Jami Corrects Some Falsehoods, The Beginning of a Series

Hello dear readers! As you might know if you're on FaceBook, I have given up the games for Lent, meaning I have more computer-fooling-around time. You probably also know that I am a birth doula and I'm all about the healthy, happy births. So, combining my love of blogging with my love of birthing (especially when not the one actually pushing the baby out) I present to you a several part series... Totally Wrong Things I've Heard People Say About Birth In this series, I will take statements real-live people have said to me about the birthing process and explain why they are wrong and often ridiculous. You shouldn't read/take classes/look on the Internet because the more you see/hear the more scared you'll make yourself. I am doing this one first because it is just so very, completely and totally inaccurate. Now, you shouldn't dwell on reading all the bazillion things that can go wrong, especially the extremely rare ones, but knowing about what your body does during labor and delivery makes the process less scary. Let's look at it from a different perspective - you're going to go into a haunted house around Halloween (the fun kind, not a "real" haunted house) and I said to you, "As you go around the first corner, a man in a mask jumps out and yells. The second door on the right will fly open and a fake bat on wire will zip out. " and so on. You might still jump when you're startled or you might think the guy's mask is scary looking, but knowing what is coming makes it less scary, right? Same basic idea. Or, look at it this way - if I tell you that I'm about to smack you and you're ready for it, it's going to be a lot less traumatic than if I just walk up to you and swat you a good one, even if the force of the blow is the same. Everyone is groggy after they give birth and you'll be more groggy if you don't have any pain medication. Wow. So not true and said by an otherwise intelligent and very good nurse. Some women might feel in a bit of a fog after giving birth, but certainly not everyone, and women who do it without pain meds are whatever the opposite of groggy is. If you've never seen a woman give birth without accepting pain medication, let me tell you -what they are is sort of giddy and sometimes hyper-alert. They might be tired, relieved, hungry, but never, never groggy, not in my experience. You should schedule an induction so you get the doctor you like best. Whooo boy. Several things wrong with this. First of all, being induced doesn't guarantee your time line for your birth. My own personal experience bears that out, I went through 4 shifts of health care providers, so even if I had gone in to have the one I liked best, she'd have been loooooong gone by the time my kid popped out. Second, inductions fail; then most likely you end up in a cesarean section, which means more complications, longer recovery and higher risk to you and your baby. Third, babies induced before they are fully cooked can have higher rates of various problems. Fourth, induction generally means Pitocin - and Pitocin contractions can be a bit more intense than the ones your body does on its own. Not always, but can be. Being induced is a necessity in some cases, but you might not get the outcome you want - is it worth the risk? Besides at most hospitals you will see your doctor a few minutes every few hours. Your doctor isn't going to be hanging out in your room with you, so if you get the one you don't like as much, you're not going to see him/her much, anyway. So that's part one, we'll address some more myths and mistaken statements in the next several days, and I'd love for anyone else to contribute who has heard these prevalent fallacies.