Why all the rag on technology in L&D??

[deann52]

Ok, I understand the whole natural birth and women have been doing it for centuries etc etc but why do midwifes (not all but quite a few) shove their noses in the air when someone wants a painfree child birth?? You don't get any brownie points for delivering natural and why go through that pain if you don't have too?? Or at least why do we epidural girls get the snob elitest treatment from mid wives? I have spoken to mid wives and L&D nurses and OB's and pregnant women and the most un open minded were the mid wives! The OB and the nurses supported either way but the mid wives, whoo, talk about people getting on a soapbox...

I have two boys, both delivered in a hospital both with drugs and epis. They were great! I was able to sleep for 10 hours of my 12 hour labor, I dilated faster, I was able to actaully enjoy the delivery because I was not in agony, I was up and walking 3 hours after delivery and I went home the next morning...to all those women who say that the breathing and the water and the ball makes the pain bearable you are champs:pumpiron: because with my first I tried all that and I was in tears on the floor by 5 centimeters.

I am not promoting taking away the naturalness of delivery, I believe in going into labor naturally (withing reason) and I do think that VBAC's are more than doable. I think a woman should feel free to have the choice either way and when I am in L&D and a woman wants to go natural I will be right there to support her just as much as the woman who tells me give me the drugs.

And don't get me started on the Le Leche clan. Breast feeding may be best but if a woman doesn't want to let her be! I breastfed both my boys for 2 months but it is just not for me...am I a bad mother? do I deserve to get the "ohhh, you feed you baby formula?' comment dripping with distain? Am I allowed to equally look and comment with distain "you are still feeding your 3 year old the boob?" Again I fully support breastfeeding I am not knocking it...but I am tired of all the looking down of noses because of someones crusade...

I am not trying to offend anyone, I am fully supportive of both ways to deliver a child. I just wish more midwives were. If they had been maybe they would be utilized more. I am just the other side of the coin that many midwives seem to dismiss as coping out of being a true natural woman...

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

I got this too. My MIL would say you are still BF?, but she is 13 months old, give her cows milk:lol2: and just got really mad when I said but she is a baby human not a baby cow! Even my own mom said more times than I could count, "boy am I glad I never did that (breast feeding)" it does work both ways............I certainly didn't tell my SIL I thought she was a bad mother for bottlefeeding.

If those are direct quotes, then they didn't say you were wrong for breastfeeding either; just that they were happy they never did it. And even if you didn't tell your SIL you thought she was a bad mother for bottlefeeding, do you think she is a bad mother for bottlefeeding? People read so much into what isn't really said and sometimes that becomes the real message.

I did not breastfeed either of my children, had no desire whatsoever to do so. I am very close to each of them (they were held for each and every bottle and never learned that they could hold it themselves); They are bright, intelligent, productive adults who are successfull and I challenge anyone to pick them out of a crowd, do the "tsk, tsk,, they weren't breast fed".

It's a choice, people. Maybe not your choice or my choice, but it's someone's choice, and we should honor it as their choice and support them as much as we can.

[crissrn27, RN]

If those are direct quotes, then they didn't say you were wrong for breastfeeding either; just that they were happy they never did it. And even if you didn't tell your SIL you thought she was a bad mother for bottlefeeding, do you think she is a bad mother for bottlefeeding? People read so much into what isn't really said and sometimes that becomes the real message.

I did not breastfeed either of my children, had no desire whatsoever to do so. I am very close to each of them (they were held for each and every bottle and never learned that they could hold it themselves); They are bright, intelligent, productive adults who are successfull and I challenge anyone to pick them out of a crowd, do the "tsk, tsk,, they weren't breast fed".

It's a choice, people. Maybe not your choice or my choice, but it's someone's choice, and we should honor it as their choice and support them as much as we can.

The exact words aren't the issue, the intent of the message is. And the message in this case was....you shouldn't be breastfeeding and I think you are probably hurting your child. And of course I don't think my SIL is a bad mother, she is great! And I have never said anything, not even veiled comments,(like they did with me), to imply otherwise.

[Oznurse2b]

Oh you should come over to Australia!!

We are starting to adopt more of a "birth centre" way! In a birth centre there is no "medical" intervention...if you want an epi or other drugs (not including gas) you are then transferred over to the birth suite on the ward. All Australian public births are initially manged by a midwife, only seeing an obs if there are problems...

Mind you though, there is a waiting list quite long to some midwife managed programs, so they are quite popular with few and far between.