Betty Dodson with Carlin Ross

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My friend, D, linked the following article on her Facebook account, and since I bet there are lots of women on D&R that will someday be faced with all kinds of choices around childbirth procedures, I thought I’d use this forum to post our opinions, as two experienced women.

International: In the U.S.,
Too Many Women Dying While Having Babies - TIME

In a new report on pregnancy and childbirth
care in the U.S., Amnesty details the maternal health care crisis in this
country as part of a systemic violation of women's rights

“The Amnesty report spotlights numerous barriers
women face in accessing care, even among those who are insured or qualify for
Medicaid. Poverty is a major factor, but all women are put at risk by overuse
of obstetrical intervention and barriers to access to more woman-centered,
physiologic care provided by family-practice physicians and midwives.”

After reading the article, D said:

This has been going on for years. So
sad to see these increases when it doesn't have to be. Certified Direct Entry
Midwives and Nurse Mid-wives have the safest outcomes for normal pregnancies
with healthy moms. If you're pregnant it is important to consider. Every woman
must have the info they need to make the best choice for themselves, whatever
that choice is. CHOICE.

I said:

How cool would it be if every hospital
had this big contingent of mid-wives on staff, because women requested the
service, and doctors were nearby only for complications? Maybe not possible in
our overly litigious society, where we are convinced that we will not possibly
be able to bear the pain of birth, and that a C-section are a nice, convenient,
optional method of birth.
Before looking to the government to solve this, we need to ask ourselves,
women, the consumers of these services, if we are creating the system and the
problem with our expectation around what childbirth should be and feel like.

D said:

I think we do create it. In general
there is a culture of disempowering women in many sectors of life and we go
along because I don't think many women know what all their options are. when I
home birthed, my sisters and mom were appalled and thought I was selfish for
putting my baby at risk. There is a lot of misinformation out there
about birthing and woman's lack of info on childbirth is perputatied by
the AMA who has been very slow to endorse midwifery of any sort. In VA I got a
lot of fear factor from the hospital staff (I explored that option too) as well
as my GP. As women we need to create a need for women centered services. I
think we live in a doctatorship, to steal a term from ODE magazine. Sad
too because I found birthing to be incredibly empowering and beautiful.

I said:

Yes, and many of my friends were convinced
ahead of time that natural birth, even in a hospital setting with a doctor, was
just too hard. They look at me with wide eyes when I say I had two natural
births and one vaginal birth for a breach baby. 

It's really, REALLY bad group think, and you know, it feels even worse when so
many women are part the dis-empowering. 

D, we are lucky to have daughters so that we can be part of the solution by educating them.

D said: Amen sister!