This past weekend, I went to my first planned hospital birth in a long time. It was my first hospital birth since having Olivia, in fact. I was blown away by how different it is compared to birth at home.
I think lots of people assume that women receive "better" care when they give birth in the hospital, but aside from those experiencing true life-threatening emergencies, it just isn't so!
I can't speak for all homebirth midwives, of course, but T and I (and the midwives I trained with) do things very differently. For one thing, we monitor the vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, temperature, etc) of the mother way more often than happens in the hospital. We also monitor the baby in a much more unobtrusive and practical way than just strapping uncomfortable monitors across the woman's belly. We are way more aware of what women are eating and drinking and how often they pee or vomit and what their mucus and fluid look like. In my experience, hospital nurses treat the computer chart as priority and the woman comes second. Hours can go by without a nurse even making eye contact with the laboring woman and comforting physical touch is pretty non-existent. To be fair, maybe the nurses assume I provide all the personal touches a woman needs, so they're particularly hands off at births I attend. I somehow kind of doubt it, though.
At yesterday's birth, the family really disliked the first nurse. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have complete strangers attend my birth. They didn't even know who their doctor would be until the last minute.
When it came time for the actual birth, at least four nurses were in the room because the hospital has a stupid new computer program and the nurses all have to teach each other how to use it. As the baby was being born, the gaggle of nurses behind me kept clucking away at the computer monitor. I so wanted to turn around and tell them to shut the eff up. There is no such thing as a sacred space in a hospital birth. It's sickening how the families are treated with so little respect. And the crazy thing is that most of the time, they don't even know! It isn't until women have a homebirth after a hospital birth that they're like, "ohhh." I hear it all the time.
The family I was working with specifically asked that the baby's cord not be cut until it finished pulsing (2-3 minutes after birth). The doctor agreed and then went ahead and cut the cord while it was still super full of blood when she knew the family wasn't looking. She straight up lied to the mother's face! The doctor didn't even make an attempt to slow down the crown so the woman wouldn't tear. The baby came barreling out and the doctor roughly stitched up a totally unnecessary tear. That is definitely a major difference between home and hospital birth.
After the birth, the nurse took the baby to the warmer to check out the baby while the mother lay naked on the bed. First, there isn't anything on a healthy baby that can't be examined from it's spot on the mother's chest and separating them is completely unnecessary. Second, where's the dignity and respect? This is all standard practice in a hospital, so it wasn't anything unusual.
No matter how triumphant a woman is after an intense labor and birth, attending hospital births always makes me a little sad. It's like a little bit of my spirit is hurt each time. I go and will keep going, because I think all women deserve respect and support during birth. My heart is with homebirth and always will be.
I wish more women knew how great birth could be.
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