Differences Between American & European Hospital Births

When I became pregnant, I thought I would enjoy my favourite medical documentaries, especially those showing pregnancy and childbirth, even more.  However, something strange happened.  When I watched my first while-pregnant episode of One Born Every Minute, my blood started to feel shivery in my veins and I began to suffer from what I presume are the physical symptoms of medical anxiety.  I presume that because the medical situation I was watching was no longer theoretical to me, I had become scared and squeamish.  I was not happy. I had loved blood and guts and thought this would have been an advantage when it came time to have kids. Why was this happening to me now!


A little while later I did my hypnobirthing course and was instructed not to let any negative or overly dramatic depictions of birth into my headspace, so these reality birth shows were officially out. This left a few gaps in my TV schedule.  It also meant I couldn't watch the US version of One Born Every Minute, which I previously wouldn't have missed for the world, and I have to admit I did feel a bit aggrieved.

 
But I have managed to sneak in a few scenes of childbirth here and there in my TV viewing.  Now I know that E! Entertainment channel reality shows aren't the most legitimate ways to learn about the medical and social system of another country!  But I don't get much time to watch TV and these shows are so relaxing sometimes I can't resist.


So, lately I have seen two births on E! reality shows - the first was Kourtney Kardashian's birth of son, Mason, and the second was on Ice Loves Coco, where Coco's sister gives birth to her baby boy, Austin.


Now I must stress that these are not the only America hospital births I have seen on film - my hypnobirthing education class did show us numerous US hospital births, so I know that there are different environments and systems available to women in the US.  However many of the births I saw seemed to have one thing in common, and something which differs immensely from the system in my country:  most of these women appeared to have the whole family in the room, or at least crowded in the doorway, vying with each other for a better view of the action!


This strikes me as weird and unpleasant for many reasons!  Firstly there's my own personal reasons: I hate to feel watched, on show, or the centre of attention.  I also hate to feel physically exposed, and am struggling with the anticipation of this in my own upcoming labour, even though it will most likely be just myself, my husband and a midwife (and possibly a doctor) in attendance.


But personal foibles aside, I also wonder if this crowded, communal method of birth is the most conducive to birth? Certainly the hypno-birthing school of thought would have us believe that being in a "safe" place, a kind of haven or retreat, is the ideal environment for an enjoyable and stress-free birth.  At the very least, the woman must be able to relax fully in order to get the full benefits of hypnobirthing.  I may be the odd one out here but I find the idea of my whole family watching me birth a baby the least relaxing scenario I could possibly think of!


Aside from all the above, I also hate to get emotional in front of people, I really can't handle crying in front of people, so my whole family watching my reaction to my baby's birth would be the final straw.  Pretty glad I'm not giving birth in the States actually.  And that's without even touching on the crazy-ass costs!

Does Natural Mean Drug-free?

So what is a natural birth?  I presume that natural means drug-free I think...  But I am planning to use a TENS machine, and I think I would consider gas and air.  I wonder why I feel ok with these methods of pain relief and not others?  Dr. Gowri Motha does not advocate TENS machines as they interfere with the neural pathways but others in hypnobirthing suggest their use.  

I think maybe I'm okay with TENS and gas and air because they don't interfere with the natural process of surges/contractions and vaginal birth.  Will have to read more on this...

The Beginning Of My Natural Birth Leanings

So, how did I stumble across the idea of having a natural birth?  It wasn't something I had ever really thought about, although I did know that I would rather avoid a cesarean and that I was scared sh*tless of getting a needle in my spine, so the epidural was something else I didn't see in my ideal birthplan.  ( I still feel reticent to admit that in company, as so many women are genuinely aghast at such an 'weird' statement.)

I was searching for pregnancy books on amazon and I came across a listing for Dr. Gowri Motha's book entitled Gentle Birth Method.  It only had a handful of reviews and they varied between glowing and mixed, but I liked the fact that this was a practising obstetrician who was going against the mainstream medical wisdom on pregnancy and labour - I like to look at all my options but to have some firm science to back them up!

A few things appealed to me about Dr. Motha's approach.  Firstly I liked the gentle and reassuring tone of the book.  I suffer with anxiety and a need to control EVERYTHING and with a process such as childbirth, I know there is no way in hell that my usual coping mechanism of planning and organising will have much influence on nature.  Dr. Motha speaks a lot of sense about the (obvious but often overlooked) fact that women have been giving birth without much trouble since time began.  She reminded me that my body was made specifically for this process and, the more I focus on this realisation, the more I find that I am increasingly wary of medical intervention in mine and my baby's birth.  It's actually like I always new this, but forgot, until I got pregnant and started to think about the nature of pregnancy and birth.

Another attractive thing about Gowri Motha's method is the inclusion of hypnotherapy in the preparation for childbirth and in the labour process itself.  As an anxiety sufferer, I have found hypnotherapy really useful during my pregnancy to date, although I am not actually using Dr. Motha's hypnosis CD.  (My interest in hypno-birthing took on a tangential life of its own and I am now following a program of hypnotherapy based on Mickey Mongan's HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method series. More about this in following posts.)

The final thing that I like about Dr. Motha's Book is the diet she advocates.  Well to be honest I would have preferred if she told me I could eat whatever I wanted in pregnancy and should focus on the tastiest, boldest foods I could think of.  But then I knew that the likelihood of any doctor telling me that was pretty slim.  What did appeal to me was the similarity of Dr. Motha's recommendations to the diet that I had been following shortly before I became pregnant.  Dr. Motha advocates cutting out sugar and wheat in the first part of pregnancy and eliminating all gluten foods as well as sugar in the last trimester.  I had previously followed similar regimes for short periods of time and felt great benefits.  Just before getting pregnant I had been avoiding sugar and yeast and I do credit this with my ease in conceiving.  (I am an only child and my mother had fertility issues so I never dreamed that I would be as lucky as I was.) 

There are problems with following such a restrictive regime when pregnant though, and I suppose I was a little naive when I set out on Gowri Motha's plan.  I haven't even started the gluten-free phase of the diet yet - this will happen in the next few weeks and is one of the reasons I want to record my experience here.  I want to document the problems I will inevitably have in excluding gluten, especially as a highly willful, heavily pregnant and hormonal lady!  I also want to share with you the outcome which I do not yet know - will the gluten-free diet make for a quick, easy and less painful labour as Dr. Motha suggests?  We will have to wait and see.  Wish me luck!