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Midwifery-Keys of Natural Childbirth

Joe Picker

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I have employed two midwives. The first was non licensed. In our state a licensed practitioner is known as a Registered Nurse Midwife (RNM.) After the first child, that wife was proficient, and she could have a child without midwife.
My part in delivery was to "support," which the midwife taught me to do. I will discuss what it is to "support," later in this post.
My second wife I employed a RNM. She lead a midwifery certification organization for our state. The one thing she focused on that the non certified midwife was precautions to save woman and child's life.
Coupled with the fact it was the mother had two children prior, at hospitol, and I knew how to support, The midwife thoroughly educated the mother and I in the aspects of natural childbirth. The RNM was confident I could deliver the child, and wasn't present for the delivery. Unbeknownst to us of course. But, she was right on the ball to drive out 80 miles in a blizzard, to get the placenta. For what reason, I don't know. But I suspect she sold them or it was coveted part of her cuisine. She told me a guest of hers grabbed one out of her freezer. Fried it and ate it. She didn't tell him what it was, even though she had walked in on him cooking it. So likely she thought it would taste palatable. Come to think of it, I am confirmed she did eat.
But, the medical professions, I believe are not as innocent. They covet the placenta for stem cells. Nurses press on mother's abdomen, to get the placenta out immediately after the childbirth.
I am not a medical professional. Midwife, I am not. Doula yes.
My purpose of this post is to preserve mother and child during childbirth. And diminish the need of midwifery. Midwives should be teaching man and wives thoroughly in the aspects of doula during their consignment.
The essentials I believe you will find in this post.
The only necessary items for natural child birth are;
1: One pint olive oil, coconut oil, or hemp seed oil.
2: New cotton shoelace or dental floss.
The stages or "phases" of labor are as follows;
The first stage of labor is the longest and involves three phases: Early Labor Phase –The time of the onset of labor until the cervix is dilated to 3 cm. Active Labor Phase – Continues from 3 cm. until the cervix is dilated to 7 cm. Transition Phase – Continues from 7 cm. until the cervix is fully dilated to 10 cm.

Support- During active labor, put container of oil to be used during Support in warm tap water. Could be a a extra large bowl, pot, but I used bathroom sink. The oil will be used during Transition Phase. Apply oil during Transition Phase to vagina, and gently with hand use flatten hand Luke making stop symbol, make U stroke. Be gentle and take your time. Be sure fingernails are filed down. Rubber gloves I didn't prefer because of friction.
Support important because not only does it prevent vaginal tearing. But also prevents cranium and facial trauma to baby.
Check dilation periodically.
Natural childbirth, doesn't require the placenta to be punctured. On the contrary, the placenta is extremely slipper, and a essential part of a smooth delivery. My first child the doctor punctured placenta during Delivery Phase. It stalled the labor he later admitted.
Doctors pressure to puncture placenta to get it done. Studies have shown that in some places 90% of childbirth, occur on weekdays.
Keep supporting till delivery.
During delivery, place hands together at thumbs, making U of V shape. The lower shape of the U or V at bottom of exterior of vagina, and bridge of hand and fingers adding pressure/Support along the sides.
Baby will come right out. Mine placenta broke just a few minutes before, or during exiting their mother.
When placenta breaks the exact moment of delivery, it is a very beautiful site. I could see my sons head, and the embryonic fluid swirl around.
It's important not to push at all, until baby is being delivered.
G-D created a great thing in components of childbirth. The placenta works as a buffer, between child and mother. It helps child to assume wiggle room during delivery, and keeps them in comfort. It is much less devastating going down a bumpy snowy hill on a sled, than on ones bare body. The whole ideology of doctors towards the placenta, is anti intelligent.
Directly after birth of child, wrap dental floss or one new white cotton shoelace around umbilical cord, Three inches below exiting of vagina. If doctor, or midwife tries to initiate delivery of placenta through pushing on mother's abdomen, it is the person performing responsibity of doula, to prevent that. The doula should be insistant that placenta detatches on it's own. It usually takes 15-30 minutes. You will see string wrapped around umbilical cord drop to six inches, from where it was tied at 3 inches from vagina. So it will drop 3 inches.
The cord blood can be stripped into baby as soon as string is tied also, prior to tying off or clamping umbilical cord near infant. Umbilical cord clamps for baby can be purchased online.
After umbilical cord drops from 3 to six inches from mother, placenta is ready to come out. Best thing we found for it was to go into shower. It drops on it's own to floor.
It is important placenta doesn't detach prematurely. Which can cause hemorrhaging and loss of life of the mother.
Be safe.
Performing these responsibilities of doula should be done by husband or sister wives. Midwives and health professionals do not love your family as much as you, and may be inadequately trained or operate in practice.
 
