Before this blog goes much further, I think it's important that I make the point of this blog clear. First and foremost, it is a journal to and for myself chronicling the path to and through my next pregnancy and birth. But it is also a place I want women to be able to come and hear that they can. Too often in our society, women are told they can't....you are too big, too small, your hips aren't wide enough, the pain is too much, your body isn't strong enough. You can go anywhere and hear that. This is just my little corner of the internet in which I will tell you that you can.
And, for the record, I am not anti-obstetrician or anti-hospital. Obstetricians have a role in pregnancy and birth just as midwives do. For myself, that role would only come into play if my pregnancy or delivery became high risk. Then, certainly, my midwife could and would not attend me. For other women, an obstetrician is the way to go for their entire pregnancy and delivery, high risk or not. And that's alright too. I've said it before and I will say it again--I do not care how a woman chooses to give birth. That is her business. The only thing I care about is that she have access to the resources that will make true informed consent possible. Unless we know all of our options, we cannot make a decision that is 100% informed.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging :)
I'm glad you're doing this blog, Melek. I am not a person who likes to discuss my private life on the internet (or really anywhere else) so I have that much more admiration for you for sharing this with everyone. It is SO IMPORTANT for women to understand this information. So important that I can't even put it in words. You said it best in a previous post, that a woman will never be ambivalent about her birthing experience(s). It makes me so sad and furious to see and hear about woman after woman just doing whatever the doctors tell them to do and letting all the power be taken from them. It doesn't have to be this way.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, J! I tend to be pretty open myself, so I figure why the hell not just do something with that that may make a difference in someone else's life?
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