Give Birth Like a Feminist. Milli Hill

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СКАЧАТЬ I didn’t want anything to happen, in particular involving physical touch, where I might feel out of control as I felt this would be very triggering,’ Lindsay, who had elective surgery in Australia for both her babies, told me. Maternal request caesarean forces us to ask questions about why some women would rather have major surgery than experience modern childbirth, and until at least some of those questions are addressed and resolved, there should be no barriers for the small percentage of women who request a birth in theatre.

      Opting out: freebirth

      Freebirth, the choice to labour and give birth without a midwife or any other health professional present, may seem as far away from elective caesarean as it’s possible to get, but, in fact, as is so often the case with opposite ends of the spectrum, they have much in common. Blogger and doula Jenny Wren has described freebirth as a ‘feminist statement … because it is the radical notion that the woman takes priority over the baby’.[45] Several studies have been carried out into women’s motivation to freebirth,[46] finding that negative experiences of maternity care are a driving factor in many cases, with one study published in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth concluding:

       The UK based midwifery philosophy of woman-centred care that tailors care to individual needs is not always carried out, leaving women to feel disillusioned, unsafe and opting out of any form of professionalised care for their births. Maternity services need to provide support for women who have experienced a previous traumatic birth. Midwives also need to help restore relationships with women, and co-create birth plans that enable women to be active agents in their birthing decisions even if they challenge normative practices. The fact that women choose to freebirth in order to create a calm, quiet birthing space that is free from clinical interruptions and that enhances the physiology of labour, should be a key consideration.[47]

      Women’s actual stories of freebirth support these findings. I share two here in their entirety because I think they speak volumes not just about the choice to freebirth – which only a tiny minority of women make – but about the imbalance of power and overall lack of true listening that this chapter is essentially about, and that a much wider group of women are coming across in their maternity experience.

      The first is from Megan, who gave birth in the south of England. Both her births took place between 2009 and 2019.

       I have had two lovely home births. During my first birth I got the impression the NHS midwives that attended didn’t want to be there. It was a busy night on the ward, I was asked to come into the hospital for a VE (vaginal exam), but I declined, I didn’t want any VEs due to testing positive for Group B strep, and knowing they would increase the risk of infection and possibly rupture my waters prematurely which is another risk factor. I also have a fear of hospitals ever since witnessing the substandard care my sister experienced during her first birth. My informed choice was not respected and when the midwives did arrive at my home I was coerced into having an unwanted VE because they threatened that they couldn’t stay unless they knew I was in established labour. My contractions were 3 minutes apart lasting 2 minutes by this point. It was quite clear to anyone watching that I was in established labour. I was 7 cm upon checking.

      I was later told, during pushing, I had to get out of the pool for an episiotomy because baby was in distress and not moving down (he was having heart rate decelerations). They had me semi-reclined in the pool and were coaching me to do horrible chin-on-chest pushing. I asked to try one more thing first, I listened to my body, got myself into an upright squat and pushed my baby’s head out on the next contraction with ease and no tearing. The next contraction brought the rest of his body out and he was perfect, alert, and peacefully looking up at us both.

       I was then pestered for the next 30 minutes to keep checking his cord to see if they could cut it yet (I wanted to ‘wait for white’), and then once it was cut, it was more pestering about having the injection to bring the placenta out. Again I declined 2–3 times. I ended up having it tugged out of me by the cord. I had no idea how dangerous that was! There were great parts of my birth too, I wouldn’t call the birth traumatic. But I didn’t feel cared for by the midwives. I felt rushed and coerced into completing their tick list so that they could move on and get back to the hospital.

      So during pregnancy two, as I reflected back on this birth I realised that the midwives being there didn’t make me feel safe at all. And safety is important in birth. I wanted an independent midwife who I trusted and had got to know as I did my doula, but I couldn’t afford one. So I wrote a detailed birth plan for the NHS midwives; no VEs, no temps, no BP, no questions, no talking, intermittent monitoring of baby’s heart rate only. Basically I wanted the midwife to sit back and watch me birth my baby, as a safety net in case anything did go wrong.

       However, I got a phone call from the supervisor of midwives, who was gravely concerned at my request for a hands-off birth. She actually asked me if I would ‘allow’ the midwives to use oxygen on my baby if they were born not breathing! I could not believe this! How did a request for a hands-off birth get put into the same category as a mother who doesn’t want any medical assistance to her baby should there be complications? After that phone call I was so angry. I lost all trust in the NHS midwives. I decided that I wouldn’t be inviting anyone into my birth space until I knew the birth was imminent. As it turned out I had a virtually pain-free birth and no transition signs, I went from mild regular contractions to pushing contractions and my baby being born within 15 minutes with just me, my boyfriend, our three-year-old son and my doula present. She was perfect and healthy thankfully but I am still angry that I was put in that position because of such a rigid checklist system that we call midwifery care.

      The second birth story is from Kay Parsons, in Massachusetts, USA, whose babies were born between 2004 and 2014.

       I was 19 the first time I gave birth and felt like being young and unmarried really affected how I was treated. From the moment I arrived at the hospital I felt like my autonomy was stripped from me.

       I so clearly remember the moment they told me that they thought he may be malpositioned or have his cord wrapped around his neck. I had taken some prenatal yoga classes and wanted to try different positions to give him space to turn or adjust but they ‘wouldn’t allow’ me to. They forced me onto my back so they could monitor his heart rate.

       There were so many people rushing in and out of the room. Every time I’d have a contraction, 10 people would run into the room and stare at my belly or at the monitors as though doing so would somehow change the outcome of his heart rate deceleration. Of course it did nothing to help him and made me feel like an animal on display in the zoo!

       At one point I had five different people all holding sharp objects wanting to poke or prod me in some way. I couldn’t catch my breath, started to cry, and asked for a moment to just centre myself and breathe and a nurse said to me, ‘Oh honey, you can’t cry now, you have so much more to come!’

       In the end he was born by caesarean. The whole experience was so traumatic and brought to the surface past experiences of sexual trauma and the feeling of having no voice, no power, and no right to decide what is best for me or my baby.

       When I got pregnant a couple of years later I knew that I would never feel safe having a baby in the hospital again. We hired midwives and had a lovely, but trying and long home birth. Five years later I had another midwife-assisted home birth.

       I found that the midwives were all great. I really believe in midwife-assisted home births and have trained to become a midwife myself. But I’ve always struggled with feeling like even midwife-assisted births contain an element of fear and trying to control СКАЧАТЬ