Infant Parent Healing "We are each the union of the Mother and the Father."

Janel Martin Miranda, MA, LPC (IL) Prenatal and Birth Focused Counselor CranioSacral Therapist

Artwork www.waterspider.net

Assisting and supporting parents to create healthy attachment

and bonding with their baby -- for a lifetime

THIS PAGE IS UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION.

Currently, this page is a collection of writings,

and not in a final, orderly form.

Please excuse my mess here, but do enjoy the information.

Inducing and Epidural Anesthesia

and other drugs

Labor is not something outside of and separate from mother and baby. It is not just the mother's experience. Labor and Birth are also THE BABY'S BIRTH, in relationship with his or her mother. Birth is not just about the mother -- her pain nor is it about hers or the doctor's convenience. Nor is it about his or her malpractice woes.

Birth is the baby's birth -- Babies have their own biologically programmed impulse for beginning labor and this is crucial for their lifetime. Babies whose labors are induced have their biological impulse to start birth disrupted. This disrupts -- and imprints in the brain -- their ability to plan, begin, take action, follow-through, and integrate. They experience a grievous loss of connection with the mother, because of the inducing and as a result of the drugs used for painful induced labor. This creates patterns that persist for a lifetime if not healed.

We must change our language — inducing labor is about inducing babies. Even when a mother uses herbs, castor oil, and/or acupuncture to induce her BABY'S labor, her action is inducing and this is experienced by the baby. Prenatal and birth psychology and healing tell how we can do so when medically necessary in a way that supports the baby's process.

Did you know??

"Studies show it takes about takes seventeen years for medical research to get fully incorporated into medical practice. This means your doctor isn't always acting on the most recent knowledge." ( in Spirit, page 106 in "Does Dr. Know best? Often, but not always. So take responsibility for the quality of your healthcare.")

The article continues, "Plus medicine is full of controversy and conflicting theories."

Nowhere is this so damaging as it is in the birth of baby. Currently doctors are in control of birth and women are not allowed to take responsibility for their healthcare and their baby's care in labor and birth. Think about it -- all of the drugs and procedures we've been told are safe, only to learn that they are dangerous. Think about what's being done to women and babies in history and right now. Is it evidence-based and safe? Historically, the drugs used on laboring and birthing women and babies have NEVER been shown to be safe. Drugs and interventions are stopped ONLY AFTER years of harm and death to women and babies. Check out my story and article on the increasing use of epidural anesthesia promoted as safe when the literature by 1992 clearly showed it is not:

Beware and Be Aware: When your doctor says, 'If you were my daughter or wife, this is what I'd recommend," it doesn't necessarily mean it's scientifically based!

http://www.infantparenthealing.com/parentsknow/doctorsays.htm

Also check out www.sciencebasedbirth.com.

Watch for progress on my research comparing babies born at home and

in birth centers (without drugs and medical interventions) with babies born

induced and with epidural anesthesia at: www.BabiesRememberBirth.com.

Recent and future multi-disciplinary research will soon show us that

drugs used at birth (that result in experiencing violating technology)

contribute to many lifelong developmental, physical, and emotional issues.

-- Janel Miranda, MA

Obstetric Interventions: Synthetic Oxytocin

By Sarah Buckley, MD

from http://www.midwiferytoday.com/enews/enews0436.asp#main

Synthetic oxytocin administered intravenously in labor acts very differently from a laboring woman's intrinsic oxytocin. First, the uterine contractions produced by IV Syntocinon are very different from natural contractions, possibly because the drug is administered continuously rather than in a pulsatile manner and can cause detrimental effects to the baby in utero. A woman's uterine contractions can occur too closely together, leaving insufficient time for the baby to recover, and Syntocinon also causes the resting tone of the uterus to increase (1). Such effects can produce abnormal fetal heart rate patterns, fetal distress (leading to cesarean), and even uterine rupture (2). As well, oxytocin augmentation stimulates uterine contractions out of proportion to cervical dilation, compared with a natural labor (3): this creates the possibility of a "failed induction" in which a woman's cervix fails to dilate and a cesarean becomes necessary. Second, oxytocin, whether synthetic or not, cannot cross from the body back to the brain through the blood-brain barrier. This means that when it is administered in any way except directly into the brain, it cannot act as the hormone of love. It does, however, generate negative feedback -- that is, receptors in the laboring woman's body detect high levels of oxytocin and so signal her brain to reduce production. We know that women who labor with an oxytocin infusion are at increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage (4) because their own oxytocin production has been shut down. What we do not know, however, are the psychological or psychoneuroendocrine effects of giving birth without the peak brain levels of oxytocin that nature prescribes for all mammalian species. In one study, women who had synthetic oxytocin augmentation did not experience an increase in beta-endorphin levels in labor (5), indicating the complexities that may result from interference with any of the hormonal systems in labor. Other research has suggested that exogenous oxytocin may pass through the placent unchanged (6), which implies that the baby's oxytocin system may also be disrupted by administration of synthetic oxytocin in labor.

References
1. Freidman EA, Sachtleben MR. Effect of oxytocin and oral prostaglandin E2 on uterine contractility and fetal heart rate patterns. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1978 Feb 15; 130(4):403-7.

2. Stubbs TM. Oxytocin for labor induction. Clin Obstet Gynecol 2000 Sep; 43(3):489-94.

3. Bidgood KA, Steer PJ. A randomized control study of oxytocin augmentation of labour. 2. Uterine activity. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1987 Jun; 94(6):518-22.

4. Gilbert L, Porter W, Brown V. Postpartum haemorrhage -- a continuing problem. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 1987; 94: 67-71.

5. Genazzani AR, Petraglia F. et al. Lack of beta-endorphin plasma level rise in oxytocin-induced labor. Gynecol Obstet Invest 1985; 19(3):130-4.

Dr. Roberto Caldeyro-Barcia has demonstrated that uterine contractions stimulated with Pitocin reach over 40 mm Hg pressure on the fetal head. The quality and quantity of uterine contractions are greatly affected when oxytocin is infused. The contractions tend to be longer, stronger, and with shorter relaxation periods between....With each uterine contraction, blood supply to the uterus is temporarily shut off. If deprived of blood supply, fetal bradycardia (decreased fetal heart-rate deceleration) follows with oxygen deprivation and cerebral ischemia, causing the grave possibility of neurological sequellae. Truly the fetus has been challenged, and the EFM dutifully records the stressed fetal heart rate. With suspicions confirmed, a diagnosis of fetal distress is noted and elective cesarean section is the treatment of choice (Ettner 1977:153).

- http://www.birthpsychology.com/messages/pitdrip/pitdrip.html

The focus of the new site, Babies Remember Birth, will be about Brain, Birth, and Bonding

A primary interest of this site will be on Pre and Perinatal Psychology and on addressing the use of drugs during labor and birth.

