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

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Artwork www.waterspider.net

Assisting and supporting parents to create healthy attachment and bonding with their baby -- for a lifetime  

 

Healing Birth

 

 

Physicians and psychologists, ministers, teachers, lawyers, and even researchers who study these professions aren't trained about brain development from conception through birth. This is particularly amiss in obstetric and pediatrics. Society and trends follow what these experts promote as scientific and moral. Sadly, there is lack of regard for the science and logic that the human being (brain) is developing during the prenatal period.

 

Physicians -- not even obstetricians - are not trained to be knowledgeable about the deep impact of a woman’s thoughts, feelings, and stresses during prenatal life that will contribute to the birth experience (for which they will be held legally responsible). Physicians do not have time, educational, or physical resources to address these emotional and psychological needs. A physician spends an average of six minutes with a pregnant woman focused on medical needs, so that the doctor/patient relationship is not emotionally safe, nor is the medical office a safe environment to share and process her life experiences.

 

It is estimated that as many as sixty percent of pregnant women experience physical abuse during their pregnancy. A woman is highly unlikely to share this with her medical caregiver, yet it will be a part of the birth process.  Neither obstetricians or midwifes (who might spend more time with a patient) are trained to do in depth prenatal psychological counseling; yet, they are held responsible for the traumatic outcomes of birth.

 


We can heal birth by:

·         altering our societal and personal notions about when we perceive the “formative years” of childhood to be and when memory begins; and, by embracing new scientific discovery that shows us that babies are aware and fully conscious from conception.

 

·         supporting women and men to resolve their own birth trauma, to consciously conceive and birth babies and only bring babies into lives, relationships, and homes where they will be loved and cared for physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

 

·         supporting and caring for pregnant and parenting mothers in our society.

 

·         including Pre- and Perinatal (birth) Psychology, birth trauma, and the body-mind connection in obstetrical and pediatric medical training.

 

·         understanding and embracing the “blending of ancient knowledge and inner wisdom with medical science and technology” (Suzanne Arms).

 

·         reforming the liability and malpractice regarding obstetrics.

 

·         incorporating prenatal and birth trauma therapy into standardized care of pregnant women and newborns.


 

Healing Birth

 

·         We can heal birth by altering our societal and personal notions about when we perceive the “formative years” of childhood to be and when memory begins; and, by embracing new scientific discovery that shows us that babies are aware and fully conscious from conception.

 

It is now known that humans are fully conscious from conception and that memory begins at that time. Babies are fully conscious and intelligent beings and they are capable of experiencing and expressing the entire range of human emotion. Through somatic therapies such as CranioSacral, adults and children recall details of their birth experience. They repeat prenatal conversations of parents and at birth, as well as those of birth attendants, and importantly, they can report on their own emotional states, awareness, and needs from conception.

 

Scientific research in cellular biology, body-mind connection, neurology, and brain development in the last decade confirms that the experiences, emotions, and memories of prenatal life create and shape future experience, personality, and behavior.  

 

Prenatal and Perinatal (birth) Psychology is included in only a few college psychology programs across the country and is not included in medical school curriculums or their residency training programs. Therefore, obstetricians, pediatricians, family practice physicians as well as most nursing, mental health, child development and child care, teaching, attorney, juvenile and criminal justice professionals are not aware of the impact of prenatal and birth experiences. They are not aware of this in the day-to-day lives of their clients, in their families, and mostly, they are not aware of their own prenatal and birth imprints (as they engage with others in them daily). They are not taught or aware that a woman’s own traumatic prenatal and birth experiences, the relationships and conditions of her life, and her experience as a pregnant woman are the biggest predictors of complications at birth.

 

Believing that early childhood are the formative years and then developing and funding therapeutic programs, creating laws and policies without using the prenatal perspective and without healing the earliest imprints is akin to putting salt and band-aids on gaping wounds. 

