There are some of you who know that I am a doula. There are many of you who do not. My own mother often forgets this fact and didn't even know that I was a doula until quite recently. It's okay, really. It's not like I go around with a sign on my naked body saying, "DOULA". Plus, so few people actually even know what a doula is or what a doula does.
I have been a doula since 1990. I have been blessed to share in the birth of over 135 babies. The majority of them at home. I have cried at every single one. There is nothing, I assure you, nothing quite as beautiful as a woman giving all of herself to bring another life into this world.
Of those 135 births that I have been blessed to share, only one has ever opted for an epidural or drugs of any kind, actually. Of course, a very small percentage of my births have been hospital births so that also is one of the reasons that so many of the births I have participated in have been drug free. However, it is important to remember that a woman's body produces its own drugs when allowed to experience the birth process naturally. Oxytocin is a very powerful drug, indeed. And a woman in labor, during the course of birth, produces a huge amount all on her own.
I have just finished watching the film, The Business of Being Born. Again, I am a doula. I also am a master herbalist and I work with women all over the world to help them become pregnant when other methods haven't helped.
I don't care if you are a woman or a man, if you've already given birth or are thinking about having children one day, I urge you to watch this film. Watch it with open eyes, an open mind and an open heart. It is so compelling and says a lot about how far we as a country have moved away from the natural birth process.
Our hospital system is just that. A system. A system that is in the business of making money. Scheduled C-sections in this country are an alarmingly high rate and it bothers me that we're becoming a society that is too posh to push. A c-section is MAJOR SURGERY, people. It comes with its own set of very high-risk complications. And yet we have lots of women in this country who are purposely choosing both a c-section and a tummy tuck together in one simple visit.
Gah.
I am not saying that the C-section does not have its place. Of course it does. But there is also a very valid place in our birth community for midwives and doulas and home births. The scare tactics that modern OB's use to discourage women from persuing a home birth should be criminal. The fact that many insurance companies will not pay for a home birth should also be criminal.
Women have been giving birth to babies for millions of years. What makes our current hospital system believe that they have the best answers for birth confounds me. Having a woman lie on her back, feet prone in the air, actually makes the pelvis SMALLER and doesn't allow the baby to turn or move the way it needs to in order to descend and be born!
I don't have all the answers. I just know from my own beautiful experiences that the birth experience and choices should really belong to the mother. And be honored above all else. Babies know how to be born. We just need to let them come as they will.
And they will. I promise.
