Posts Tagged ‘natural child birth’

The Power of Normal

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/19/2009 12:36 pm by ladyleslie

Normal.  The norm.  What everyone knows or thinks they know about the way things work.  This is a very powerful paradigm.

Normal people in our society view birth as a medical event.  If you don’t have an IV, what are you doing?  You double over in pain, get scared, get in the car and drive to where the professionals can manage your very scary birth event.  That’s normal.  When you get there, you sign all sorts of things, and you don’t really know what you just consented to . . . That’s normal.

The doctors and nurses can then perform procedures upon your body and the body of your child because you signed those papers.  Do they have to ask you at every step?  Nah.  You signed papers, and their medical expertise is what you’re there for anyways.

Normal is cars, jobs, play groups.  Normal is women telling each other horror stories about how much birth hurt until they FINALLY got the epidural in.  Normal is diapers until two years (and now maybe much longer).  Normal is going to the doctor and TRUSTING him or her.

I’ve never been normal, have I?

I chose midwifery because I believed in my body’s ability to birth.  I chose midwifery because I wanted a choice at every step.  But that birth was not normal.  It took WAY too long, laboring at home, transferred in for Pitocin.  I didn’t really sign on for the hospital ride, but I got it anyways.

Now I’m pregnant again, and I’m making different choices.  Searching out a midwife who can stay by my side in case of transfer.  Seeking a midwife who can truly be “hands-off” and trying to be excited, instead of just determined.

How can I see birth in such a good light, believe so much in our bodies and the way we are built, and feel so little trust?  The people I depended on last time let me down.  How can I prepare for the next birth without tainting my preparations with paranoia?

How do I face a world that “knew better” than me, knew I’d “end up at the hospital anyway” and believes that birth is a medical event?  How can I stand up to the bully called Normal?

I don’t have anything to prove.  I just want to be left alone to do what I know I can.  I want to just be pregnant and stop worrying about all of this crap.  I just want to be sure that I can give myself the best chance at a physiologically healthy birth.

Any wise words for me?

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Please watch this video:

http://www.vimeo.com/6344770