to be brave enough
to recommend homebirth to women. Among my family, I have been
sufficiently outspoken about my feelings about routine hospital
childbirth technologies to have made my daughter's career goal to
become a midwife specializing in homebirth. I believe that
hospitals are notoriously unsafe for babies, and I become livid
with every new intervention/technology/experiment that I hear
about that either puts baby at risk or puts lactation at risk,
from pacifiers on up. Wanna hear the latest at my local medical
center (which has over 10,000 births a year!)? Obstetrics-A has a
protocol that if a woman is not in active labor 6 hours after
"losing her water", she is given a regime of antibiotics for at
least 5 days postpartum. Obstetrics-B has a protocol that if a
woman is not in active labor 12 hours after ditto, antibiotics
are started. When I heard about this (from a hospital midwife), I
was so startled that I blurted "Oh, they're conducting
research?", and the midwife answered "No", but sounded annoyed
with my question. And I was wondering why I was seeing SO much
more thrush......
Maybe Toby Gish - Toby, are you out there? - knows the history
of/reason for the National Insurance Institute paying Israeli
women to give birth in hospital.
Very religious women, I have heard, prefer to give birth at home,
had to fight in court to get this maternity payment. With-it
secular women are very slowly coming to appreciate homebirth,
also go to court for the payment. Not sure what their argument
is. Toby, Evie?
IMO, Israeli women are not completely informed about epidural or
demerol. We have problems with patient rights issues.
Although I'm sure that the docs and most nurses on the line (just
about everyone!) can give a more professional dissertation than
I, I am about to alight my soapbox once again. Demerol is a
narcotic and should not be given within 2 hours of delivery. It
may act as a respiratory depressant for the fetus. Point 1: the
newborn's liver is immature and so baby is unable to metabolize
and excrete medication received via the placenta for possibly
several DAYS after birth. As a narcotic, it makes baby sleepy and
unresponsive, not interested in nursing. Point 2: if ANYone tells
you that you "won't deliver for at least X hours", know this
person for a dishonest one. There is simply no way for anyone to
know this for sure. My personal delivery "style" was very slow
dilation until about 7 cm, then very fast and quick-catch-the-
baby. But who knew this with my first delivery? I am still angry
about this, almost 23 years later.
Yep, I cheerfully admit to several attitude problems.
Happy New Year everyone! Judy Knopf in Beer Sheva, Israel