The Author lists the tubes and wires the "normal" woman is connected to in a hospital birth in America:
- IV (in one arm. This may contain glucose, Pitocin and maybe several other meds.)
- Blood Pressure Cuff (on the other arm.)
- Oxygen Moniter (on the finger)
- Electric Fetal Moniter (around her belly.)
- Epidural Caatheter (in her back.)
- Foley Catheter (in her bladder.)
- Intrauterine Pressure Catheter (inside the uterus.)
- circulation stockings (one per leg. These inflate every few minutes to keep the blood circulating.)
How could anyone call this "natural" even if the baby manages to come out of the vagina?
The vast maority of interventions used during birth today began to be used long before anyone tested their benifits or side affects. Example; episiotomies were origionally used only in extreme emergancies. Than a doctor decided all babies should be born by forceps (yes, he appears to have just arbitrarily decided this with no scientific studies behind him at all), which requiered episiotomies, so the rate went up to 90%. Even after forceps use was reduced, epi's continued to be used on the vast majority of women. It was only after studies done in the 1990s (!) showed that epi's were the major cause of infection which was the major cause of DEATH in moms and that they in no way helped in the vast majority of cases, did the epi rate begin to decline. Today it stands at just under 40 % except among midwives who only need it less than 10% of the time.
Did you know that a woman's chance of death with a c-section is four times higher than with a vaginal birth? (pg XXV) Yet a ful one third of American women have their babies through the belly each year (and that number is growing). And we wonder why we have one of the highest maternal death rates in the developed world.
Babies don't do good with c-section either. They are significantly more likely to end up in intensive care even with controling for emergancies. In fact, non-emergancy c-section babies are MORE likely to end up in NICU than emergancy ones. Babies need labor. They are also less likely to be breastfed which has life-long consequences.
And all those tubes and such began the minute you walk into a hospital each one leads to an increased risk of c-section. Definite domino affect.
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