Americans are hooked on drugs from birth to the respirator to the grave. From infants with "unexplained colic" to hyper, angry, depressed children, adolescents, and adults; to erectile dysfunction to weight loss and chronic back pain; from diabetes to high blood pressure due to "genetics" or "stress"; from birth control to "management" of labor pain, And, yet, health and wellness are not improving, while medical drug use is soaring. America is drug dependent.

For the hundred years of medicalized birth in America babies have been born "under the influence" of prescription drugs that have never been researched for safe use on birthing humans. Historically, drugs used during labor and birth are discontinued ONLY AFTER long periods of serious consequence -- previously denied -- to women and babies. (Morphine, ether, scopalamine, Demerol). During this long (uncontrolled, unsafe, non-consensual) experiment on women and babies, the effects on women have been shown repeatedly to be detrimental.

For example, this link to a newspaper story about a woman who died from complications from epidural during labor and birth: http://starbulletin.com/2005/05/10/news/story5.html.

And, the following is an excerpt from a press release from the FDA. Note the last sentence in bold in pink. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2005/NEW01270.html

FDA News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
P05-97
December 8, 2005
Media Inquiries:
Susan Cruzan, 301-827-6242
Consumer Inquiries:
888-INFO-FDA

FDA Advising of Risk of Birth Defects with Paxil
Agency Requiring Updated Product Labeling

The Food and Drug Administration today is alerting health care professionals and patients about early results of new studies for Paxil (paroxetine) suggesting that the drug increases the risk for birth defects, particularly heart defects, when women take it during the first three months of pregnancy. Paxil is approved for the treatment of depression and several other psychiatric disorders. FDA is currently gathering additional data and waiting for the final results of the recent studies in order to better understand the higher risk for birth defects that has been seen with Paxil.

Throughout modern medical history, this is the format for testing drugs used in pregnancy, labor, and birth -- AFTER the facts about the damage. Today, despite the increasing physical and mental health issues of children in this decade, the impact of all drugs, but especially, narcotic drugs and epidural anesthesia on brain development of the laboring and birth baby is still not considered. Almost all drugs used in labor and birth have never been approved for obstetric use. No mainstream psychological or medical research identifies drug use during labor and birth as a variable, not even in research on addictions asthma, and ADHD.

The result of this is an addictive society that functions in a "collective blackout" when it comes to applying logic and science to labor and birth. A society-wide denial (doctors, researchers, psychologists, and birthing women) is both caused by and perpetuated by the continued, blatant disregard for appropriate science regarding labor and birth. For example, it is neither logical or scientific that the developing and birthing brain can distinguish between elicit or prescription drugs. More ridiculous is the promotion of the ability of the prenatal brain to be impacted by stress, drugs, but that during that one brief period of labor and birth, the brain is non-functioning (as in babies aren't affected or don't remember violence.) Decisions and promotion of maternity care is based on money and politics, not on what is known to be safer for women and babies.

Please send me resources of any scientific research that SHOWS either, 1) the following DRUGS are SAFE developing brain and body: seritonin reuptake inhibitors such as Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, Paxil, Zolofit, Wellbutrin, etc. or that provides evidence to claim the following drugs are safe for the laboring and birthing brain: bupivicaine, chloroprocaine, lidocaine, fentanyl, butorphanol, meperidine, alphaprodine, parenteral opiods, ketamine and the multiude of other PRESCRIPTION drugs that are used now. Or,

2) that shows the scientific evidence that the drugs above or ether, morphine, scolapamine, narcotics, Pitosin, and Cytoetc are NOT related to issues of children and adults in our society.

The human being prenatally, during labor and birth, and in the first moments of life is capable of the full range of emotions. The experience of birth, whether with or without drugs, is imprinted on all one billion neurons at birth, ready to connect with the outside world as an independent being (brain). Does it matter (pun intended) if the baby's labor and birth is done "under the influence" of drugs, with strangers, without nourishment, with mother tethered to a bed on her back? What causes educated, compassionate medical caregivers to do that under the belief is it best?? What causes intelligent, concerned parents-to-be to accept such care? To ignore basic biology that tells us the science and logic of natural birth? This week, in late November, 2005, the media news reports 2004 had the highest cesarean rate ever and the wrong reasons for it.

Which of these babies had

EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA and which

had NO DRUGS during labor and birth?

It’s quite easy to see the difference…

Mariah

My daughters, Mariah (left) and Erin (right)

I must clearly honor my children's births as part of my own spiritual journey. I share my daughter, Mariah's story here because her birth and her presence in my life have been profound. Her birth was crucial to my work and purpose finding me. Because of her, I also am able to do profoundly healing work with other mothers and babies.

There is significant information available on the web and elsewhere about pros and cons of Epidural Anesthesia. Meanwhile, there is very little about the real impact on babies whose births are induced and whose mother's received epidural anesthesia. This section is about that…the experience of being induced and the mother’s use of epidural anesthesia from the baby’s perspective.

We must change our language — inducing labor is about inducing babies. Labor is not something outside of and separate from mother and baby. Babies whose labors are induced have their potency, their biological inclinations, and their impulses disrupted. This creates patterns that persist for a lifetime if not healed.

Inducing labor creates the likelihood that additional interventions will be necessary. Each of these interventions creates a block in the baby’s biological impulse and sequence. This creates emotional, physical, and psychological imprints around motivation, timing, fear, not having one’s own impulse and direction, and creates organizational, follow-through, and completion issues.

Don't these sound like symptoms of a very common, almost epidemic, diagnosis in school children? And, isn't it interesting that the increased numbers of children diagnosed with ADHD just might correspond to the increased numbers of births with epidural anesthesia (induced or not)?

We know this information because of the work of Dr. John Upledger, osteopathic physician responsible for the development of CranioSacral Therapy, who has studied the impact of birth trauma and learning disabilities for thirty years. Dr. William Emerson, Dr. Thomas Verney, and Dr. David Chamberlain have studied pre- and perinatal psychology and birth trauma for thirty years. Dr. Raymond Castellino integrated CranioSacral, pre and perinatal psychology, brain research, and trauma healing over the past twenty-five years and is internationally known for the development of Prenatal and Birth Therapy. He and Dr. Wendy Ann McCarty co-founded the BEBA institute and co-developed Prenatal and Birth Therapy. They are but a few of the leaders in the emerging field of pre- and perinatal psychology that is creating a new understanding of birth and human experience and psychology.

