Medical Interventions and Birth Trauma / Infant-Parent Healing with Prenatal & Birth Therapy by LouJanel Miranda

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

Assisting and supporting parents to create healthy attachment

and bonding with their baby -- for a lifetime

Medical Interventions and Birth Trauma

The intention and care a society gives to the most precious of all human endeavors, childbearing, is a clear reflection of the healthcare the society is capable of and willing to provide.

-- Jim Berg, MD

…apparent disadvantages of the obstetric approach have such large order of magnitude, that in any clinical trial it would be considered unethical to continue with the obstetric treatment.”

-- Peter F Schlenzka

Links to Schlenzka's Stanford dissertation,

"Safety of Alternative Approaches to Childbirth."

http://www.vbfree.org/docs/safety.rtf http://www.vbfree.org/docs/meadsum.html

This is a summary of the dissertation.

The work of Emerson and Castellino show us how medical interventions contribute to birth trauma in the imprinting process. Just as significantly, perhaps even more so, is their contribution to understanding the importance of the prenatal period as creating the imprints that will be expressed at birth. Specifically, the mother’s emotional, physical, and psychological, and spiritual well-being is now documented as contributing to birth trauma. How a woman cares for herself and her unborn, how she feels about the pregnancy, how much and what kind of support she has for bringing a new life into the world, and her previous traumas and experiences all create the imprints for her baby’s birth experience. All of these create the baby’s birth experience.

In The Vulnerable Prenate, Emerson states, “whenever there is significant prenatal stress (trauma), there is an increasing statistical likelihood that birth complications will occur. The greater the degree of stress or trauma during the prenatal period, the greater the likelihood of birth complications and obstetrical interventions.”

This tells us that women and medicine must 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 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.

For more information on birth trauma, read Elizabeth S. Anderson-Peacock's article titled "Birth Trauma."

Continue to "Connection Between Birth and Violence" >>

COACHING TO PUSH DURING LABOR

Calls to push 'do not cut labour'

Urging a woman in labour to push makes little difference to how quickly she gives birth, and could cause health problems, research suggests. University of Texas doctors found "coaching" was linked to a tiny reduction in the length of labour.

And when women were followed up, those who were coached were found to have an increased risk of bladder problems. However the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology study only checked the women after three months. We are moving away from active pushing in order to allow women to do their own thing, Dr Maggie Blott, obstetrician The researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied 320 women who were giving birth for the first time, had uncomplicated pregnancies and did not need epidural anaesthesia when they gave birth. They focused on the length of the second stage of labour - when the cervix is fully dilated and the baby begins to descend. Half the women were randomly assigned to be coached to push for 10 seconds during a contraction, while the rest were told to "do what comes naturally." For those in the coaching group, the second stage of labour was shortened to an average of 46 minutes, compared with 59 minutes in the uncoached group. 'No alarm necessary' Of the 320 women in the study, 128 returned for testing three months later. Those who had been coached had smaller bladder capacity and a decreased "first urge to void" - the volume at which a woman wanted to pass urine. However, the researchers stress that bladder function can return to normal over time, so this may not have been a permanent effect. This report follows an earlier one that found a rise in pelvic-floor problems among coached women. Dr Steven Bloom, an obstetrician and gynaecologist who led the research, said: "Often, it's best for the patient to do what's more comfortable for her." Professor Kenneth Leveno, who also worked on the study, added: "Whether or not these functional changes have long-term consequences, I'm not ready to say. "We don't want to alarm patients about this." Dr Maggie Blott, an obstetrician at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, told the BBC News website: "People thought they were doing the right thing by encouraging women to actively push during labour. "But we are moving away from active pushing in order to allow women to do their own thing. "We try to have a passive second stage of labour and allow the baby's head to come down by itself before encouraging women to push. "Pushing too much too soon causes the mother to get tired, increasing the risk she will need assistance during delivery, such as forceps. "It can also cause the baby to get tired, which itself increases the risk of problems at birth." She said it was possible that pushing too soon could increase the risk of bladder problems, but added other aspects of pregnancy and labour could also affect risk. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4566682.stmPublished: 2005/12/30 05:25:31 GMT

A Baby's Birth - is a continuum of critical periods of biological development that begins before conception and completes at the mother's breast, in the arms of the father. -- Janel Miranda

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