+Re: Wise Traditions - GAPS

[Guest guest]

> I am sorry that so many of you have suffered birth rape. Hospital

> birth is just. . . .panic.

Gee whiz -- this is extreme!

Birth rape?!

_________

Excuse me for responding to this so late, but I feel strongly about

this topic. I am trained as a homebirth midwife, have done birth

support at many hospital births, and have had five of my own birth

experiences--one in a hospital and four at home.

Birth is a normal process of the body, NOT an illness. It is the only

normal thing that occurs in hospitals, and hospitals only know how to

cure and fix illness and injury.

I don't think rape is too strong a word to describe what we see in

most hospitals. I know many midwives who will never do birth support

in a hospital again because of the toll it takes on us. There is

nothing we can do, even as knowledgeable as we are, to prevent the

violation that occurs in hospitals to many, perhaps most, birthing

women. I have been sitting on a hospital bed with a client and had

the doctor rupture her membranes without explanation or permission--

right next to me and with no warning! I could tell you many stories

about the degrading, violent, damaging things I have seen in hospital

birthing. The entire culture of hospital birth is violating. Read

Birth as an American Rite of Passage by Robbie -Floyd and The

American Way of Birth by Mitford for more on this.

Perhaps if one has not ever seen what birth actually is when left

alone this seems an extreme position. Maybe we have just become so

desensitized in our culture that we think these interventions are

somehow not a violation. But I think that we have a unique orientation

in this group that prompts us to examine modern cultural assumptions.

The hospital way of birth we are discussing is as new as the

newfangled foods we are resisting. It is just as unhealthy and

insidious. And we have been just as brainwashed into believing that

it is " for our own good " and " the way it must be. "

Truly natural birth in the US is either unattended or with a true

midwife and NOT in a hospital where hospital rules and culture trump

the mother's and the caregiver's interests. I have seen wonderful

practitioners having to cede to the hospital's rules. They only work

there by permission of the hospital ( " privileges " ) and MUST follow the

protocols. The nurses must follow the protocols. No one cares what

the birth plan says. Birth plans are laughed at, literally.

Childbirth classes are taught to make sure we behave in their world.

THe only childbirth classes I recommend are the Birthing From Within

Classes (0r those of an independent midwife--still, read the book)

The choice of birthPLACE, in this country, determines the birth

experience. Yes, I have seen a few unmedicated hospital births--these

were by accident, not by design.

Honestly, this issue is no different than the food issue. Traditional

is best and the dominant culture has lost its way. We have to fight

very hard to regain some sanity. In the meantime, there are some

situations (caused by the type of care that dominates and by the poor

nutrition that also dominates) where doctors and hospitals are needed--

just as some of us need acute medical care for other health issues.

These situations are few and far between--much rarer than we are led

to believe. Look at Henci Goer's book for that information.

Birth is a loving and bonding act, fueled by oxytocin--the same

hormone that governs sexual climax and breastfeeding, Birth in a

hospital subverts that. It doesn't resemble natural birth in the same

way that fast food doesn't in any way resemble traditional homemade

food. And it is just as damaging.

e