Last night I watched two shows on TV that could arguably not have been in my best interest to watch. The first was a documentary on the movie channel called “the Business of Being Born” of which I caught the last half and afterwards I watched a special on TLC called “Obese & Pregnant”.
The documentary was about home births and whether they were a good option. I started watching it just in time to view several home births that I did not enjoy. First off, all but one of the women being filmed were completely nude & uncensored - which disturbs me since I am a prude. I just find it creepy to be completely naked when there are several people around who still have their clothes on. Second, the noises women in labor make are super disturbing. They just seem unnatural. Third, the main midwife of the film had footage from her own home birth and she had a very creepy hairdo that made her look very manly and almost alien. It was this crazy elaborate braid made into like a horn on the top of her head. Anyhoo, creepy. Fourth, they had lots of shots of the baby emerging and I am not good at medical things, let alone gross fluids and large items coming out of what should be a small hole -especially when I might find myself doing the same in a few months! So I did what any good wife would do, I PVR’ed it for Tyler to suffer through when he gets home ha ha
I’m not completely masochistic so there were interesting things in the film that I was getting out of it. The midwife featured actually talked about how she was the “midwife who begged for a c-section” during her labor. She had a really tough time with the pain management and described the one point in labor as being stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. The rock, she said is that it hurts but it hurts more to push. The hard place is that if you don’t push you’ll be in pain forever since you’ll be pregnant forever.
Also, I found out that when you go through the pain your brain releases this hormone called oxytocin (I think) that helps create the mother-baby bond and instills the protector vibe into you, the scientist/doctor went so far as to say it creates Love. There is a synthetic version of the hormone that mimics the physical properties but the scientist said that they can’t replicated it’s affect on the brain. An observation of other mammals shows that when the animals don’t go through labor and/or have medical interventions that they don’t have a bond with their babies and they abandon them. So the theory goes that if a woman has pain medication &/or a c-section that she’ll be less bonded to baby. Not sure if that’s true, but interesting none the less.
A few more points about home births were that they are less expensive (one-third to half the cost of a hospital delivery) and that according to other countries statistics, possibly safer. The US only has about 0.5% home births but it also has one of the higher death rates. Swedan, I think it was, does about 1/3 of births at home and has a much better birth rate. So that was all interesting to hear but I still want to have baby in a hospital, at least for this one.
The second show, focused on three women who are “morbidly obese” and pregnant. I believe all three women were over 300 lbs at the point of the taping. One of the ladies had actual lost 20lbs with being pregnant whereas one of the others had gained 90lbs. The one who had gained had type 2 diabetes before becoming pregnant (with baby #3) so her baby was at risk and they c-sectioned her at 37 weeks. The surgery was really gross as she had many layers of fat they had to cut through and even lots of layers to go through in her back for an epidural. They also mentioned at one of her ultrasounds, that since she has 5x has much fat layers to go through, that getting a good reading of baby was difficult. Though far as I could tell, her screen still had better images then mine ever did!
The one women who lost weight was getting induced with the drip and after 48 hours didn’t have any success so they c-sectioned. They also mentioned that since she was larger she required more of the drip to be administered. Despite some of these complications, all three women gave birth to healthy babies.
The documentary was about home births and whether they were a good option. I started watching it just in time to view several home births that I did not enjoy. First off, all but one of the women being filmed were completely nude & uncensored - which disturbs me since I am a prude. I just find it creepy to be completely naked when there are several people around who still have their clothes on. Second, the noises women in labor make are super disturbing. They just seem unnatural. Third, the main midwife of the film had footage from her own home birth and she had a very creepy hairdo that made her look very manly and almost alien. It was this crazy elaborate braid made into like a horn on the top of her head. Anyhoo, creepy. Fourth, they had lots of shots of the baby emerging and I am not good at medical things, let alone gross fluids and large items coming out of what should be a small hole -especially when I might find myself doing the same in a few months! So I did what any good wife would do, I PVR’ed it for Tyler to suffer through when he gets home ha ha
I’m not completely masochistic so there were interesting things in the film that I was getting out of it. The midwife featured actually talked about how she was the “midwife who begged for a c-section” during her labor. She had a really tough time with the pain management and described the one point in labor as being stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. The rock, she said is that it hurts but it hurts more to push. The hard place is that if you don’t push you’ll be in pain forever since you’ll be pregnant forever.
Also, I found out that when you go through the pain your brain releases this hormone called oxytocin (I think) that helps create the mother-baby bond and instills the protector vibe into you, the scientist/doctor went so far as to say it creates Love. There is a synthetic version of the hormone that mimics the physical properties but the scientist said that they can’t replicated it’s affect on the brain. An observation of other mammals shows that when the animals don’t go through labor and/or have medical interventions that they don’t have a bond with their babies and they abandon them. So the theory goes that if a woman has pain medication &/or a c-section that she’ll be less bonded to baby. Not sure if that’s true, but interesting none the less.
A few more points about home births were that they are less expensive (one-third to half the cost of a hospital delivery) and that according to other countries statistics, possibly safer. The US only has about 0.5% home births but it also has one of the higher death rates. Swedan, I think it was, does about 1/3 of births at home and has a much better birth rate. So that was all interesting to hear but I still want to have baby in a hospital, at least for this one.
The second show, focused on three women who are “morbidly obese” and pregnant. I believe all three women were over 300 lbs at the point of the taping. One of the ladies had actual lost 20lbs with being pregnant whereas one of the others had gained 90lbs. The one who had gained had type 2 diabetes before becoming pregnant (with baby #3) so her baby was at risk and they c-sectioned her at 37 weeks. The surgery was really gross as she had many layers of fat they had to cut through and even lots of layers to go through in her back for an epidural. They also mentioned at one of her ultrasounds, that since she has 5x has much fat layers to go through, that getting a good reading of baby was difficult. Though far as I could tell, her screen still had better images then mine ever did!
The one women who lost weight was getting induced with the drip and after 48 hours didn’t have any success so they c-sectioned. They also mentioned that since she was larger she required more of the drip to be administered. Despite some of these complications, all three women gave birth to healthy babies.
So between all the books, internet and documentries available I've decided to skip my Late Prenatal Classes. The classes are very time consuming, not really available when Tyler is home, cost $120 and I'm not sure if they'd really be a benefit to me. I didn't enjoy my Early Prenatal Class so I think they're just not for me. The only thing I'm really interested in is getting a hospital tour which I could maybe get arranged through another channel.
With Brayden I took the prenatal classes and found them sort of useless except for some birthing topics. Everything else I learnt through babysitting and reading books. With Alexis I was sent to a specialst in Red Deer and asked my doctor if I could tour the hospital since I had my first child in Calgary and he told me to call the maternity ward so I did and they set up a time with me to tour the maternity ward. So you should be able to tour the hospital without taking the courses. The price has gone up quite a bit since I took them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the hospital in labour with Alexis I could hear this one women scream so lound it was crazy.
Michelle
My doctor told me of a program/session called Better Beginnings, I believe. It was at the hospital, went through signs of labor, what will happen, when to call hospital, etc. and showed the ward. We never got to go in though, I think because it was too busy, but the showed us pictures of the rooms. That was the only baby related classes me and Ryan took.
ReplyDeleteBed at Red deer hospital aren't comfy.....I think the session is when you're around 30 weeks, but I can't remember.
-Brandy