 

 

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·         We can heal birth by supporting women and men to resolve their own birth trauma, to consciously conceive and birth babies and only bring babies into lives, relationships, and homes where they will be loved and cared for physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

 

In the Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Prenatal and Birth Therapy fields there is a call for humans to become aware of human consciousness from conception and to choose to only consciously conceive children. See the website for the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children at www.atlc.org.

 

Conception is the first cellular, physical, human experience, the moment in which the soul enters the two biological, ancestral lines (the egg and sperm) and becomes a single cell of who we become. In The Vulnerable Prenate, Dr. William Emerson shares an excerpt from Laing’s, The Facts of Life. He says, “The environment is registered from the very beginning of life; by the first one (cell) of me. What happens to the first one or two of me may reverberate throughout all subsequent generations of our first cellular parents. That first one of us carries all my ‘genetic’ memories.” (p. 30). He goes on to say, “It seems to me credible, at least, that all our experience in our life cycle, from cell one, is absorbed and stored from the beginning, perhaps especially in the beginning. How that may happen I do not know. How can one cell generate the billions of cells I now am? We are impossible, but for the fact that we are. When I look at the embryological stages in my life cycle, I experience what feel to me like sympathetic vibrations in me now…how I now feel I felt then.” (p. 36).

 

Emerson has documented that problems with aggression and violence are frequently seen as a result of the experience of conception. The first human experience at conception creates the first cell of the human that becomes the human being’s first perception of the world. Was conception a loving, consenting experience between two adults who were welcoming a child (another soul) into their lives or was conception experienced during a violent rape? The emotions that correspond to the two extremes are love and fear. These are the two extremes of potential conceptions with a multitude of possibilities in between. 

 

The experience becomes the filter or lens through which the rest of prenatal life, birth, and physical life is viewed and processed. There are thousands of possible physical, psychological, and emotional experiences between the parents at conception, such as drug use, teenage partners, spousal abuse, non-consenting marital or relationship intercourse, extra-marital affairs, poor timing for a multitude of variety of reasons, medical and health issues, make-up sex after a fight, a woman or man trying to entrap the other with pregnancy, etc. 

 

It’s easy to see how the hormones of the woman during different situations might contribute to the physical, hormonal environment of the woman’s body (such as oxytocin, the love hormone or catecholamine, the fear hormone). It’s easy to see how her hormones contribute biologically to the first imprint of a being. Dr. Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., a cellular biologist, has done extensive research on this topic and his information is available at www.brucelipton.com.

 

I recently heard a story of a baby’s conception and prenatal life that makes it very easy to consider the impact of conception and prenatal experiences and the potential imprints they create. It shows how a child might experience his parent’s relationship issues prenatally that will contribute to the birth process of coming into the physical lives of these parents and their personal issues.

 

The husband of a newly married woman had made it clear that he did not want children; and yet, she went off the birth control pill unbeknownst to him in order to conceive anyway. Unbeknownst to her, he had a vasectomy and, thinking she was on the pill, he did not use additional protection for several months. She announced her pregnancy. He denied paternity of the baby and she insisted he was the father; the entire pregnancy was wrought with emotional chaos and divorce was a probability. How might this little one’s life unfold through the prenatal trauma imprints, through his or her first cellular moments and the beliefs, feelings, and needs of the parents?  How might the deception and lack of trust between parents, and the resulting months of gestating in anger, hurt, and stress the mother experienced bring to bear at the time of birth?

 

The physician caring for a pregnant woman rarely knows this kind of information about conception and about the woman’s emotional life and her stresses or whether she has support for her pregnancy. When a woman might want to or tries to share her concerns, the physician often doesn’t have the time and the training to address it.  Too often a woman’s concerns and needs are minimized or she might be prescribed a drug. 

