"Perfect home births vs. hospital births from hell"
A headline like this misses the point entirely. The man who wrote the
article in no way cared about or considered the impact of medicalized
birth on the baby. It was all about his bizarre concept of the mother
as evolved to accept that she is beyond the need for pain vs the mother
who is a martyr (you know, like terrorists and other extremists).
Nothing about the baby--but it is the baby's birth--the baby's
experience of coming into this world. Why do we never consider the
price the baby pays? There is so much research in the literature that
attests to the reality of birth trauma--that a baby's experience of
birth is a defining one in the course of his life. Nowhere did I say
that homebirth is perfect--I said mothers do not regret them--I have
two dear friends whose babies died at home, but it was no one's fault
and death is the other side of the birth coin. They do not regret
having homebirths. Of course they regret losing their children!! The
point is exactly that birth is not perfect, no matter where it happens.
What it is is normal--a normal physiological, physo-spiritual process.
Such a process does not end with a baby, or even a placenta. It is the
beginning of attachment and bonding, the building of relationships and
the capacity to love and it is the stage the is set for breastfeeding
to happen, or not. IMO, nothing has greater impact on breastfeeding and
the mother-infant relationship than the circumstances of a baby's
gestation, birth and early post-partum period and this is not just my
"uneducated" fancy, but is well-documented by researchers like Thomas
Verny, Ray Castellino, Michel Odent, Sarah Buckley, Joseph Chilton
Pearce and so many others. What is also of note to me is that the folks
who are doing this research tend to find it so compelling that they
dedicate their work to preventing and healing the damage that is being
done. What I wonder is how a person can become an OB, a ped or even an
RN, nurse-midwife or IBCLC and not be required to read such authors?
Shouldn't we all be entrusted with preserving the physiologic norm and
optimizing human well-being rather than doing damage-control?
Jennifer Tow, IBLCL, CT, USA
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