lifeguard

There is a very good documentary called The Business of Giving Birth that is all about this issue. The US has very much medicalized birth, doesn't give as much info or support about natural births & pushes women greatly to get in & out quickly. Apparently more than 1/2 the money hospitals make in the US is from childbirth!

Kina

The US have higher rates of C Sections because they cost more. Docs intervene a lot more and it's not normal to have midwives, you're normally under hospital care. Every intervention, procedure etc is all $$$s off health insurance etc, so they tend to push women in c sections as they make more from them. It's disgusting!!

Margerle

I think that's one reason. Prenatal care in US tends to be a process where once a month you pee in a cup, are escorted into an exam room, vitals are taken, an internal may or may not be performed, "Is everything ok? Do you have any questions?" ... "No?" .... "See you next month!" Start to finish taking less than 20 minutes total. If you do have questions, quick version of the answer and on you go. No personal care as I have seen discussed by women from other countries using midwives.

Normally this process would be fine. Especially for mamas who are experienced. I really don't want to spend hours in the dr talking about my personal life... I've got a kid at home or at the babysitter, and I've got crap to do! But first time mamas I think get overwhelmed and discouraged, and confused, and they feel a bit led around by the nose... UNLESS they are proactive, and do research and become informed about pregnancy.

Two things are at work here. Yes, doctors must avoid liability. It's less liability for them to perform a section. It's also less time. Rather than being on call for a woman in labor for a day and a half, he's done in less than an hour. That's a very tempting offer when doc has a family at home too.

Secondly, the medical interventions to the labor process itself often initializes complications to the labor which make a section very tempting or necessary.

One is pitocin, and the other is epidural. These two interventions sometimes cause the mamas labor to stall and fizzle out. This is not good for a baby who's tired, or a mama who's tired! At this point, a doc mentions section and since it's a doc's advice, many women opt for it. Secondary pregnancies are then complications in themselves. A lot of docs won't even LOOK at a VBAC (back to liability). And so the sections continue.

Sections aren't a bad thing, I just have trouble with the fact that women here are very trusting of their caregivers, and they are given options for birth that they really do not have informed conset about.

I've heard many stories of 2nd and 3rd time mamas who want to try a vaginal birth, but can't because no doc will back them. It is as one poster mentioned, women here are being convinced that they are unable to birth naturally. That birth is not natural and that it is a 'medical condition' that needs 'medical intervention'. The ironic part of this is, I would wager that a good chunk of OB's who have been practicing for the last 15 years have seen few or NO natural births...

Exactly.

Margerle

Yes, the evidence shows this is the case for many women in many hospitals.

Margerle

They cost more to the insurance company, they are less liability for the doc, and doc can be home for supper!

But, for all fairness, this is not EVERY doc, or EVERY hospital. Just a lot. More than should be.

Yes, in fact there is at least one state I know of where midwifery assisted home birth is ILLEGAL.

Very sad, yes.

Samantha675

It is beautifully and simply explained by one doctor in the documentary that is already being mentioned, The business of being born, "they can't sue you if you section them, just section them all.'

Sadly US culture has become soooo litigious that doctors will do what is best for themselves over what is better for their patient.

Oh as as for the attitude towards natural childbirth, and the use of midwives here. Well my gynocologist sent me a certified letter, a letter that cost her more to send, and that I had to sign for to prove I had received it, that dumped me from her service because I had decided to use a midwife. As long as I am under a midwife's care I was not to make an appointment with her at all, I was to consider myself no longer her patient.

nikky0907

I don't know if we even have midwives in my town.I have an ob/gyn and I take my scans there and have check-ups.And a woman can choose how she wants to deliver her baby.

I like it,I mean I don't know how much it costs in The UK so I can't compare.
Those are simply cultural differences.

In the end of 9 months we are all mothers,regardless to how we give birth or even if we don't give birth(adoption).
Margerle,I think we both think the same but we expressed it differently...Thank you...

Margerle

If I understand correctly, there is no cost to UK families. Their government provides their healthcare.

Well said.

Margerle

This does not sound like a doc that assists his patient in understanding all the options available to her, and helping her make an informed choice about her birth options.

Very true. And why I think a lot of women may come off as being snobbish. US women sometimes have to work VERY HARD to get the kind of birth they want!

Oh my.

snugglemuffin

Fact: If all women had their babies at home with no intervention some would not make it.

Fact: If all women gave birth in hospitals with drugs side effects and accidents will happen and some women would be scared out of ever giving birth again.

Fact: If all women gave birth in hospitals some would not make it anyway.

Fact: if all women gave birth at home some women would be scared out of ever giving birth again and accidents will happen.

If i didn't have intervention with my son and i wasn't in a hospital both of us would be dead. If when my OH was born without intervention he would be dead and obviously my daughter would not be here. I made my decision for drugs and a hospital birth after my own research led me to that conclusion based on my circumstances and wants for my birth experience. Obviously it turned out to be the right choice FOR ME.

If you are faced with a judgmental woman try this "I would like to point out that i am not justifying my decision because unless you have lived a day in the life of me and my vagina your judgement is not welcome or needed. If i needed to be educated i would ask"

Anyone who thinks they are better than others because they went drug free at home and PREACH that ALL births should be done that way are the ignorant and uninformed. They should be made to think of the thousands of babies and mothers who were saved by medical intervention and those who were just made happy and at ease at a scary time just because they are in a hospital.


However those who choose a home birth or a birth with no intervention and can be:

Objective and supportive

Without presuming anyone who has made a different choice is obviously ignorant of the facts and clearly uninformed

All who make their choice and don't PREACH to others about theirs

Those people who resist the urge to say "But woman have been doing it for years with no problems" when they have never been in labour themselves

Along with the women who choose to have there babies in hospital drugged up to the hilt and operated on because of whatever personal or medical reason and don't look at home birthing as the pursuit of "hippies", and snobs because of their choice and not their outlook....

YOU ARE ALL the superior ones in my eyes.

Can you tell i have met with snobbery?!!

anyhoo what's wrong with hippies?