Have you ever been told at your 37/38/39 week prenatal, during a vaginal exam, that you're ___cm and ___% effaced and "baby is really low"?
Was it followed with, "I doubt you'll make it through the weekend"...?
It seems like that was the previous trend (before the unfavorable cervix shenanigans began) that OBs and even midwives were using to build an expectation in mothers' and partners' minds. Again, education is the key to overcoming this silly gullibility before birth and the depression due to regret that comes afterward.
Put yourself in the profit-driven practitioner's shoes.
What happens is this: As a profit-driven practitioner, you tell a woman what you're "expecting" and since you're the professional, so she expects it too. Mother tells all her friends and family members that she's bound to go into labor before the weekend. She builds it up in her mind. She finishes the nesting, packs her bags, over-analyzes her cravings, her sleep, her poop, her aches, pains and everything her body does. Poor thing gets all excited. Day after day she wakes up, and expects that today will be the day. Then it doesn't happen - because she and her baby are not ready, but your prediction has effectively poisoned the waters.
Imagine how she feels... A strange combination of disability, failure, impotence, embarrassment, even shame. She wonders what is wrong with her (but doesn't question what was wrong with the prediction, because her heart is tender and vulnerably focused inward, as it should be). Another week passes and her anxiety increases.
Her family and friends are sharing this unrealistic expectation and start pressuring: "What's wrong?" "Haven't you had that baby yet?" "This happened to _____ and she had to have a cesarean because her body just wouldn't go into labor."
Half of the work of a profit-driven practitioner is done for him/her already!
Guess who is now primed and ready to sign up for that induction...
and worse, the scheduled cesarean, which is allowable after 37 weeks for very little reason - if any. All that needs to be done now, is to give it an official diagnosis: Failure to progress, Unfavorable cervix, Low amniotic fluid, YOU NAME IT, we can put a labor on it. :)
Remember how I mentioned the depression due to regret earlier? These are the moms whose babies end up in the NICU, whose deeply desired breastfeeding is ruined, whose baby struggles in their first weeks and months to thrive and grow, because they are so sleepy, jaundice, allergic to formula.
I just want moms to stop signing up for the snowball effect with their eyes closed. I want them to be educated about the process of birth. I want them to know how their bodies REALLY work and that they were built for this process. I want them to understand that their mind is where the battle really is - not their bodies. And if they can trust themselves to give birth the way they trust themselves to do anything else, they will give birth when their baby says they are ready, and they will have a healthy, alert, good eater and good sleeper in their arms upon delivery.
The USA has a profit driven health care system. If you want to make lots of money, this would be a great industry to get into. That is, until individuals begin to take responsibility for their own health and begin to question what is being recommended to them. At some point, the insurance industry is going to fall apart because the public cannot afford to pay and the industry itself cannot sustain the abuse it's been funding for decades.
Most of all, I think we as women need to get back to the way we've cared for the health of our families for millennia - and that is to educate ourselves but follow our intuition. Why have we replaced intuition and good sense with beeps and pills?
Your children depend on your good sense and intuition for all other areas of their lives and well-being. Don't let them down on the day they arrive earth-side.
To learn more, to be mentored, or to take online interactive childbirth classes, please give me a call and I will be happy to direct you to some fantastic resources.
May this new year be the year you start asking questions and taking charge of your own health and the health of your family. You deserve to have respectful, honest caregivers and so do your children.
Warmly,
Anne Croudace
952-457-6506
http://www.maternitywise.com
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