Monday, January 10, 2011

Natural Birthing

On 6 January 2011 I googled the word natural, the second entry to appear was Medical Videos - Natural Vaginal Child Birth Delivery Video ... If you click on the link (beware it is quite graphic!) you will see that this links to a five minute video of a natural birth. This is the Natural Vaginal Child Birth Delivery Video. 2,792 people have liked this video and shared it on facebook suggesting that there are many people out there who like the idea of a natural birth. In our society today it is all too easy to opt for drugs to relieve pain or even elect for a caesarean in order to not have to ‘go through’ a labour experience.

Understandably there are births that come with complications and require medical intervention such as a delivery aided by forceps or ventouse or even an emergency caesarean but if this is not medically necessary is there a better way? I recently read an article on the Mail Online website Maternity meltdown: A devastating firsthand account of the chaos on wards - and why overweight mums are partly to blame. The article talks about staff shortages on labour wards and how this is becoming a major problem. The author does suggest that the number of births in the hospital that she works in has more than doubled over the past couple of years but she also says that a woman who is about to give birth and has been given an epidural is meant to be monitored constantly. Nowadays so many women are asking for epidurals surely this must take up much needed time as the midwives monitor these women continually. Having an epidural can also slow down labour so the women need to be looked after for longer periods.

The majority of pregnant woman avoid certain chemicals such as those in cigarettes and alcohol during pregnancy. There are also certain medications that pregnant woman should refrain from taking along with a selection of foods. A question I always ask is, why when having kept away from all of these things for 40 weeks would you then go and give your baby a shot of a chemical that in normal circumstances you would not let anywhere near you? Pethadine for example is a synthetic form of morphine. Diacetylmorphine (better known as heroin) was synthesized from morphine in 1874 and brought to market by Bayer in 1898. Yet many women - justifiably - find the pain of childbirth too difficult to experience and at the last minute are happy to be injected with these chemicals and in turn pass the chemical onto the baby. In some cases the fear associated with the pain could result in a prolonged labour and the pain relief/medical intervention become necessary but wouldn’t it be worth trying something else to help avoid this situation? Having a natural birth can be an amazing experience; using HypnoBirth can help to achieve a natural birth, most couples that have used the Fertility2Birth HypnoBirth programme have achieved the natural birth they so desired. For the mother, a natural birth increases the probability of an easier, healthier recovery due to no chemicals in the body, cutting of the perineum bruises from IV lines, or severe headache or backache due to side effect of epidurals. For the baby, a natural birth reduces the exposure to chemicals. A natural birth also reduces the likelihood of needing to separate the infant from its mother after birth, important for successful breastfeeding and bonding. Surely it’s worth a go to avoid taking in these chemicals, to avoid passing the chemicals on to your baby and to help out those busy midwives. You never know you might be able to tell your baby that his or her entrance to the world was an enjoyable magical experience.

Juliet Hollingsworth

Fertility & birth specialist at On Harley Street

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