Doula Blog
All about Pregnancy, Birth, & Postpartum
Creating a birth vision rather than a birth plan can empower you to envision what you'd like your birth & birthing space to be like knowing that birth is unpredictable. It can help you to learn about the risks and benefits of different interventions, make informed choices, and think through what you’d like to include in your birth, without focusing on controlling the birth but allowing the birth to unfold naturally. Patience for the journey & confidence in your body’s ability to birth are helpful to bring with you in labor! Let’s get started! You and your family deserve to have an empowered, beautiful, birth experience! If you’d like to learn more about the choices you have and would like help navigating the current research to make informed decisions, hiring a doula can be helpful! Envisioning your baby’s birth…
Some things to consider:
-Medical professionals skilled at attending low-risk births in the hospital, home or birthing center. Midwives can be found in many cities throughout the US, but in other developed countries Midwives are highly integrated into the health system caring for low-risk women during pregnancy, labor & postpartum, such as Germany, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and England, France and Australia to name a few. - Usually has a nursing background but not always. - Typically has a more holistic approach to childbirth and sees it as a normal part of a woman’s life and that it works best when left to unfold naturally. - Midwives are skilled at managing a variety of complications and transferring care to an OB if the mother becomes high risk. Obstetrician: - In most developed countries Midwives care for women in normal childbirth and work with OBs when the mother needs a physician to manage difficult births and complex situations because of their vast training in medicine! OBs also perform Cesarean births. - Due to the highly skilled training of labor and delivery, the focus is usually on the medical management of birth. Some interventions are not based on best practice for low-risk women and some of which can lead to what’s called ‘a cascade of interventions’ when not medically necessary (ex. Epidural or induction increases chances of using Pitocin which increases risk of fetal distress which can lead to requiring a Cesarean birth). Family Physician: Medical doctor who works primarily at a family practice and delivers babies in the hospital as well. . . Remember, this is your body, birth, & baby. You always have a choice for interventions, place of birth, midwife/OB, and you can always change your mind (Really, you can!) Creating a Birth Vision instead of a Birth Plan may allow you to be open minded to the unpredictability of birth. You can write this the way YOU WANT to. You can go into as much or little detail as you’d like. Sometimes, it is helpful to keep it less than one page double spaced and include only what you’d really like the doctors, nurses, midwives to know about you and your wishes. Medical providers, especially in the hospital, generally have multiple pregnant women in labor so the more concise the more likely they are to read it, remember it and respect your desires. Consider including a line that says something similar to: THANK YOU to my nurses and doctors/midwives for taking such good care of me! . . If you’d like to dive a little deeper...Check out the interesting, current research below! Midwives & Evidence Based Maternity Care: As you can see from this chart below, the only two developed countries listed that have more Ob-gyns than midwives are the US and Canada. (2) “In the U.S., certified midwives and nurse-midwives must hold a graduate degree from an institution accredited by the American College of Nurse-Midwives, and certified professional midwives must undergo at least two years of intensive training. This is designed to make midwives experts in normal physiological pregnancy and birth. Thus, for women with low-risk pregnancies who wish to deliver vaginally, it often makes sense to employ a midwife rather than a more costly surgeon. Yet only about 8 percent of U.S. births are attended by midwives.” (1) There are many medical interventions that are standard practice for birthing women. The research shows that what is commonly done in the US maternity care system is not based on best practice. See below for a chart from midwifery care Archives - Evidence Based Birth® that outlines some of these practices! References:
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