Sharing my daughter's story ---

Mariah's birth touches my tears each time I talk about the truth and the science about induced and epidural birth When I share what I know about epidural anesthesia, I always honor Mariah and her birth. She is one my greatest teachers and I honor and cherish her, and her gift to me and my work, and, so to the world. Heal birth to heal Earth. BECAUSE of her birth and our healing, I am able to sit with women, in the deepest of darkest guilt, shame, and anger -- women, who like I did, chose to induce their baby and to use epidural anesthesia. My daughter was induced in order to accommodate our move from MO to AZ for her father's medical school internship. My daughter and my now ex-husband contributed to leading to my own birth trauma healing -- I was born by saddle bock, the earlier epidural. Much of my healing has been around the issues created by that intervention.

My husband was a medical student when Mariah was born (now an obstetric trained physician) assured me it was safe because that is what he was taught. Six years later, I was introduced to the pre and perinatal field and birth trauma healing. I was shocked to find the extensive body of research that existed that year in 1993 that clearly showed epidural is dangerous for women and babies. (www.infantparenthealing.com/parentsknow/doctorsays.htm).

The knowing of the dangers of epidural to the laboring and birthing woman AND baby was clear. The drugs used in epidurals are known to pass to the baby and were never shown to be safe to be used. The drugs given to me through an epidural were based on MY weight. I weighed twenty times Mariah's weight. Without research to confirm or prove safety women and doctors both promote that the baby isn't effected. The cells that create the blood brain barrier does not appear until the second week of life.

Most drugs used in labor and birth are not FDA approved for obstetric use -- in over one hundred years of medical birth, NEVER have the drugs used been shown to be safe for a baby! And, when shown to be harmful, drugs are still used (epidural, Demerol, Cytotec, etc). No one has conducted research to show the safety for using epidural and no one has done long term research on the impact on the health, psychology, and personality of the baby.

Now, twelve years later, Cytotec is STILL used for inducing a baby. It is used even though it is not approved for obstetric use, even though many women and babies have died at birth and later as a result of Cytotec and other obstetric practices (see www.sciencebasedbirth.com and http://www.inamay.com/quilt/home.html), and even though the long-term health risks to women and babies has not been researched. Visit www.tatia.org, the Tatia Oden French Memorial Foundation website. Tatia and her newborn daughter died after Cytotec was used to induce her baby's birth. From this site you can link to an FDA Petition to sign a petition to stop the use of "off-label" drug Cytotec for use in labor.

I honor my daughter's birth, and her father's role in my healing and developing my work. Because of her birth, I am also able to be with and support a woman who touches that deep well of anger at the medical system and doctors and nurses. Good-hearted, well-intentioned, and highly educated, they nonetheless, do this to us when the their medical community's own scientific literature shows us they shouldn't. Recognizing that birth is a template for our lifetime, and for women, birth either gives us or takes from our empowerment.

When it burns, churns, and boils up in our lives, -- that feeling that our bodies and spirit, and our baby's, were harmed -- there is place to give a voice to our feelings, and there are few means for finding resolutions. The resolution has to come from within. Drugs that are known to interfere with attachment and bonding and this experience with mother and baby creates the template for life -- in the brain - for how one relates to others.

The prenatal and birth trauma healing field now know that the EFFECTS of drugs at birth stay with a woman and baby -- as imprinting in the brain. The new field of "fetal programming" makes it logical that the programming also occurs during labor and birth, and in the postnatal period. Visit www.SacredWindow.com for a discussion about the forty-two days following birth that effects baby and mother for forty-two years.

It is not easy to acknowledge how the conventional medicine and psychological services have not only failed us and our children, but have actually created more trauma. When we women who were drugged begin to unnumb and see the source of our relationship and parenting struggles, it is hard to go through alone it to the other side -- to healing, forgiveness, and appropriate action for our child and relating with our child.

The bulk of psychological and medical advice does not create wanted changes in our lives. We need support and protection that begins before conception. Women bearing children are building brains. The environment in which a woman does so needs to be safe, nourished, nurturing, respectful. We need to have our voice. We who have been drugged, tied to beds, shaved, starved, "examined" by strangers, separated from loved ones need to find our voices.

It is important that we travel this road with each other and to find a place of not blaming; and instead, to see how care givers who do us harm, in the name of science, are also wounded. They are uninformed and unconscious about their actions. Read my article, "When a doctor says, 'If you were my wife or daughter this is what I would recommend,' it doesn't mean it's scientifically based." We must recognize the limitations of a system that like all systems, seeks first to maintain itself, and does so under the guise of the welfare of those in need of itself.

Medical people continue to assert that babies don't remember birth (allowing them to do what they need and want that serves to maintain the status quo and their power and income) and to deny women's pain resulting from giving over her power to others, and denying her body and spirit. This ongoing, unnamed emotional pain from being drugged, restrained, and controlled during labor and birth is far greater than the pain of labor and birth -- for which our bodies are created to do. Being overpowered in birth begets an unnamed powerlessness. In this physical, emotional, and psychic pain, it is hard to see one's own or one's child's chronic health and emotional issues and our relationship struggles as a result of our choices and experience of birthing that child. But, that is what the true science is showing us.

The true science is showing that birth is a profound experience -- in the brain and body for both mother and baby -- and the experiences establishes the template for life for their relationship. Science shows us birth is safer at home, surrounded by people who know us and love us, where a woman is able to be in power of her process and body. True science is showing a need for balance between the ancient wisdom and new technology. A revival of midwifery and doulas is one of the positive and productive changes of the past abuses and for solutions for the future.

I have developed a deep concern for men in our society who must also give up their power to the medical profession and watch their partner and child being drugged and violated. No where else will a man stand by and watch strangers treat his loved ones this way. What do men do with their woundings, and failure to protect their partners? Process with their buddies? Go to therapy?? Rarely, do men even name their wounding. I forgive my husband for what he didn't know and wasn't taught, and I acknowledge the wounding he experienced as a birthing father and as a student and resident physician. Sadly, it tells me just how much medical caregivers believe the misinformation and myth passed on to them in residency. My mission, though, is to support women to understand the truth and the science.

Women must be aware (and BEWARE!) that when the doctor tells you, 'if you were my wife or daughter' this is what I would recommend, it DOES NOT mean that it is SCIENCE BASED!! I waver between sad and angry by the lack of education and knowledge my ex-husband was given in medical school and in obstetric residency. It helps us to forgive them "for they know not what they do" and drives me to embolden women and medicine to become partners in birth. Women (especially expectant mothers who must claim their power and responsibility in conceiving, gestating, and birthing their babies) and medical providers (who must stop the justifying of medical management of birth as they practice “malpractice avoidance”) should know this research information. They must know the research about medical birth practices and the personal and social consequences that weave through every aspect of our lives. Women can begin individually, in the birthing of their babies, to create partnerships with medicine and technology by claiming both their power and their responsibility for their baby’s birth.

