Avoiding C-Sections in Stalled Childbirth

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Comment by Lorie Tan on February 15, 2010 at 12:26pm

Wait longer, yes. Absolutely. However, he also needs to consider WHY some women's labors stall. He needs to consider Ina May Gaskin's Sphincter Law. My doctor did wait 2 hours. In fact, she waited a LOT longer than most would have. What she didn't do, however, was consider what was causing my emotional dystocia and working to overcome that. Instead, she attacked the non-medical problem with pitocin, and being given pitocin AGAINST MY WILL triggered even MORE stress and adrenaline, which rendered it completely ineffective. If the doctor and the nurses had gotten the hell out of my room, put away the bloody fetal monitor which I told them I hated and didn't want (and had it strapped to me against my will) and stopped doing violent vaginal exams (which I didn't want because not only did they hurt worse than the contractions, my water had broken, and their forcing them on me made me tense up as well as made me worry about getting infected). If they had simply quit interrupting me and told me they'd give me as long as I needed instead of telling me they'd be back at "thus and such an hour" (which only made me focus on the clock and fear being sectioned if I didn't perform on their schedule), my baby would have been born naturally. I'm convinced. Instead, in the absence of any signs of distress in me or my baby, they offered me up for sacrifice in the name of the god of failure to progress.

Comment by Karen Melton on February 14, 2010 at 11:39am

Listen to my interview on Blogtalkradio.com/Sharon-Anne on Tuesday Feb 16th, 2010 5pm-6pm on How To Avoid a Cesarean Section in Your Hospital Birth. Come join the discussion!

Comment by Karen Melton on February 14, 2010 at 11:37am

I welcome that they are doing this at UCSF, and also feel really irritated by the language that says your doctor is going to GIVE YOU an extra couple of hours. This show clearly who is in charge in hospital birthing, and it is certainly not the mom. I also appreciated that he gave some guidelines for how to ask for this time from your ob/gyn, but again, why are we in this situation where we have given our power to this largely male dominated profession? - and then have to be careful about how we discuss our own birthing so as not to offend them!!! The whole concept of failure to progress, or slow progress has been invented by the medical profession. It has absolutely nothing to do with whether mom and baby are birthing in good time, and everything to do with doctors schedules and unrealistic ideas about what a birth should look like.

Comment by Marci For Birth Choice on February 14, 2010 at 8:56am

Very good clip - good to see more people are questioning the rush to cut. Hopefully, more providers will begin to focus on whether mom and baby are okay, and make decisions based on this, rather than rushing to slice.