 

Physicians aren’t knowledgeable about the deep impact of a woman’s thoughts, feelings, and stresses during prenatal life that will contribute to the birth experience. Physicians do not have the time, educational, or physical resources to address these emotional and psychological needs. A physician spends an average of six minutes with a pregnant woman focused on medical needs, so that the doctor/patient relationship is not emotionally safe, nor is the medical office a safe environment to share and process her life experiences. It is estimated that as many as sixty percent of pregnant women experience physical abuse during their pregnancy. A woman is highly unlikely to share this with her medical caregiver, yet it will be a part of the birth process.  Neither obstetricians or midwifes (who might spend more time with a patient) are trained to do in depth prenatal psychological counseling; yet, they are held responsible for the traumatic outcomes of birth.

 

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·         We can heal birth by supporting and caring for pregnant and parenting mothers in our society.

 

That’s powerful; because how each of us support and care for pregnant women from conception through birth can heal our society, our families, our individual selves, and the world. When we are in the presence of a pregnant woman, what we say, and what we do becomes part of the baby’s prenatal experience determined by the mother’s interactions with us.

 

A baby only knows her or himself through the mother’s experiences, emotions, thoughts, and relationships with others, including how his mother feels about him and his very existence.  It is through the experience of the mother is that a baby comes to know and to “believe” about her or himself. The mother is the outer womb and the baby is the inner womb (Castellino’s work). People in a woman’s life become part of the outer womb; and significantly, this includes the medical attendants at the time of birth.

 

On a prenatal level, consider the differences of a pregnant mother who works as a librarian with those of a mother who works in a drug treatment facility or as a waitress, or a pregnant mother whose military job is building bombs or whose spouse is deployed to active duty during these times. Consider the difference between a woman whose partner also wants to become a parent with the experience of a woman whose husband is physically abusing her for not aborting her child or because he must change his life plans. Compare those with a woman whose partner supports their pregnancy and is in a loving, supportive relationship.

 

Every mother needs a support team that is taking care of her and her baby, so that she does not have to take care of them or to feel exposed, violated, and vulnerable. It is every woman’s right to choose who is present in birthing her child.

 

At the birth, consider the impact of the actions and words spoken by others present at birth as these create birth imprints. Are they loving and supportive or are they cold, objective, medical, and controlled? Does the mother feel supported or intruded upon? Does she feel her body and her needs are valued or being abused? Does she feel safe? Does the woman feel like she has to “take care of” the needs and feelings of those in attendance who might be upset or scared? This happens in hospital or home births. Or is SHE being supported and cared for? (i.e. is she able to ask her mother, doula, or nursing staff for space or time alone, to move her body to new position, or to refuse interventions?). Is the perspective and experience of the baby being considered as contributing to whatever is happening? Is the birth viewed by others as being the baby’s birth, not as a medical event or only the mother’s experience?

 

Whatever the woman feels is also being transferred to the baby just as the baby is making his or her way into this world. Does the woman feel in control of her baby’s birth, her body? Are medical interventions imposing upon the little one? Is the baby receiving her first dose of drugs (an imprint for future use) along with mother? Are the medical staff rushing or stalling the birth for their needs? This is standard care in medical birth and is creating a society with serious imprints about control, authority, and their own momentum in life. Is the baby unable to move through the pelvis because of articulation with the mother’s bony structure (particularly when membranes are ruptured) so that the intense contractions (which are fierce when because of Pitocin induction) only forces her head more intensely into the obstacle (pelvis, unyielding cervix)?  Will this child perhaps look for outside forces or drugs throughout life in order to accomplish her activities? Will she be able to trust herself or to trust others to support her and want she needs?

 

This has profound implications for obstetrics and midwifery. All of these people who are present at birth (medical professionals, family, friends) form the first experience of the baby’s outer womb. The actions and words of these people are imprinted upon the nervous system of the little one making her or his way in the world. Are these people receiving the new one supportive, happy, scared, disagreeing, controlling? Is the mother being “talked into” interventions she has stated she does not want — no drugs, vaginal checks, etc? Is she being confined to a bed when her body tells her to walk, move positions, squat? Is the environment noisy, cold, sterile, and is she treated objectively? Is she scared, disappointed? Is the physician she chose and trusted unavailable and so her physician is a “stranger,” or is there a parade of medical students and residents? Is her chosen attendant available but managing many other time commitments, professional or personal, like trying to get a bite to eat or trying to get away for her child’s music recital? Are the mother’s support persons also fearful, disappointed, controlling, etc. and so unable to really support her or to protect her wishes and needs? 