My Experience of Induced and Epidural Anesthesia

My two daughters are both approximately three to 4 weeks old in these photos. One had no drugs during labor and birth. One was induced and had epidural anesthesia. Looking at the photos, it’s obvious which is which. The one on the right is bright-eyed, alert, and strong. Her birth was drug-free, but she experienced prenatal and birth trauma that I share elsewhere in the discussion about the influence of family issues and prenatal and birth trauma.

On the left, my little one has a glazed look, flat affect, and dark circles under her eyes. She is struggling to be present with me. It's heartbreaking now to see this in all of her early photos. I didn’t know the effect of the inducing and epidural drugs for years.

I had the perception for a long time that hers was a “good birth” because I had so little pain — if you don’t count the racking contractions because of Cytotec that were alleviated for me only when the epidural was started at five cm. While the needle was being inserted in my spine I had to be motionless DURING a contraction -- that was unlike any I had ever had with natural labor. I held on to my husband’s legs so tightly that he was bruised. It was a huge relief (FOR ME!) from the pain when the epidural effect came on. Sadly, I know now my lack of consciousness about my baby and the physical and emotional impact of the interventions on her. First, was the effect for her of the Cytotec coming on. This is so profoundly described by a five year-old to his mother as he shared HIS experience of the drug Pitocin coming on.

“I was just being peaceful and happy and all of a sudden a huge wave came and crashed me up against the rocks. I was terrified and I’ve been scared ever since.”

The overwhelming majority of babies who are induced and given epidural anesthesia are now known to turn positions when the drugs are induced. THAT is the position that they are stuck in with near tetanus contractions. THIS is why babies "fail to progress" and why instruments (forceps, fetal scalp monitors, and vacuum extraction are used, and why statistically INDUCED birth with epidural anesthesia is most likely to cascade into a surgical birth.

Babies are known - in the medical and scientific research - to react to drugs coming on by turning to posterior positions. Epidural anesthesia is linked with fetal occiput posterior position at birth. Epidural analgesia is strongly associated with abnormal fetal position at delivery, research shows, in a finding that may help explain the high rates of operative delivery observed after administration of an epidural. (Obstetrics & Gynecology 2005; 105: 974-82).

I now know that Cytotec is THE number one reason for uterine rupture, mostly in first time mothers and women doing a vaginal birth after a cesarean (www.sciencebasedbirth.com). Thankfully, my daughter was my fourth birth and the previous two had been as "natural" as possible in a hospital setting. My uterus knew how to give birth and I knew the difference between natural and induced labor.

In natural birth, as a baby prepares and creates his or her intention to be born she will move into the position that will allow her to begin her descent. When a baby is induced by artificial means, whether medically or through efforts of the mother, the baby may not be in the correct position for birth. Physically and emotionally, the baby is caught off guard and is disoriented by the onset of the drugs, as the little boy shares above. Once the racking contractions begin the baby can never get into the best position. In natural birth baby is able to move slowly through the birth canal and pelvis of the mother, making small adjustments, as she needs to make her way.

As the epidural anesthesia comes on, the baby experiences this as being further and usually totally lost and disconnected from the mother; and this is important, the baby continues to feel the intensity of the pain from the induced contractions. Even without inducing drugs the experience of the epidural anesthesia coming on to the baby is traumatic.

The contractions from synthetic hormones (such as Pitocin and drugs such as Cytotec) — I know from two previous non-drugged births — are horrific compared to natural labor. I only found out years later (in healing my own birth by saddle block and in my baby’s birth) how the baby experiences the coupling of the drug induced labor and pain, and the feeling of disconnect with the mother.

“And suddenly she (mother) was gone and I couldn’t find her and so I went out (disassociated) to find her.”

Recalling my experience of the drug effect coming on after administration of a saddle block (the epidural of the 1940-60’s...part of the drug revolution from the sixties on?)

This is imprinted on the central nervous system of the brain and creates life-long patterns in relationship dynamics. A challenging aspect of healing early birth dynamics is the grief over lost life, love, and time. The joy of healing is the resolution of old demons that medicine, psychology, and religion seek, but can not find.

Dr. Michele Odent, a French obstetrician spoke at the "Future of Birth" conference in Columbia, MO in May, 2005. He said that inducing and epidural anesthesia is creating serious dysfunctions in our children. When one begins to see the person before them in the context of their birth journey, relationships change and we know new ways to be with that person, and to understand how they see and feel in the world. My daughter who was induced would use the phrase “all of the sudden” to begin every sentence, sometimes as much as four or five sentences in a row when sharing her story of any daily event. This is one example of how our language often provides insight into early birth experiences. In our healing, we learned that her father and I off by ourselves laughing or being affectionate, made her feel excluded. During her labor after epidural anesthesia was in place, he and I enjoyed a peaceful, loving, and sometimes silly time together. We were not aware that the contractions that I found unbearable were continuing to ram our baby's head with the same intensity. Sometimes, it is worse -- health care providers can increase the Pit with the mother on narcotics. We were also racing with a co-worker of mine who was also in labor down the hall -- it's easy to see what sort of dynamic that can create in a child.

In my prenatal and birth training and therapeutic experiences I have learned that with epidural anesthesia the baby is also “numb from the waist” down like the mother. I put that in quotes because we are told that we will only be numb from the waist down; however, the truth is that a woman is also “numbed” in her spirit and in her power. Babies who had epidural anesthesia often do the “army crawl” and this is because the drug imprint is still in their body. A woman has allowed the innate ability of her body to birth naturally to be blocked.

I have found personally that it numbs a woman to many aspects of her life. My daughter who was induced and who had epidural anesthesia was my fourth child. Hers was the only birth where I experienced major post-partum depression. My un-numbing began with my ex-husband's announcement to do a second residency, in obstetrics. It wasn't pretty but it lead me to finding and personally training with the pioneers in the field of prenatal and birth psychology and healing -- DeAnna Elliott; Bruce Lipton; John Upledger, DO; William Emerson, PhD; Michael Trout, MA; David Chamberlain, PhD; Suzanne Arms; Raymond Castellino, DC; Ina Mae Gaskin, and Gerald Vind, PhD, and Joe DiRuzzo, DC who were all important part of my training and healing. I have a deep appreciation and gratitude to these people, and to my ex-husband, who supported me financially to travel and train with these leaders. As a result, I have found my purpose on this planet. I am researching the long-term effects of inducing and using epidural anesthesia. Visit my other website, www.BabiesRememberBirth.com.

In drugged birth, a mother’s body is not working in cooperation with her baby. This effects how she is able to greet, hold, and advocate for her newborn. It affects a woman for her lifetime and for her baby's lifetime. Women must begin to unthaw and unnumb and face the anger, guilt, and powerlessness locked in their bodies as a result of drugged and violating birth experiences.

