One of my coworkers once told me: "If one day I get pregnant, they sleep me and take me out," of the absolute fear I had (and I suppose I still have) to give birth.
For some time now the protocols of the hospitals are changing in order to offer women more decision-making power, more prominence in childbirth, more freedom of movement, more intimacy, a more relaxed environment and more time for her to go doing, without as much control as before.
This is why we have struggled for many years with birth plans and with professionals who rebelled against the system. However, by changing the protocols, some women, like my friend, remain in a complicated situation: “Didn't you say you were afraid of childbirth? Well, come on, you're going to do it alone. ”
And there are women whose kind of quiet birth is not one in which she does everything, but one in which professionals are over controlling everything (if it can be).
"I am more reassured by medicalized delivery"
It is possible (and it is logical and normal) that there would be women who would be reassured that someone said: “Do not worry, here we attend deliveries as it has always been done: you lie down and we monitor and control the entire process " Something like "welcome, leave it to us, we take care of everything."
With such a birth you try to control all the variables, which does not mean that they are under control, because as we know excessive instrumentalization can generate some problems in the birth process, and a delivery is usually achieved without pain (due to the epidural), but with an increased risk of episiotomy and cesarean section.
"It is that I am more reassured by a poorly operated delivery"
The other option, the "modern" (between quotation marks because it is not that it is modern, but is to take a necessary step back in the evolution of childbirth care), is the one that reassures all those women who want to live their birth, which they want more prominence and that they seek care that causes less risks for both her and the baby.
These types of births are more painful (if the epidural is not used), pregnancy is experienced with that uncertainty of whether it will hurt a lot or not and with the doubt of "if I can with it." However, the chances of giving birth spontaneously are greater and the sensations after giving birth tend to be different: it is not the same to get something with the effort that to get it by the hands of another.
Each mother who chooses the type of birth that suits her best
Right now we are at a time when a woman can choose (well, it is not quite true, because there are still many hospitals closer to the intervention than to the less controlled birth), so, if you want a type of delivery, whatever you say.
A few years ago some mothers used the so-called birth plan to define, at the outset, what type of birth they want to live. The usual thing is to write a birth plan to request things that are not usually done in a hospital, although they are recommended by the WHO and other official bodies: I do not want to be shaved, I do not want an enema, I want freedom of movement, I want to give birth in the position where I find myself most comfortable, etc.
However, a birth plan can be perfectly one in which the opposite is requested: I want to put the epidural as soon as possible, I want an enema, I want to give birth, etc., and I consider that both one and the other is very useful for professionals who must attend the delivery, because they know in advance what the wishes of each mother are.
It's like when you go to the pediatrician and, if you are a mother of those who prefer not to medicate, you say: "Look, if it's not necessary, I'd rather not give anything." I say "you tell him" because if you don't do it, pediatricians act by inertia: giving almost all children some medication although it is not entirely necessary, simply so as not to have to give explanations because they have neither time, nor many times want to give them (the pediatricians of my CAP go home sometimes having seen more than 45 children).
Well, if a professional who has to assist you knows what your concerns are, they will position themselves based on them when it comes to serving you and this can help you feel better. However, the choice is now more or less possible because we are in a moment of change.
Many professionals are already assuming the new protocols and trying, for the sake of the mother and the child, that the delivery is under-intervened and many professionals still apply the controlled birth model, giving rise to the option to choose. In a few years, when the protocols are fully established, professionals may not give so much freedom of decision and simply say, "Madam, you are able to do it. We will be with you, just in case, but giving birth is your business. ".
Back to the topic: What birth calms you most?