 

Every mother needs a support team that is taking care of her and her baby, so that she does not have to take care of them or feel exposed, violated, and vulnerable. When I was in late stage of labor with my third child a nursing professor from the local college came in and disrupted me from a very focused state to ask me if her nursing student “who had never seen a birth” could be in the delivery room.  I was in such a focused, special place that I didn’t want to talk to her or anyone. She asked me several times. I finally managed to grunt an annoyed, “no.”  After my son was born she came back to ask me why I wouldn’t allow the student in. I was surprised to have to explain to the nursing professor that it was not personal, that I was unable to even focus on her question and her need BECAUSE I WAS BUSY!! Even in that very moment when I was engaged with my newborn, she didn’t understand the impact of her disruption of my process with my baby…again.  I only got this myself, much later. I now realize I was stunned by her demeanor and indignation towards me in her questioning me about why I snapped at her when she asked and why didn’t I want the student there. What she really wanted to know was why I had not met hers and her student’s needs during my son’s birth.  I felt grateful that at least she asked or the hospital required her to ask my permission — it is every woman’s right to choose who is present in birthing her child.

 

I also realized much later that I felt unprotected and unsupported; enough so that when ten other people (all medical staff) besides my husband and me were present in the room at my fourth child’s birth, I didn’t know I could ask for privacy. I didn’t know I could ask people to leave, such as the two OB residents and two medical students doing a pediatric residency who were just hanging out, chatting, waiting by to whisk my baby away.  I recall the attending OB saying it was time to push. I was so surprised. I had epidural anesthesia and I had no physical feelings of my baby’s crowning position. I looked around the room and I suddenly felt very exposed and vulnerable. With everyone looking at me, I felt expected to perform right then. My body was no longer mine in the process. They were impressed that it took only three huge pushes — every thing I had in me — to birth her quickly, to get out of the focus of everyone, rather than how, when, and what my little one needed. This child has had chronic ear and speech issues. She has had two surgeries and intermittent hearing loss that I now know is related to her birth trauma. These are two examples of seemingly benign experiences that created physical and emotional imprints for my son and daughter as they came into this world.

 

Unfortunately, these scenarios above represent “NORMAL BIRTH” in our society today. What society continues to accept as “normal birth” creates lifelong emotional and psychological trauma. A newborn baby cries, grimaces, flounders, shivers, and flings her arms as if in panic, terror, helplessness, and pain. This is the baby’s expression of his or her experiencing of trauma, shock, of the immediate separation from her mother for rough interventions (the hospital’s need and timing, not the baby’s), rather than having uninterrupted, loving, quiet, physical contact with her mother and father.  This allows the natural occurring experience of hormones that promote attachment. Body language that we can easily see and respond to in children and adults is virtually unacknowledged in newborns at birth and in infants trying to connect with their parents.

 

In his book, Birth Without Violence, (an almost poetic book that describes how beautiful and sacred birth is and can be expressed), Dr. Fredrick LeBoyer says that everything we do to newborns at birth says “welcome, to the mean, cruel world.”  It is crucial for mothers and medical staff to understand that babies are communicating their experience of fear and anxiety and for those in attendance to not respond from their own unresolved trauma imprints of fear and anxiety. Unacknowledged and untreated, these experiences become lifelong imprints that create personality and social issues seen in our society today. The good news is that these can be mediated even within the medical environment when medical personnel are trained in and understand Pre- and Perinatal Psychology.

 

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·         We can heal birth by including Pre- and Perinatal (birth) Psychology, birth trauma, and the body-mind connection in obstetrical and pediatric medical training.

