Natural Childbirth In An Unnatural World

A thoughtful, and thought-provoking blog from Stephanie Morrow of BlogHer.com makes the plea to modern women everywhere to make an informed decision about their birth in an "unnatural world." We are constantly surrounded by the images of mothers in horrible pain when labor begins and dramatic moments of the water breaking.  While all that makes for good drama on television- it's not reality for most births!  She certainly lays the groundwork for good research points, and closes it up with something that we definitely believe in here at Embrace Birth Midwifery Care & Birth Center: "YOUR body, YOUR baby, YOUR decision."

Photo Credit: stephanie2morrow

Why You Won't Have a Natural Birth

By: Stephanie Morrow

I rarely rant. I almost never rave. If I seem taller than usual, it's more likely from my new sparkly summer wedges than from standing on a soapbox. But ... well ... I want to say something that's going to make some of you furious and others of you feel justified:

Natural childbirth is not possible in an unnatural world.

And we do live in an unnatural world -- X-Men, Photoshop, reality tv, fast food, Donald Trump's hair -- and we believe what we see. (Except maybe for the hair.)

Our culture encourages those same "unreal" perceptions regarding childbirth. Movies and tv shows tell us labor will begin with intense pain and agony. We are shown images of women screaming and begging to be medicated. We told to freak out when water breaks and rush to the hospital. We listen to the horror stories of our "friends." We ignorantly put ourselves in the hands of people who are exceptionally well-trained to handle abnormalities and emergencies, hence all our births have become such abnormalities and emergencies.

And that's just not reality.

We are NOT educating ourselves. We have lost our communal knowledge of the art of birthing and have chosen instead to simply trust the medical profession to decide what is best for us.

You can SAY all day long, "I want a natural birth," but if you aren't educating yourself, your chances of actually HAVING one are practically nonexistent. I mean, if you want to be a safe driver, but you don't read the Driver's Manual, or learn to operate a vehicle from someone who knows how, or even take a driver's ed class, you MIGHT get in the car and know WHERE you want to go, but what are the chances of actually making it there safely? Probably about the same as having an uneducated natural birth.

Now, by "educating yourself," I do NOT mean taking the hospital class that tours you through Labor & Delivery, makes you watch the epidural video and discusses all the things that "could go wrong" and how the hospital will deal with them. NO. NO. An emphatic NO.

Read for yourself: Literature from both ends of the spectrum, from Twinkle Ding-Dong Yoga Birthing to Shut Up and Put Your Feet in the Stirrups. Go ahead and take the Labor & Delivery tour at the hospital, then go to an independent childbirth class. Drink in A Baby Story on TLC, then chase it with The Business of Being Born on Netflix.

Read up on epidurals and episiotomies; C-sections and vitamin K shots; vaccinations and circumcisions; fetal monitoring and forceps; meconium and mucous plugs; contractions and colostrum; dilation and doulas; VBAC and PRoM; breech babies and birth positions; posterior presentation, placentas, pitocin & postpartum depression, and for heaven's sake, PARENTING.

What determines the outcome of your labor hinges sharply on choosing to educate yourself and surround yourself with the support you need.  And, as a doula, while I heavily advocate drug-free birthing, my job is to help you have the experience you want. Schedule a C-section, squat in a cornfield, whatever. It is, after all, YOUR body, YOUR baby, YOUR decision.

Just please, please, please make it an INFORMED one.

To view the original blog post, click here.

The Birth Center Difference

We'd love to answer any and all questions you may have about what kind of care our Birth Center, Midwives, and Doulas can provide for you!  We offer tours twice a week- Tuesday afternoons at 1 pm and Saturday mornings at 9 am.  We also offer lots of classes, workshops, and opportunities to meet our talented and trained staff. Check our calendar for daily events!  We know our care can make your birth experience everything you hope it will be!

Doulas Provide Emotional, Physical and Educational Support

Our Doula interns had a great time at the Doula Speed Dating event last night, we were happy to help those couples with their questions about the benefits of a doula.  Every doula is there for educational, emotional and physical support both during and after pregnancy.  Some have backgrounds in physical therapy, others in yoga or massage, but they all share a passion for giving you the experience you want and support without judgment!

NBC12 News Coverage!

We got a great write up and video from NBC 12!

CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT) -
The first free-standing, midwife-led birth center just opened its doors in Chesterfield.

The Embrace Midwifery Birth Care and Resource Center and Embrace Wellness Collective opened this week off Buford Road. The facility hosts a number of services, but the focus is prenatal care, birth, and care in the weeks that follow.

“We have a lot of different services,” said Corina Hossle. “Our midwifery care covers all prenatal care, labor, birth, and post-partum care. We have two birth suites. So, we have the whole gamut of the child-bearing year covered.”

Hossle is a licensed midwife, so she also cares for mothers and babies for six weeks after birth.

“We have a nurse midwife who is offering well-woman care, birth control, IUDs, all the hormonal replacements for perimenopausal and menopausal women,” said Hossle.  “We have a wellness collective with the green baby store going in. We have doulas, we have a doula internship program, we have yoga, and child-bearing classes. We have lactation support, we’re really working hard to be a one-stop-shop for Richmond families in the area.”

What's different is the hands-on, low-intervention philosophy. We're told moms can catch their own babies. The practice also promotes skin-to-skin bonding. And they say IVs don't get started unless they are really medically required.