The natural, biological process of birth is for a baby’s feet to work with the fundus (top) of the mother’s uterus, and this is a crucial experience for their relationship and for bonding and attachment. This is absent in birth with epidural anesthesia and contributes to attachment issues and all of the issues that women face in their intimate relationships and with their babies. Nine years later, in training and therapy with Raymond Castellino, I found relief from the nagging backache that never went away.

A visitor to my site left a comment on my guest book entry expressing anger at my information on epidural anesthesia and my response

12/31/04

02:09:25 PM

From Tracy:

I found this website to be ridiculous! I'm having an induced labor b/c of certain medical conditions and after reading this "article" I started to feel like I was "hurting" my own baby before he was even born! If it weren't for my doctor setting a few things straight concerning this website I would really be an emotional wreck right now! Your article on Normal labor and birth: The biological impulse to be born really scared me and made me wonder. Thank goodness for my "real" doctor!!

12/31.04

My response to Tracy.

Thank you for your entry. I am aware of the issue of hearing for the first time the information that is on my site. I am sorry that it was frightening. It is. A major point that I try to make on my website is that we need to be CONSCIOUS about what we do in birth….to birthing women and babies. I am sorry that what you did not get from the website is HOW to BE PRESENT with your baby during interventions during labor and birth so that you can minimize the traumatizing effects. Being aware and conscious of what you read on my site will make you less likely to hurt your baby. If YOU acknowledge and support your baby during the process you will not be hurting him or her. Just as you should not DENY that she or he is experiencing whatever it is that is requiring the inducing, you should not deny the resulting interruption to his process and the effects of other interventions that result from the inducing. In the midst of your reaction to the information on the site I hope that you, your partner, and your doctor along with your support people and other staff people will become aware of what a difference you can make BECAUSE of your awareness that your baby is a little being right now in this moment and will be even more so at birth.

When my son broke his humerus completely in half and required immediate, emergency surgery, I certainly didn’t argue about the necessity. However, even at age six, he did need to know what was happening to him, how one experiences anesthesia and coming out of it, where I and his father would be, what was going to happen. Even in the womb a baby needs to know what is happening. Were you to have a near miss or actual accident yourself, would you not talk to your baby and explain what you were experiencing and what has affected you so? – that which has caused your emotions and physiologically your heart to race and limbs to go limp.

My site is in complete redevelopment and I am unable to respond to except via this format. One of the featured stories is about a baby whose birth I attended that included Pitocin and a cesarean section. It will include a picture of his mom and dad during labor and me supporting the baby during the contractions. Medical care givers are remiss in preparing women for induced contractions when medically necessary or not. Pitocin creates unbearable for the mother. How could this not be felt by the baby? If you knew there are ways to minimize this for your baby, why would we need to DENY it as society does now?

OF COURSE, there are times when inducing and epidural, fetal monitors, extraction, and cesarean surgery are necessary. This does not mean that we should deny the effects of it on the baby. It does mean that our society should embrace the basic biological understanding of the human body and brain (validated by brain research in the 90’s) --- and maybe, just maybe WHEN we must do something that could harm a baby we do that procedure with CONSCIOUSNESS and AWARENESS. What does that mean?? It means that the mother TALKS to her baby, explains the effects of the artificial hormone or drug. That was my role, the reason the parents I mentioned above wanted me at their labor and birth – to support them to stay conscious of their baby throughout the labor and birth. I explained to the baby before procedures what was happening --- JUST like each of us adults would like to experience from doctors or anyone.

A baby absolutely does have an impulse for birth and it is as real as the cell division and the development of neural tissues and the moment in time when the heart takes its first beat and the brain fires its first neuron. The work of a “real doctor” who is an MD/OB and a PhD in veterinarian medicine has written three books on the prenatal development and explains the BIOLOGICAL process of how a baby begins the labor process hormonally and how the mother’s body responds. The fact that labor almost always happens without the mother or the doctor inducing labor, makes it a pretty simple truth, if not scientific fact that is well documented.

The idea of a baby being in charge of his or her birth and parents consciously supporting their baby – no matter what happens -- is a very foreign concept made nearly impossible by the denial of the importance of the experience of birth – ON BRAIN DEVELOPMENT. The human brain and all other systems are formed within the first few months of gestation and the brain goes through many critical periods of development throughout gestation. Somehow, how society promotes that babies will remember mother playing Mozart during pregnancy and brain research supports it; yet, most people will balk at the notion of the importance of the comparatively short, but, oh, so important process of labor and birth affecting a baby’s brain. TALKING to a laboring and birthing baby and telling him or her what is happening or how you feel or who is in the room is weird?? Even when we know babies hear and respond in the womb and that she or he will know when you are nervous or scared, happy or relaxed?

The period of labor and birth as a critical time is totally ignored by the medical community and the psychology community and by most people. What prevents most people from acknowledging that the birthing baby’s brain is in a critical developmental period is a complicated mix of issues: women don’t want to experience labor pains and deny the effects of drugs, and doctors who are controlled by malpractice laws, not biological, scientific evidence would have to recognize the effects of their poor training and their actions on the women and babies they’ve delivered. Becoming aware and conscious means we might have to change something or acknowledge the old way is wrong. As Maya Angelou, says something to the effect, “I did what I did until I knew it was wrong, and then I did something different.”

I support you to trust your physician………and, I must also share with you this information. My spouse was a “real” family practice doctor and did another “real” OB residency and was not taught about healthy labor and birth, or that a baby is fully capable of all human emotions at birth, and how to engage with patients in a conscious, mindful manner. He was not taught about brain development of the birthing baby (but neither are pediatricians and psychologists or teachers nor are our legislators and policy makers). He never had time to consider his Anatomy 101 class (based on “structure and function”) and to apply the basic biological understanding of the human brain and body to the birthing woman and baby. He was not taught that should he need to use medical interventions to assist a mother and baby that doing so with presence and awareness that this baby will remember – because his or her brain is PROCESSING THE EXPERIENCE – that he will participate with this mother and father to support their precious baby during a significant event.

I am so grateful for your entry because it gives me opportunity to respond to an issue I am sure affects other women and babies. My intention is never hurt but to support women and babies. I appreciate the opportunity to respond. Unfortunately, without an email address, I have had to place it here in segments. This is the last one. My closing paragraph is:

When my son went into surgery for his broken arm I was terrified. The surgical nurse stayed with us a moment and asked if she could say a pray with us. She prayed for our child and the surgeon who was doing this monumental task. I have always been grateful to her. I also say a pray for your child soon to be born and for your physician and those who will be in attendance with you. I pray that your awareness of your child experiencing his birth will create safety, support, and the peaceful birth you wish for.