 

Recall that babies are fully conscious and remember birth. Medical interventions and routine procedures are experienced by the baby (from the perspective of the baby) as violating, invasive, frightening, painful, or violent (even when interventions are life saving and pain reducing for the mother). The combination of prenatal and birth traumas is now known to have a lifelong impact on attachment and relationship issues, personality, learning disabilities, drug use, and violent behavior. 

 

Pre- and Perinatal Psychology is not included in Midwifery or Obstetric or Pediatric medical school curriculums or in their residency training programs; nor is there intention or opportunity for students to explore and heal their own prenatal and birth traumas. Therefore, midwives and physicians are not trained in the impact of prenatal imprints in the birthing process, or on the emotional and psychological impact of the birth process and medical interventions on the baby.  Dr. Le Boyer suggests that every person who is in attendance at a birth holds their breath (in response to unconsciously remembering their own birth) and so their own birth trauma is inflicted onto the newborn. 

 

Physicians and nurses are not trained in the impact of interventions on women and baby’s emotional, psychological, and spiritual health, and certainly not in the consciousness of babies from conception and that babies remember birth. Perry Klass, M.D., quoted in Medicine and Culture, by Lynn Payer, 1988, said, “My class in medical school was absorbing the idea that when it comes to tests, technology and intervention, more is better. No one ever talked about the negative aspects of intervention, and the one time a student asked about the “appropriateness” of fetal monitoring, the question was cut off with a remark that there was no time to discuss issues of appropriateness.”

 

Sadly, nurses, midwives, and doctors are unaware of the profound role they could play in healing the emotional, physical, and psychological suffering in the world. By being aware that a prenate and newborn baby remember everything that is said and done to them and that these memories become a lifelong way of being, medical professionals can make a major contribution to healthy attachment.

 

There are two simple, powerful changes that hospitals and medical professionals can make in their hospital policies that would promote and facilitate immediate improvement in attachment and bonding of newborns and parents. The first is training medical staff that babies are fully conscious at birth and how to be present with babies in labor and birthing and the second is altering the timing of post-birth non-lifesaving interventions so that mothers and babies have the first hour alone without interruptions.

 

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·         We can heal birth by understanding and embracing the “blending of ancient knowledge and inner wisdom with medical science and technology” (Suzanne Arms).

 

Our society can prevent birth trauma when we believe again that women’s bodies are made for birthing babies naturally and that technology is for life saving measures, not the management of birth and of women’s bodies. The miracles of technology save lives everyday, but technology needs to be used with care and consciousness, not used to manage birth as a medical crisis or for other’s convenience. When women and their medical professionals are supported to each trust their inner wisdom, they can become partners in birth so that women are valued and supported to feel safe and are empowered in birthing their babies.

 

Without mutual respect, current obstetric practices often co-create with women a retraumatization of the prenatal period in the birthing experience. Unresolved prenatal traumas (that are obviously out of the control of the obstetrician) predispose babies to the use of interventions and birth trauma. So, while medical care givers use technology to save lives and to make birth less traumatic and to ease pain (without regard for the baby’s perspective) the facts are that the consequence is that baby and mother (as well as the medical staff doing the procedure) are all retraumatized. This happens when the interventions are done: 1) without regard for the baby’s emotions; 2) when they are used routinely, hurriedly, objectively, without discussion with the woman and the prenate; 3) without consciousness about birth as being sacred; 4) without regard for the emotional and psychological impact of the intervention; and 5) without referral to follow-up healing treatment when life-saving interventions are necessary. See the work of Dr. William Emerson for extensive thirty-year observation of the psychological impact of obstetric intervention.

