Wednesday, August 10, 2016

216. Natural Birth

Sounds patronizing but when I have a laboring patient who I think is trying too hard to have a "natural birth" I make the observation that a woman wanting a really natural birth would forego the hospital and even the comforts of a king size Sealy mattress and find some wilder place for the delivery (and then eat the placenta afterwards--though I usually don't add that). The point I'm trying to make, probably not very successfully with the image I have chosen, is that "natural" is an imprecise concept, not helpful for labor decisions

Pain can cause muscles to contract (tighten), which in turn increases blood pressure, which decreases blood flow to the uterus (when muscles encircling blood vessels contract, the vessels are smaller, meaning less blood flow to the uterus and other organs).  There may be evolutionary explanations for this sequence, but none are helpful in modern childbirth.

That was my approach with Nelli, having her first baby at age 24.  To which her mother-in-law promptly proclaimed that she had delivered three babies all natural.  Thanks, mom.

After about 10 hours of labor (4 hours of hard labor), she requested an epidural and went on to deliver vaginally about 6 hours after that.

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