Wishing you the best,
Janel Lou Martin-Miranda

Normal labor and birth: The biological impulse to be born

Every human has his or her own BIOLOGICAL IMPULSE to be born in his or her own way, and in his or her own time. A woman’s body is made to give birth in orchestration with her baby. Thirty years of research and clinical experience in pre- and perinatal psychology and birth trauma healing tells us that the inducement of birth with artificial hormones interferes with a baby’s biological impulse to be born and that this is significant to our society. The baby is known to participate in the timing and onset of labor and this is now known to be necessary for optimal human development.

A woman’s contractions may be painful, but in that pain she finds power not felt in any other experience. When she has prepared properly (including processing her own birth issues) and she is left alone to labor at her own pace, without drugs, in the position her body guides her to be in, and with the people whom she trusts and chooses to support her, she is able to work through and transcend the pain. During birth a baby and mother MUST BE ABLE TO FEEL one another, to stay focused and aware of one another throughout the labor and birth. Inducing drugs and anesthesia interfere with this process.

With normal, natural (non-drugged) birth, contractions will start out slowly and build to a peak and then subside to an almost resting place. The time between and the intensity will gradually build and the mom and baby are able to progress with the increase in intensity. When undrugged the woman and baby are able to move together in harmony. The baby’s powerful legs and mother’s responsive uterus must be able to experience the meeting of each other in the contraction. A baby’s ability to navigate and negotiate the birth canal in connection with the mother is the baby’s first experience of acting in and being in relationship.

The mother’s body will know the position the baby needs for her to be in for the baby to move through the birth canal. Freely moving about is her body’s way of assisting her baby. The baby knows the way and how to use the contractions to work through the birth canal. It is known that the contraction of the mother’s uterus works with the baby’s legs and feet meeting the fundus (top) of the mothers’ uterus. The two work together in harmony…unless this process is interrupted with drugs or other external interference.

This process in labor and birth is known in Prenatal and Birth Therapy to create the foundation for all relationships and for healthy attachment and bonding. Any drugs, interventions, and the activities of others who are attending the birth will all have an effect on this process. These are imprinted on the central nervous system of the baby and these imprints are re-enacted throughout life.

In natural birth, as a baby creates his or her intention to be born she will move into the position that will allow her to begin her descent. Imagine for a second how a baby will need to move slowly through the birth canal and pelvis of the mother, making small adjustments, as she needs to make her way. When a baby is induced by artificial means, whether medically or through efforts of the mother, the baby may not be in the correct position. This is often true of induced babies.

Babies show me how they needed to rest or to adjust their body to move through the pelvis, but outside forces — drugs, forceps, vacuums, people not allowing the mother to stop to rest for a moment — forced them to continue. Lifelong chronic shoulder and neck pain are a few of the consequences of this. Anticipating, expecting, and resisting “outside forces” can be become lifelong dynamics. It’s a prevalent issue with this generation of children.

During the birth process outside interventions, conversations, experiences with the mother can interfere with the mother and baby’s process and BLOCK THE BABY’S BIOLOGICALLY PROGRAMMED IMPULSE FOR BIRTH. A prenate must often become quite angry, terrified, or determined enough to build the potency necessary to move through obstacles (i.e. when forced to “wait for the doctor” to get there) at birthing. It is seen in prenatal and birth healing processes that babies often resist the interventions or, when drugs are used, the baby is unable to respond. This often creates the need for further interventions from the medical caregivers. These experiences become blocks in the biological impulse in the nervous system (along the sequence of the five stages of birth) to completing birth by one’s own process. The interferences create blocks that are expressed in emotion (anger, frustration, avoidance, grief, etc.) that continues to be experienced after birth.

What happens from the baby’s perspective when baby’s birth is induced?

The best way to understand this is for you to imagine for yourself the experience in current time. Think of how a live human being whether a newborn or forty would have the same mental, emotional, physical (visceral) reactions and experiences.

Imagine that you have been preparing mentally and physically for a huge task — maybe the most important task of your life, for everything after will depend on how this goes. You are enjoying the nice, cozy place you are in and you plan and prepare. You are with one person who is your “safety,” a person who you are absolutely totally dependent on to complete this. In fact, it’s part of the task — to be in absolute, total relationship with this person to accomplish your goal.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere someone comes up behind you and gives you an injection that causes your heart to race and just pushes you into the motion. You weren’t ready and you weren’t in the right position. You lose your connection with the person who was there “holding the safety ropes” for you. This person is freaking out, unable to even support herself. You are aware, but confused that she somehow has caused this; and, that she asked them for help with your process and they gave her the same drug. You weren’t ready and your body does not begin in the right position when this happened. It is a struggle not to panic and you experience a myriad of emotions. It’s as if a huge wave just came and you were crashed up against the jagged rocks. Through pain, fear, and disassociation, you struggle to get back to where you were but after hours of trying, it is impossible. It’s terrifying. You keep slamming against the rocks and your head is pounding. Your legs kick like mad but you don’t seem to go far. There might possibly even be something around your neck that pulls you back in fear every time you try to move forward. You can’t breathe. You can’t go; you can’t stay. You are in a jam, stuck, but oscillating there in one place. Trying to think your way through, think your way through — you know you can do it.

And, then a wave of sleep and nausea comes over you. You can’t think and then you lose the feeling in your legs. It’s terrifying because your ability to think and the power of your legs were crucial to accomplishing your goal. You are terrified as you sink into a deepness of woozy and numb. Back and forth...it’s awful. You lose consciousness…you lose any awareness of the person who was your safety. You struggle and struggle to find her and connect with her but she’s just gone. The adrenaline drug pushes your body onward against your will and all you want to do is rest for a moment even.

People try to force you to complete your goal, which isn’t even coherent anymore. It’s their goal now as they are pushing you in ways that was not your intended way. They are trying different mechanical and drugs means; but every one of them is excruciatingly painful and scares you even more. You vacillate between wanting to just give up and die and then fury that you can do this comes again — it’s your own impulse trying to flare up again. You know you can do it if they’d just leave you alone and if you could just find your safety person. Where is she?!? She is the only person you know and trust — it’s like you are one with her. And, she is gone. You feel your heart rate go up and down. No one is listening to you or asking you what you think you should do. You can’t do it without them and you are so angry that you can’t do it your way. You try to use your anger to accomplish you goal but it gets you more stuck and the others increase their efforts as a result. You are working at cross efforts. It’s a no-win situation.