 

Women and baby’s bodies and their souls are being hurt by the violence and the lack of regard for them and by the disruption of their body’s biological programming for natural, powerful birth. Obstetricians are taught in their training that using medical interventions minimize pain and suffering but pain and trauma-free birth is rarely the outcome. Often it is the intervention meant to help that causes pain and trauma. Birth accentuates what is already present. Women who are already feeling powerless, who are abused, who are in emotional pain, who are “suffering” or “in pain” are likely to re-experience birth as traumatic and violent. It is often later that the emotional impact comes into their awareness. The lack of consciousness and compassion in relationship with women and the disruption of the natural birthing and attachment process with their babies deepen their emotional pain. 

 

As a result, many women feel they are betrayed and abused again in their births. This is a difficult mix of her own prenatal traumas over the period of her life AND the experience of being a woman whose body and birth are being managed by others. The resolution of this involves women doing their own healing work and healing work with their babies, and letting medical caregivers know their needs. It involves medical caregivers honoring their own inner wisdom, healing their prenatal traumas, and taking time to listen to and engage with women in partnership in the health care of women and babies.  

 

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·         We can heal birth by reforming the liability and malpractice regarding obstetrics.

 

Reform in medicine is needed, and in particular, it is needed in obstetrics. Malpractice and litigation is well documented to contribute to the over use and misuse of medical technology and interventions. It is suggested that this contributes to the high incidence of developmental issues in our children and high mortality rates. Currently, the US is ranked among the third world countries even though the US has the best and most accessible medical care and technology. 

 

In support of physicians and the appropriate use of life-saving medical technology, it is absolutely crucial to look at birth from the prenatal perspective and to question our present societal perspective that physicians are responsible for birth outcomes. According to William Emerson in The Vulnerable Prenate, “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.” (His collected written and video work is available at www.emersonbirthrx.com).

 

This is significant to the future of obstetrics and to the well-being of women and babies. Prenatal emotional and psychological experiences that contribute to difficulties in birth are not within the control or understanding of the obstetrician and other medical staff; and yet, the physician and hospital are held responsible for “bad outcomes.”  It results in hospitals and physicians exerting more control and using more technology and interventions, making women more passive and dependent, feeling violated and powerless, and believing the perception that their bodies are not efficient for healthy, natural birthing.

 

This cycle of lunacy is reflected back to us in our highly litigious, responsibility-avoiding society, and in the high malpractice rates that all physicians pay (consumers end up paying).  But tragically, it is creating a battleground of birth and babies are the casualties. More women are choosing home birth as an alternative to giving over their bodies and responsibility to the medical professionals. As a result, midwifery has become popular again and is misunderstood and undermined by obstetrics and hospitals.

 

Obstetric physicians complain that they must “practice law” and are hindered by policies and laws established by hospital administrators, insurance companies, attorneys, and politicians. A physician may be sued for malpractice anytime until the child reaches the age of twenty-one; yet, the physician has no control over the prenatal period and how a woman lives her life and cares for herself and her child. Their personal property, such as family homes is at risk. Malpractice insurance is now forcing many physicians to stop practicing. Malpractice insurance in Chicago, IL, has risen this year to as high as $200,000 per year, and many physicians are leaving the state to practice elsewhere or leaving obstetrics.

 

Physicians must practice according to policies and laws established by hospital administrators, insurance companies and HMO’s supported by politicians, none of whom are typically medically trained. These policies promote and protect the hospital and physicians because of malpractice; they don’t necessarily support the best medical practices and care for mothers and babies. Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities: A Guide to the Medical Literature, by Henci Goer, is an excellent resource for looking at the medical literature on obstetric interventions from a non-peer review, non-malpractice prevention perspective.

 

Technological, medical birth is a big moneymaker for not only hospitals and doctors; it might just be more so for insurance companies, and for the attorneys who take a huge percentage of awards. A recent study about malpractice claims reported that juries tend to award larger amounts to those with greater injury even when it is shown that the injury was not due to malpractice or wrongdoing on the part of the physician. In other words, jurors are overly sympathetic to the plight of a child with disabilities or injuries. It is time to turn our focus to the plight of the unborn child and his or her prenatal experiences that contribute to the traumatic birth. 

