tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post310406281955344445..comments2024-03-28T23:06:10.904-04:00Comments on Bless Our Hearts: Childbirth As I've Known ItMs. Moonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-87604641798253077992020-02-25T10:40:52.493-05:002020-02-25T10:40:52.493-05:00I wish I had had my babies at home but I didn'...I wish I had had my babies at home but I didn't know of any midwives and at the time they had just started allowing husbands in the labor and delivery so he got to be with me. I did insist on no drugs and they had also just started allowing rooming in so after the kids were checked out they stayed with me. I was only in the hospital for 24 hours with each birth, mostly because we were poor and couldn't afford a longer stay, not that I would have wanted to.ellen abbotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00535475792150335186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-7836804769916897762020-02-24T17:47:51.267-05:002020-02-24T17:47:51.267-05:00I think that's what happened to me, too. One o...I think that's what happened to me, too. One of the women who was with me when I had Hank had had two children and she said that she'd never experienced anything that felt like "pain."<br />Lucky her, right? Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-91861845843221951312020-02-24T17:47:02.654-05:002020-02-24T17:47:02.654-05:00Well, there are very good reasons to go through th...Well, there are very good reasons to go through the experience unmedicated. It's probably quite fortunate that men don't have babies. And if they did, they would have the same feelings and instincts! Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-44823988620328501732020-02-24T17:45:58.448-05:002020-02-24T17:45:58.448-05:00Exactly! And yet, for a very long time (and still,...Exactly! And yet, for a very long time (and still, to a degree) things are set up to make it easier on the OB's.Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-65828195696261552182020-02-24T17:45:23.729-05:002020-02-24T17:45:23.729-05:00Inductions do seem to be the new favored intervent...Inductions do seem to be the new favored intervention, don't they? And not nearly always because of gestational diabetes. The belief in the forty-week gestational period has become terribly engraved in stone. <br />And truthfully- I've had so many dreams where I discovered I was pregnant and thought, "Well, this time I'll get an epidural." It was never easy for me. Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-50827865660089834202020-02-24T17:43:00.465-05:002020-02-24T17:43:00.465-05:00Bonnie- you were definitely on the forefront of ch...Bonnie- you were definitely on the forefront of change. If I'd had a baby in 1971 instead of 1976 I doubt that I would have even known about the possibility of asking for those things. Or even why I should have! Women just accepted for the most part. I think that the Lamaze movement and Grantly Dick Read had a lot to do with women realizing that they could be far more in control of their births. That birth was not something done TO them but by them. Isn't it weird how in the space of a generation or two women were convinced that we weren't capable of childbirth without the men doctors? And that yes, we had to fight for the simplest, most basic of mammalian needs. Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-77692692277201174102020-02-24T17:36:50.342-05:002020-02-24T17:36:50.342-05:00Oh, Elizabeth! Thank you. I know how lucky I was g...Oh, Elizabeth! Thank you. I know how lucky I was go have had births that although long and hard, were safe and ultimately wonderful. Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-44224712547924233062020-02-24T17:35:43.369-05:002020-02-24T17:35:43.369-05:00I can't seem to quit being in love with this s...I can't seem to quit being in love with this subject. It's hugely important to me. Ms. Moonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776404747858099919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-90028833948877317442020-02-24T13:51:27.315-05:002020-02-24T13:51:27.315-05:00My experience as well ... all my reading and talki...My experience as well ... all my reading and talking about home birth with those who had done it and who had attended it had left me somehow believing it wouldn't be the most painful thing I ever did. I wasn't prepared for such pain and I panicked, which may have made it worse. Now I always give a prospective first-time mother fair warning if I can, without scaring her. -KateStubblejumpers Caféhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00931622742686515687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-79316009428073512442020-02-24T11:28:18.706-05:002020-02-24T11:28:18.706-05:00I certainly wouldn't feel ashamed for going to...I certainly wouldn't feel ashamed for going to the hospital after 28 hours of labor! I'd have gone long, long before that! Honestly, I think I'd be happy to be unconscious for the whole experience, but maybe I'm saying that because I'm a man and I just don't have the same instincts or feelings regarding the birth process.Steve Reedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11684120060438252945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-53124756118357560122020-02-24T10:51:20.213-05:002020-02-24T10:51:20.213-05:00I believe informed decision-making is everything, ...I believe informed decision-making is everything, and 99% of it depends on how the mother-to-be feels, not making things easier for the OB!Treadershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08613671137557939083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-83427834584156864082020-02-24T07:56:44.415-05:002020-02-24T07:56:44.415-05:00By the time I had my babies in the eighties and ni...By the time I had my babies in the eighties and nineties things had improved and it was pre-epidural at that point, or at least epidurals were rare. I never had one. I've noticed a trend towards induction before the due date because the mother has gestational diabetes which upsets me, the induction, not the diabetes.<br /><br />My grandson was an induction and had to be resuscitated for six minutes. Babies come when they're ready.<br /><br />For my own part, I wouldn't have wanted a home birth. But I was lucky in that each one of my kids was delivered in a birthing suite. I'm just glad I don't have to go through that again. My life so farhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16721270441968035994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-25254130539187767652020-02-24T00:40:38.765-05:002020-02-24T00:40:38.765-05:00I loved reading all you've had to say about th...I loved reading all you've had to say about the improvements in childbirth these days. I am also one who has always had a passion for pregnancy and childbirth. I had my first son in 1971 when things were just barely starting to change. I did not have a home birth and I had to change doctors in the middle of my pregnancy and fight just to have a natural birth and rooming in when I was in the hospital. I didn't get everything I wanted as they insisted on the archaic and uncomfortable prep but I was able to move around, have a drug free birth and most importantly have my baby with me. The very things that women were naturally accustomed to in labor and delivery for centuries in the so called modern world we had to fight for. I'm so glad it is changing. Bonniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17738727252267659979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-7837245720446036932020-02-23T23:18:19.153-05:002020-02-23T23:18:19.153-05:00All of this remains fascinating to me as well -- I...All of this remains fascinating to me as well -- I, too, had Ina May's book by my side when I was pregnant with Sophie, and even though it didn't "work out," it informed my next two pregnancies as well! I always love your midwife/childbirth posts -- they're so beautiful and wise.<br />Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03313726816776097840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2086296370004835655.post-21461995806248868672020-02-23T22:55:33.275-05:002020-02-23T22:55:33.275-05:00Mary, you are so strong and so eloquent in your ad...Mary, you are so strong and so eloquent in your advocacy for women, mothers, babies. Thank you.Joanne Noragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16601010208310707750noreply@blogger.com