"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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