Finally, somehow “they” drag you through but it doesn’t feel like you are there, wherever there is. It’s blinding bright, noisy, and the people your safety person asked to help have choked you when you tried to grab your first breath of air. “They” are poking you, rubbing your skin roughly. It’s cold and you are shaking and screaming for them to stop. Where is she? Where is she? One of “them” thrust you up in the air. You struggle to see your safety person and in fleeting glimpses see she is as traumatized as you. She doesn’t come to you or respond to you as she usually does. Just as you see her one “them” puts ointment in your eyes and the world goes blank again. You scream for her and she doesn’t come to you. The moment you both waited and prepared for is not happening. What is wrong with her?? You fade in and out. In that small glimpse she seemed happy to see you came through it and she is still so drug affected too that she just emotionally and psychologically collapses. Oddly, she is now grateful for the people who came along to help you and seems to have forgotten about you. One of them is trying to put something in your mouth---you instantly pull back thinking it’s that thing again…that hurt so much when you tried to cry in protest. You hear her voice but can’t see her. All you want in that moment is to see her face but you can’t see past the oil in your eyes. You want her to hold you close and to smell her and you can’t even find her. You want her to touch you, but “they” bound your body up in a blanket. You head is pounding and the noise and the lights and voices don’t stop.

Contractions that are induced with drugs come on hard and stay at the intense level for a longer period of time. The contractions never subside fully to a resting period. A woman AND BABY are in constant pain and unable to rest. They are unable to work together and to stay connected. I personally experienced these contractions as RACKING…like nothing I had experienced in two previous natural births. Because of the intensity of pain, it becomes nearly impossible for a woman to deal with AND to STAY CONNECTED TO HER BABY. It is almost inevitable that a woman whose baby is induced in labor will also have epidural anesthesia. Drug induced birth and epidural anesthesia are known in the medical literature to be a contributor to the need for further interventions, such as vacuum extraction, separation of baby and mother at birth, and cesarean birth.

Even in the medical literature, posterior birth is often attributed to the epidural anesthesia. Babies will sometime turn from a side lie position into posterior position when epidural anesthesia is used. Perhaps, the baby is responding to the effect of the drug coming on, as described by the five-year-old on the homepage. Adults in regression report this experience as very frightening as they recall the loss of control of their legs and they lose the emotional, physical, and psychological connection with the mother.

On a physical level, inducing with artificial hormones and drugs creates contractions so strong and so racking that the mother is unable to be without pain relief. The mother is given epidural anesthesia for pain relief and she will be numb from the lower back down. This allows her to be conscious during labor and birth, but without the pain. Theoretically, this sounds great. Women have been sold on the belief that this is better than natural birth because they won’t feel pain. Check out this website http://pregnancy.about.com/library/stories/blepistory.htm with story after story by women sharing their experiences of being induced, with the resulting cascade effect of interventions. Yet, many of them believe the birth experience was good. The theme is about how the epidural saved them from the pain (that was induced!). However, our society does not typically consider birth or the effect of their own actions, or interventions from the baby’s perspective.

This is crucial to understand and I will highlight this in bold letters...THE BABY HAS THE SAME DRUGS AND THE SAME EXPERIENCE AS THE MOTHER…the baby is numb from the lower back down and the baby is also conscious, except THINK ABOUT THIS!!! THE BABY’S HEAD IS BEING RAMMED THROUGH THE MOTHER’S BIRTH CANAL AND PELVIS, WITHOUT PAIN RELIEF. Usually the membranes have been ruptured so the baby has no cushion and the skull of the baby is rammed against the bony structure of the mother’s pelvis. Doctors and parents will do well to remember that the baby does not have pain relief for this. The baby is FULLY CONSCIOUS and in pain throughout the same birth that is so painful for the mother that she must be medicated. It is rare for a woman to have induced birth without pain medications because the drugs used to induce creates contractions that the mother can truly not endure.

The consequences? — trauma and restrictions to the baby’s head that cause impaction of cranial nerves to the abdominal system (COLIC!), attachment issues with the mother and father, neurological and sensory integration impairments, and physical issues. For example, babies who do the “army crawl” were most likely babies whose mothers had epidural anesthesia for pain relief — some babies scoot on their bottoms instead. Crawling is absolutely, without exception, NECESSARY for proper brain development. Babies must crawl in order to complete left brain-right brain development and integration. Crawling is crucial in the development of the corpus callosum, the major cross over connection between the right and left cerebral hemispheres.

Children born with epidural anesthesia are often clumsy, frequently hit their heads, and even though seemingly happy will be violent, accident-prone, and have difficulty with motivation and completing tasks. Parents describe their children as frustrated, disorganized, unable to organize and follow through on ordinary tasks. Children might require repeatedly to have help with simple tasks and yet they resist support and resent being reminded to do things. Their play is often rough, they are reckless, and ignore boundaries and safety cautions. They need boundaries and healthy resistance. These children have not been able to experience their own boundaries, to know where they end and where others begin. They seek and resist boundaries from parents and teachers. This is because of the missing birthing experience I describe about mother’s uterine contractions working in harmony with the baby’s legs and feet. Restrictions to certain parts of the head contribute to learning disabilities and ADD/ADHD. I believe that the pre- and perinatal psychology field will demonstrate the correlation of this phenomenon of our societies children to the inducing of babies’ births which results in use of epidural anesthesia, forceps and vacuum extraction, and c-section.

Mothers are not aware of the facts and truth about EPIDURAL ANESTHESIA.

Epidural anesthesia is the method of choice in most hospitals and for many women. Inducing babies with artificial hormones and then using epidural anesthesia is extremely common.

Mothers tell me the story of their labor and “delivery” with epidural anesthesia — how great it was with no pain, etc. The baby starts to cry and scream and she tries to get her body into what looks like contorted positions. They are birth positions. (Car seats often put baby is position similar to positions in the womb — either traumatic or comfortable.) The screaming baby is telling her mother her version of the story…“it wasn’t great for me!” Moms will jostle the baby, attempt to comfort her, feed her, put a pacifier in her mouth while continuing to talk (often loudly above the babies cries) about the birth. The baby proceeds to wail and tell her story. The mother is often disconnected from her baby’s pain and experience — just as she was in the birth process. It’s the continuation of disconnect from labor and birth, and the beginning of what can become a lifelong pattern of relating. The mother and baby lose both emotional and physical connection, a major contributor to attachment issues and to further complications at birth and the ability of the pair to experience self-attachment. It is known in Prenatal and Birth Therapy that these experiences during birth are extremely significant as they set the stage for the mother/child relationship.

Inducing (augmenting labor to keep labor within time frames of others) and epidural anesthesia is the most common birthing method at this time. It is considered normal, sometimes even said to be “natural birth” in our western society. It is not natural birth. Consider the long-term effects to our children and to our society…lifelong gastrointestinal issues; dis-attachment from mother (contributing to relationship issues through life); drug addiction; emotional and psychological issues (unresolved anger and fear); motivational issues (unable to find their own biological impulse); and poor brain development.

To learn more about the risks of epidural anesthesia, read Epidural Epidemic: Drugs in Labor: Are They Really Necessary...or Even Safe? by Joanne Dozer and Shannon Baruth found in the July/August 1999 issue of Mothering.

Compassion for Physicians and Mothers: A call to become partners in empowering women to give birth naturally.