“We are so committed to parents and unmedicated, empowered birth. So, our job here is to just give them another option. Healthy moms having healthy babies can have babies out of hospitals and we believe that that's a good option for them," said Hossle, who she already has more than a dozen babies booked to be born at the facility. “Women are really starting to seek out an alternative birth experience. They want to be in charge of their birth and not be delivered of their babies.  So, this gives them the opportunity to really step into that space.”

For those unfamiliar with how an independent birth center might work, we asked her about what they do in an emergency.

“We do all the same tests that a doctor can do,” said Hossle. “We order all the same labs that a hospital would require, but we truly believe that interventions need to be truly required to stop into that space.”

Hossle also pointed to the ambulance crew directly across the street and she says they have a transfer agreement in place with some hospitals.

“We ask them to give us a call and we’ll talk with them a little bit on the phone and we will be offering tours on a weekly basis so they can come and see the birth centers, see if it is the right option- ask their questions. We offer free consultations and interviews so they truly can see if we’re who they want to choose for their providers. And then they begin care with us.”

Hossle says they are Medicaid providers and they also have an insurance billing program in place.

Doula Speed Dating

Are you thinking about using a doula as a part of your birth plan?  Then please come to our Doula Speed Dating event this Wednesday at 6pm to meet and greet with Embrace Birth's Doula team! Whether you're an Embrace client or not, we invite all expecting families to join us for light refreshments and a chance to meet your local doulas.  Doulas are like birthing coaches, they can help you with techniques to manage pain during labor and are there to give you emotional, physical and informational support before, during, and after your birth.  Come learn all the benefits of having a doula and get an opportunity to meet....The Right One!

Coping With Breastfeeding Grief

Author of Healing Breast Feeding Greif, Hilary Jacobson, writes about how to heal disappointed expectations when breastfeeding doesn't work out for some women.  As a holistic lactation consultant, she works with many women who have trouble breastfeeding and experienced the same grief after her first child.

Breastfeeding Grief: Emotional Healing When Breastfeeding Does Not Work
By Hilary Jacobson

Recently, I read in a book about natural childbirth that mothers should prepare mentally ahead of time just in case a Cesarean birth is needed. The authors point out that when we accept that life is not predictable and are mentally prepared for any eventuality, a mother can maintain a positive sense of connection to her baby even without her ideal birth.

When it comes to breastfeeding, we do not advise mothers about what to do in case breastfeeding does not work out. We know that with correct information, guidance, and support, mothers usually succeed and we do not want to discourage mothers by suggesting difficulties that will most likely never arise.

Yet, where does this leave those mothers who, for whatever reason, are not able to have their hoped-for relationship?

A 2014 study from Cambridge, looking at 14,000 mothers, revealed that mothers who do not reach their breastfeeding goals are at twice the risk of postpartum depression. The head author of that study, Marie Iacovou, says, “There is currently hardly any skilled specialist help for these mothers, and this is something … that health providers should be thinking about.”

Helping mothers truly heal their emotional wounds is something I have been thinking about for a long time. As the moderator of an online group for mothers with chronic low milk supply, I have heard hundreds if not thousands of heartbreaking stories. More personally, I went through breastfeeding grief after the birth of my first child, and it was the healing of that wound that motivated my research and outreach in subsequent decades.

What I learned is that mothers need what I call a “pivotal moment” in which they feel supported with compassion and understanding, and can be directed to focus on their capacity to love their baby, regardless how they feed. If mothers do not receive a pivotal moment of compassion, but instead sense that their feelings or problems are judged, or trivialized, their grief can deepen and become entrenched.

The good news is that even if the grief/trauma has become entrenched, it can still resolve and mothers can heal. Today, scientists are discovering the remarkable benefits of mindfulness meditation for posttraumatic stress, and also the benefits of stress relief through relaxation and visualization. Scientists are recognizing, too, that the brain and the emotions are much more malleable than previously suspected. Our thoughts and feelings can be permanently redirected in positive ways, and relatively quickly, too. All of this explains why techniques used in hypnotherapy, somatic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and coaching are frequently so effective—and they are effective for mothers, too.

To read the full article, including excerpts from her book, click here.

Educating, Empowering & Encouraging Women from Pregnancy to Motherhood

Think about the first mother that ever walked the planet.  Then think about the second, the third, and so on. All helping the other give birth from having lived through it themselves. Soon there was an abundance of mothers and babies who now make up the more than 7 Billion human population on this earth. Wow, what a thought.

Women have been giving birth since the dawn of human existence and we truly feel in our hearts, is an intuitive experience.  All women know instinctively how to give birth. Midwifery has been practiced throughout the ages before there was medicine or hospitals.  It has been practiced all over the world with varying traditions and expressed uniquely through local cultures. We believe that giving birth is a sacred experience not only for the mother and her family, but the community.

Advances in medicine, technology and science have led us to the practices we use today. Ultra-sounds find the position and the sex of the baby.  We now know how to keep mothers healthy during their pregnancies with lots of heavy prenatal care bibles. There are vast hospital wings dedicated solely to pregnancy.  But with all of this technology, we believe the advantages of using a midwife is giving the human, emotional, intuitive and physiological profoundness of birth it’s proper reverence.

We nurture the deeply connective mother and child bond through safe delivery practices that don’t separate you from your experience. Instead, we give you the power of choice by giving you all of our knowledge.  We want to honor your traditions and listen to your wishes. We empower mothers!

Embrace midwives are highly trained, with a low tech, high touch mentality.  Our goal at the Embrace Birth Center is to educate, empower and encourage women from pregnancy to motherhood!