Birth is Hard, Birth is Easy

Birth is one of the most natural things in the world.  For the most part, birth is safer today than it has ever been in this country. 
Every woman has a different birthing experience.  Some birth quickly and seemingly painlessly.  Others labor long and hard and push long and hard.  There is no right or wrong, weak or strong way to birth a baby.  Your body was created to birth your baby in the way it was meant to birth, be it a 2-hour labor, a 10-hour labor or a 36-hour labor.  Your baby will be birthed one way or another, have faith in that.

Here are a couple of excerpts that I found interesting:

Birth in India: One Chosen Perspective

by Diane Smith
© 2002 Midwifery Today, Inc. All rights reserved.

Veronica was another story altogether. I was giving a workshop in Bihar, truly the underbelly of India. It is the most corrupt, degraded, impoverished state in the country while once being the cradle of education and birthplace of the Buddha. I was working in a protected nunnery with Sister Pilar, who is famous in the region for her tireless work with women. Veronica, her given Catholic name, came to us in the early morning wanting to deliver there with us. She was maybe five feet tall, skinny as a whip from malnutrition, standing on the tiniest feet, with a hemoglobin of perhaps five and signs of a UTI with a slight fever. She was eight centimeters dilated, in active labour with her second child on the way. It would be an incredibly hot day and she didn't want to travel to a facility that might better serve her with all these risks presenting. We had the clinic next door for antibiotics and basic emergency equipment. It seemed safer to keep her than send her on a five-hour journey in the heat, in a rickshaw on roads that couldn't really be called roads, to a hospital that might not actually serve her. Our heroism and the use of antibiotics began!


There was myself, my translator, a visiting healer from France and Sister Pilar. Veronica began to push around 9 a.m. with a full bladder and after using peppermint vapours, mud packs, ginger compresses and soaking her hands in warm water, I realized only a catheter that would empty her bladder. The one from the clinic was of a huge diameter and it took two hours to find one in Gomia that would fit. At noon I drained her bladder with great satisfaction watching urine the color of dark tea exit. She carried on pushing, continuing to try many different positions.Through mid-afternoon there continued to be slow, slow progression. Baby was fine. By 4:30 I wasn't as happy with the heart tones and our energy was beginning to deplete in comparison to hers. After a few contractions of bradychardia I insisted that nearly eight hours of pushing was enough and now we had to have the baby out. She was supported in a standing squat, her legs lifted up in a standing McRoberts—if you can imagine—and she pushed like hell to deliver her son. He was born flat and came round slowly with stimulation. His survival is nearly another story altogether but I believe he was kept in this world by the skilled hands and energy work of the woman from France. He appeared to be hovering in and out of a convulsive state, though stabilized by the healing work that was going on continuously. I began my wait for the placenta.

This took another eight hours in total. It was by now nightfall and any travel was completely out of the question. Bihar is littered with dacoits and Naxolites (bandits and freedom fighters). Nobody goes far from home at night, and brutalities in the dark are common. There was no option for transport after we began to wait. The local female physician was out of town. We waited. Though Veronica's uterus was firm, and there was no bleeding, as the hours wore on her heart rate and respirations escalated. She would only smile at us, and that was my only consolation things were okay. Her anxious family was otherwise. Custom in Bihar is to reach up inside the uterus immediately after the birth and tear the placenta out for fear it will rise up in the body and create bleeding. The bleeding and death that result from aggressive removal doesn't seem to relate to the action in the minds of the people. I was being accused of not having taken it out fast enough by a very angry mother. I attempted a manual removal after a couple of hours and felt it falling to pieces in my hand, and thought it better to just wait. I tried again after four hours to find it still more stuck and forgiving of its place on the uterine wall. We put out a call for the returning doctor to come to us in the aid of a more aggressive removal. She replied she would if she first knew who was the dai and who was the family. If either were of importance and this young woman died, her life would be in danger. We weren't, I guess.

Veronica's vitals were wildly out of normal range and her smile continued into the wee hours. It felt eerie at times. Was this some strange symptom of shock? I asked the French healer whose hands were round the clock on the unstable infant, "Tell me, is she going to make it?" She placed her skilled hands on Veronica's head for some time and confidently answered. "Yes." I, in all confidence, replied with "Good!" And this exchange felt completely relevant and positive in the face of those eight hours of pushing and a retained placenta, being with this young very compromised woman and uncertain baby. We waited, monitored her vitals, and as we were about ready to make another attempt, the physician walked in. I remember her elegance in her sari compared to our sodden clothes, and our drawn and sweaty faces after the marathon. She walked, grabbed a used glove, blew it inside out, made no introductions, plunged her hand inside Veronica and pulled out a measly, mealy placenta, told me I could have done that and left. I never thought I could have, having met the resistance I did as it seemed to fall apart in my hand. I wondered if the time was just right for plucking that fruit or if it was actually a more aggressive maneuver than I knew. The baby breastfed, Veronica had a nap, her vitals returned to normal and we took turns napping. At sunrise I returned to find her dressed and wanting to go home now, "Please." I insisted she have breakfast and we observe her up and about a bit. She complied. I have a photo of this young girl looking over her shoulder at me as she was leaving. The look on her face was one of primitive gratitude. Our minds never met, but our hearts did as she placed full trust in us while her family raged outside the hut door. I was never directly offered the sweets that came with the mother the next day because I was still being held in blame for not taking the placenta out. After months and a return visit apparently the baby boy is fine, and life goes on in Bihar for Veronica and her family.


02 February 2010 01:31

Gisele Bundchen - Bundchen: 'Birth Was Pain-Free'

Supermodel GISELE BUNDCHEN has become the unofficial spokeswoman for water births after revealing her own delivery could not have been more pain free.

The Brazilian beauty gave birth to little Benjamin last month (Dec09) and opted for an unconventional birth in a bid to ease the pain - and it worked.
She says, "I wanted to have a home birth. I wanted to be very aware and present during the birth... I didn't want to be drugged up. So I did a lot of preparation, I did yoga and meditation, so I managed to have a very tranquil birth at home.

"It didn't hurt in the slightest. The whole time my mind was focused in each contraction on the thought, 'My baby is closer to coming out’. It wasn’t like, 'This is so painful’. So I transformed that intense feeling into a hope of seeing him."
And Bundchen is full of love for her newborn - her first child with American football star Tom Brady.
She adds, "It's wonderful. Never in my life I thought I could love like this (sic). You hear people talking about it, but you don't know until it happens to you. I couldn't be happier."