 

Competent and qualified medical treatment is greatly needed and should be valued. Doctors are doing well what they know to do when complications occur. Physicians need support from women and they need changes in malpractice laws to be able to practice without fear of litigation. Consciously using interventions and knowing that interventions recapitulate prenatal traumas can assist physicians to provide medical treatment in a less-traumatic way, and to reduce “poor outcomes”. Whether birth takes place in hospitals, birth centers, or in their own homes, women and their babies deserve to have access to the best medical technology and treatment in the world, but to not be violated and controlled by it.

 

What is within our control is to begin to address in healthcare for women and babies together — women, physicians, addressing politicians, hospital policy-makers, and insurance companies — to participate in creating a new system that protects against poor, wrongful, negligent practices of a few physicians, but that values that most physicians do extraordinary work. Many physicians are also frustrated with rising medical costs and quality of care. Many of them often feel overworked, unappreciated, powerless, and are unhappily engaged in “litigation avoidance” as part of their practice rather than being supported to follow their own inner wisdom and to use common sense along with their extensive medical training. I implore women and men, medical providers, hospital administrators, insurance companies, and politicians to begin to work together to heal birth.

 

Henci Goer reports that in the state of California the eight malpractice insurance companies are physician-owned. In a discussion of the high costs of malpractice contributing to high costs and physicians leaving, I questioned an obstetrician about this contradiction. He suggested this might be a result of the state of California placing a cap on awards so that malpractice was no longer lucrative for insurance companies. He also reports that the state of Texas provides state-based insurance for physicians and suggests malpractice insurance might be better for all parties if within the jurisdiction of the states. The state of Indiana has a model system that protects and supports babies harmed by malpractice, punishes physicians who do malpractice, and has minimized malpractice insurance. Malpractice insurance is just one of the major costs that drives up the cost of care and health insurance, that creates the over use of interventions, and contributes to the misperception of physicians as being greedy.

 

See Suzanne Arm’s website, www.birthingthefuture.com, for a complete discussion of birth practices in Holland where virtually no litigation for obstetric malpractice exists and where the mortality and health rates are the best in the world.

 

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·         We can heal birth by incorporating prenatal and birth trauma therapy into standardized care of pregnant women and newborns.

 

This would allow the medical profession to lay down its burden of the possibility (reality) that sometimes they will make mistakes. It would support parents and medical professionals to understand the impact of prenatal events on birth and to realize the traumatization that occurs when they use interventions and technology. When women can choose to birth in ways that are consistent with their innate biological processes, needs, and personal wishes and to take responsibility for their child’s prenatal life and for their birthing choices, physicians and women can work together.

 

Every obstetrician, pediatrician, and policy maker should be aware of the thirty-year research of Dr. William Emerson, and it is worth repeating here, from The Vulnerable Prenate, “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.”

 

Every obstetrician should begin to implement Dr. Emerson’s recommendations and the research supporting Pre- and Perinatal Psychology, and crucially, to participate in reforming our litigation and malpractice systems. This would allow the emergence of the prenatal and birth trauma therapy to become commonplace and a part of the standard care in obstetric and pediatric medicine. A therapist trained specifically in prenatal and birth therapy could be a part of the obstetric team and practice to assist women prenatally in preparation for birth.  A prenatal therapist could attend to a newborn immediately at birth. It is crucial to reform the malpractice and litigation laws to support a physician, midwife, or nurse to be able to refer a mother and baby to a therapist trained in prenatal and birth trauma resolution without the fear of it resulting in a litigious action.

 

 

 

 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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Janel Martin-Miranda, MA

Prenatal and Birth Therapist

CranioSacral Therapist

Mother and Baby Doula

Columbia, MO  

573-424-0997

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© 2003-2004-2005  Janel Lou Martin Miranda, MA. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.infantparenthealing.com Columbia, MO   573-424-0997 janel_miranda@yahoo.com

 

Content last updated: September 20, 2003

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