I’m about 100 pages into a fascinating book called Pushed
It has turned me from a casual “yeah, it would be nice to avoid an epidural, induction, and Cesarian if possible” to a more emphatic “we should probably try to have the baby outside of the hospital system”.
It doesn’t seem like anyone is really at fault. Everyone is trying to make the business of having babies as safe and efficient as possible, but there are just some pretty glaring conflicts of interest when a doctor needs to pay $900,000/year in malpractice and therefore has to race through births as fast as possible, sacrificing care and patience for fast, risk-adverse, insurance-friendly planned Cesarians.
And then there’s the self-reinforcing loop of wanting to control everything. Inducing a pregnancy that isn’t even to term yet, rather than sending someone back home, for example. The fact that inducing a pregnancy seems to lead to a more painful birth, therefore increasing the need for an epidural. The fact that a failed induction often encourages a Cesarian. All of it could be avoided by simply not going to the hospital until you really need to be there. Or, not going to a hospital at all and having the baby in a birthing center or at home under the care of a licensed midwife.
I’m really coming at this as a complete newbie, so please correct me if I’m incorrect in any of my statements. Esther and I talked about it a bit this morning and think that using the hospital for ultrasounds and all those checkups seems good, and then having the actual baby at a birthing center or under the guidance of a good midwife.
We just need to figure out how much each of these options cost, which things are covered by our minimal maternity insurance, and also talk to our yet-to-be-chosen doctor about some of these things to see where our local hospital is on the spectrum of overly aggressive birthing.
