Today is International Midwife Day (as well as Cinco de Mayo) but I am chosing to celebrate the first by sharing my birth story. My midwife Leslie changed the way to view pregnancy, labor, and pursing joy in caring for my son. If you are not as familiar, a midwife is a provider that offers care to childbearing women during their pregnancy, labor and birth, and during the postpartum period. They assist women to realize the capabilities of their own bodies and limit unnecessary interventions. Midwifery is very common around the globe. Over 74% of births are attended by midwifes in Europe and Asia while only 4% of births in the United States are attended by midwives. There are many reasons to use a midwife - lower ceasaran rates, healthier babies and mothers, and in fact, it is cheaper. Here are some other great facts to consider:
United States Birth Statistics Compiled by Marsden Wagner, MD, Consultant for World Health Organization 2001
1. Percent of countries providing universal prenatal care that have lower infant mortality rates than the US: 100%
2. Percent of US births attended by midwives: 4%
3. Percent of European births attended by midwives: 75% 4. Number of European countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden Norway, and Finland – all with over 75% of midwife-attended births) with higher perinatal mortality rates than the US: 0
5. Average cost of a midwife-attended birth in the US: $1200
6. Average cost of physician-attended birth in the US: $4200
7. Health care cost savings if midwifery care were utilized for 75% of US births: $8.5/billion/ year.
8. Health care cost savings by bringing US cesarean section rate into compliance with WHO recommendations: $1.5 billion/year.
9. Health care cost savings by extending midwifery care and demedicalizing births in the US: $13-20 billion/year United States Birth
I went to see a midwife for the care and trust. I recieved exactly what I needed from Leslie during my birth. This is the short and sweet version of my birth story. I started having contractions Monday night July 13th at about 1 hour apart but I remembered that that stage of labor can last a long time, even days, so I tried to stay calm. However, I just had a feeling that these weren't going away. Tuesday, I went to lunch with some friends and tried to finish my thank you notes (it was a goal of mine to have them finished before Henry arrived). I was trying to live "normal life" even though I was having contractions. By the time Jeremiah got home from work, I told him I thought we should start paying more attention. They became regular and about 7 minutes apart. As the night progressed we realized that this was going to really happen tonight. We called our doula (who was the backup to our scheduled doula) and she arrived around 10:45pm. Thanks to her, we were able to continue laboring at home until 2am when we all decided it was time to head to the hospital. At this point, the contractions were about 2 minutes apart. When we arrived at the hospital, I was 5 cm. dilated and completed effaced so we all thought this was not going to take much longer. However, I continued to labor (with complete back labor and intense pain on the left side of my back) until around 6 in the morning when we were considering some options. My water had still not broken and I was starting to get very tired. Leslie decided to break my water in hopes that it would relieve some of the back pain and help him move down. We were also considering an epiteral since I was in so much pain and so tired. However, since we had to wait for the IV to get in my system, Leslie suggested that I get in the shower. She went to the next room to check on a patient but could hear me working through the contractions and realized that I was going through the transition stage of labor. She returned and in those 30 minutes, I had gone from 6 cm. to 10cm. and she told me to get out of the shower and prepare to push Henry out! Within 45 minutes he was born! The pushing part was my favorite. He was born at 8:34 am. on July 15th and weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. and was 20 inches long.
To learn more about natural births and midwifery practices....