Inducing birth and the use of synthetic hormones and non FDA approved drugs to induce and epidural anesthesia just might potentially be the most lethal drug combination and intervention in birth and the most damaging to our goal of creating healthy, peaceful, self-regulating, self-sufficient human beings. Women and medical providers are not aware that inducing labor and the use of epidural anesthesia (the most common way of birthing in our society that often leads to c-section) and vacuum extraction just might be the most damaging thing we do in birth.

The medical community and most of our society are obviously unaware that babies are fully conscious beings from conception on, and do not know that BABIES REMEMBER BIRTH. I have compassion and concern for those who have spent their lifetimes learning and practicing medicine without this information. They are unable themselves to speak out against poor practices in a system gone awry. Forceps are rarely used now because of the trauma they inflicted and now vacuum extraction has replaced them. Evidence about inducing, vacuum extraction, c-sections, the impact of drugs in labor, and of birthing in supine position are ignored by both women and medical providers as PAIN AVOIDANCE for women, and LITIGATION AVOIDANCE by physicians have become the primary concern.

The mainstream scientific literature is quite clear that the drugs given in labor and birth cross the placenta and affect the baby. Obstetrics books in the 1940’s warned quite strongly against the use of drugs and outlined the consequences to the baby and mother. Sixties years later, the cautions and concerns have been shown to be accurate; yet, these practices continue. Our society promotes pain-free so strongly that women not only expect, but demand drugs in birth. Our society holds physicians fully responsible for birth and this has created the situation we have now of medically managed birth (litigation avoidance-based obstetric practice). Women and babies are also manipulated by the medical caregivers to accommodate their own schedules. I hear of an obstetrician who routinely determines the date for inducement in the first months of pregnancy and has an unbelievably high inducement rate. He delivered the baby featured on the home page (under the icon for FDA warning of vacuum extraction). Consider his contribution to the future of the community and planet.

I know most women would never put their newborn in harms way if they knew the truth about inducing their baby and using epidural anesthesia with no compelling medical need do so. If women knew that using epidural anesthesia leads to a greater chance of vacuum extraction and c-section, they would not even consider epidural unless it were absolutely necessary. For example, one high blood pressure measurement at week thirty-eight the day a mom finds out the doctor is leaving on vacation near her due date is not a medical justification to induce the week before his vacation. I have much compassion for women and babies who have chosen to induce and/or to do epidural anesthesia and then much later learned the consequences.

There is hope for healing of induced and epidural birth

I personally have experienced both natural and epidural anesthesia birth. I know the angst and guilt of realizing I made choices that so profoundly hurt my newborn. I also know the healing that can come from this work. Unfortunately, many women search traditional medicine and psychological fields for answers to their children’s problems. This information is not well known in either of these systems nor is the current research acknowledged if they do know that inducing birth, epidural anesthesia, and vacuum extraction are major contributors of infant and childhood issues.

I have experienced prenatal and birth healing from inducing epidural birth as a prenatal birth therapist and in my personal life, both as a mother and a baby. I was born with saddle block anesthesia, the 1950’s epidural anesthesia. I have actively worked at healing the motivational and relationship issues my birth created for me. My younger daughter and I have been engaged in healing from her birth. As a young child, she has had two surgeries for her ears, therapy for her speech and for a processing disorder.

Some women, like me, are very lucky and do not experience the serious side effects of epidural anesthesia — fevers, turn of baby to posterior position, inability to push, the need for vacuum extraction, etc. — that many women and babies do. I did have chronic back pain at the needle insertion point of my spine for eight years, until I did the trauma healing. My labor was painless. My husband and I had a nice experience together, but we were not focused on the little one coming into our lives. He and I were hanging out and laughing even. What I have learned in my daughter’s prenatal and birth therapy is that she has an intense emotional reaction to her perception of me in particular (but also with her father and others) laughing “at her” when is she is actually hurting.

She connected this to our disconnect during her labor. My attention was not on her; it was on her father and I was laughing when she was in intense pain. Not only that, but a colleague of mine was also in labor and we had a “race” to be first. We won, by the way. Now, this is a sad victory for me, knowing that I diminished the sacredness of my daughter’s entry into this world and deprived myself of what I know can be a powerful experience…my fully present body-mind-soul bringing a life into this world. I know now the rushed labor and delivery caused her chronic ear issue and resulted in a loss of hearing. My daughter’s labor was induced to accommodate a move across the country for her father’s work and it was medically justified because of my age (36 was considered “high-risk”) and because of a potential gallbladder problem. Her inducement has been an imprint for her relationship with her father and me in different ways. My daughter and I are working with her issues with timing, such as her resistance to going to school on time. It matters not to her if she is there on time. She almost seeks to be late. It’s about her timing. This is an example of an issue in the lives of many parents and children that can make life absolutely miserable every morning and contributes to serious damage in relationships. In fact, Dr. Castellino states that when couples do not heal their individual prenatal and birth issues, and those from the birth of their children, the children must act out what parents don’t deal with. He postulates that this is a major contributor to the high incidence of divorce in our culture. The trauma experiences by parents in birthing their children creates rifts that must be healed. The book, Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. and Mary Hartzell, M. Ed. is an excellent resource for dealing with one’s one childhood issues in the context of parenting.

I feel fortunate that my daughter’s birth did not end in the use of vacuum extraction or c-section. It is known that every medical intervention leads to the likelihood of a cascade effect of further interventions; yet, because in general women fear the pain of childbirth they demand pain relief. It is the inducing of birth that creates the later need for pain relief interventions. Ironically, women will be grateful for these interventions saving her and her baby.

I chose to have the epidural anesthesia because I believed it was safe, not damaging; and, because I believed that it was perhaps even best and that it would make birth easier for both of us. Even though I’d had two natural births previously, I was certainly interested in an “easier” way that was promoted as harmless and the “best technology.” My husband was a medical student and he believed what he was taught…that the epidural anesthesia was safe and the most advanced technology. Our society promotes “pain free” over everything. I have learned that when doctors tell their patient, “If my wife or daughter were in this situation, I would advise them to do this,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the safest method or that it is even researched based. Obstetricians in training are taught that pain relief is a huge service to woman and babies, in spite of the effect on babies. It is reinforced by women’s demand for pain-free birth and not realizing the power of her body to birth naturally. The result is medical management of birth and increased litigation with disproportionate allocation of responsibility for birth given to physicians. Click here to read Robbie Davis-Floyd’s article, the “Rituals of Medical Birth.” Her book, Birth as an American Rite of Passage, is an in-depth analysis of the technocratic model of birth in our country and how the training of obstetricians contributes to the rituals of the modern hospitals.

A Baby's Birth - is a continuum of critical periods of physiological development that begins even before conception and completes at the mother's breast, in the arms of the father, and will be lived throughout life. -- Janel Martin-Miranda

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