How late is too late to change my where I’m birthing or my birth team?
It’s never too late to make a decision that will ensure your physical and emotional safety during labour.
I have known of women who during labour have refused the care of their attending doctor because they felt coerced or ignored, demanded a new doctor be present and had that request met. If you find yourself having strong feelings about that scenario and thinking things like “the audacity!”, I encourage you to reflect on whether you would feel the same way if it were a man asserting himself this way.
Pregnancy is a vulnerable time and many women find it difficult to find their voice when it comes to speaking up with their care providers. Women have been conditioned for a long time to be quiet and make things easy for others so I encourage you to educate yourself and any non-professionals support people that you plan to have at your birth. And Im not talking about the 3 hr session put on at the local hospital.
Im talking about a thorough, independent and evidence based birth education that also touches on the various birthing options and your rights. This kind of education can be delivered over a full day, but I think are best taken over a number of weeks so the content is more digestible and better remembered.
The other thing that can bolster the ability for women to feel able to use their voice is to have the same knowledgeable professional like a doula or midwife support them throughout their pregnancy. This person can also help advocate for the mother as she moves through labour.
To be clear, I am not anti-hospital, and I am not anti medicine, but I am anti-coercion because I see the impact that a coercive birth experience can have on on the well being and mental health of mothers, and on their relationship with their babies and families. We are so incredibly fortunate to have access to life saving interventions and support in the case of high risk pregnancies or in true emergency situations. But… nearly 50% of first time mothers being induced to have their babies??!! Those are the latest figures for Australia. That’s almost half of first time mothers having an increased chance of experiencing the cascade of further intervention and possibly birth trauma. This is not good enough.
If you are reading this and you are yet to choose your birth location and care team, make the effort to consider what options are most likely to result in the care and birth outcomes that align with you. Each option will have its pros and cons. Some things to consider include:
Do I feel safe and comfortable in this setting and around these professionals?
Do I feel these professionals are able to be transparent with me? Can I relax in knowing I am being told the truth?
Do I feel safe and supported enough to ask any question and to say when I don’t agree with something?
Am I being asked for consent?
What kind of language does the setting and professionals use? And does it allow me to feel safe and empowered?
What is the track record for this setting in terms of the kind of birth I would like to have?
Are they encouraging of my partner or support person/doula?
Are they supportive of your birth wishes? If not, have they explained with transparency why not, and suggested you alternatives? (High risk pregnancies can mean some limitations, but these should be discussed honestly and with care)
Answering no to any of these is a red flag. If you have already have a birth location and team, and find yourself answering “no” to these questions, you may want to consider your options in adding independent professional support or in changing your team and location all together. Some paths may include changing hospitals, moving to a birth centre/home birth, adding a doula, hiring a private midwife, making a complaint and asking for a new midwife or Dr.
And yes, you CAN do any one of these things.
What ever your choose, just know that you always have the right to choose.
Ref for induction rates in Australia: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/national-core-maternity-indicators/contents/labour-and-birth-indicators/induction-of-labour
Ref for cascade of intervention: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235054/. & https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2007.00210.x