May I clarify, container of oil is put into warm water, with cap on, and contents intact. Do Not pour oil in water.
 
You must be really smart to know all this stuff. Do you have a BS degree?
 
No BS. I am dyslexic, and been on a fellowship for a year doing internet research. I can't see wasting time with entertainment online, but rather go for information. It might not always be here. People take internet for granted. We are in a golden age of learning.
Just passing on the truth that I know.
 
Alas, wife is too old to have more children, and no other wives on the horizon...
 
I would encourage people to have more items on hand. From practical experience we used the big containment pads made for pets for floor covering and to put on bed for up to 8 hrs. after birth.
We use cotton yarn to tie off umbilical cord. Do not tie off cord until cord has stopped pulsing. You are denying the baby valuable support if you tie off immediately. Base the tie off on no pulse left in cord. Sterilize the cord before hand. Tie off at 3 inches And 6 inches. Cut in the middle.
Sharp sterilized scissors or knife to cut the cord.
Suction ? In case you need to suction fluids from baby's nose and mouth.
Old disposable baby blankets to wrap baby in first 2 hrs.
Cinnamon tea to encourage uterus clamping and blood clotting.
Loads of patience on both sides of the isle.
And lots more.
The kneading of the abdomen is to encourage uterus clamping to stop bleeding. Should be started 5 to 10 minutes after birth.

P.S. I believe Joe was talking about the amniotic fluid sac rather than the placenta when he was talking about puncturing it.
 
When I posted this topic, the intent was to create a resource of information for natural childbirth.
Thanks for the added information.
We have never pressed on abdomen to induce uterus clamping.
The Registered Nurse Midwife stated that can cause hemorrhaging.
Umbilical gets tied near baby twice like you said, and third tied near mother to see placenta drop.
 
Just to clarify on my end. It's a very gentle kneading.
I could see where excessiveness would cause the placenta to tear from the uterus wall.
Having the baby start suckling the breast encourages the mothers body to release the enzymes to release the placenta from the uterus.
 
Puppy pads, yes! And lots of towels. Oil, I say nay. But interesting bit about the tying the cord to see the difference when placenta detaches. I'd never heard of that before.
 
he was right on the ball to drive out 80 miles in a blizzard, to get the placenta. For what reason, I don't know. But I suspect she sold them or it was coveted part of her cuisine. She told me a guest of hers grabbed one out of her freezer. Fried it and ate it. She didn't tell him what it was, even though she had walked in on him cooking it. So likely she thought it would taste palatable. Come to think of it, I am confirmed she did eat.

This is not normal midwifery practice.

The whole OP is ill advised and containing of errors. I strongly suggest new parents work with a midwife for the first baby or three before they think about doing it alone. A good experienced midwife will have seen every kind of way birth can go wrong and is equipped to handle it. If something goes wrong, you're going to need those extra hands and experience. I've worked with a number of midwives, including new ones, and none of them were inadequate in their training. In just about any locality in the US you can find a competent experienced midwife.

I can tell the OP worked with an RNM; they are a lot more simplistically medically minded in their approach and prone to needless intervention. I much rather prefer lay midwives.
 
It's also worth pointing out that the USA has about the worst birth outcomes in the developed world. Even Iran has a lower maternal mortality rate than the USA, and the USA has the bad distinction of being one of only 8 countries in the world where maternal mortality is actually getting worse, not improving. This means the entire medical system regarding birth is messed up in many ways. Given that context, it is no surprise that people will have had bad experiences with individual medical professionals (be they midwives or doctors), because many bad experiences must occur in order to add up to the overall statistics. But individual bad experiences do not mean that medical professionals as a whole should be distrusted.

Women are designed to give birth all by themselves, and with no assistance at all it will still work out fine much of the time. But testimonies of it working do not mean you should give up on medical professionals.

The reason for medical assistance is so there is somebody present who knows what to do in the few occasions when something does go wrong. I understand the USA has statistically terrible homebirth outcomes precisely because when things go wrong, either nobody is there to help (for various reasons), or the person who is there is unable to give or obtain the help that is required. So the above advice is probably safe 90% of the time, but potentially fatal otherwise.

Americans can just look over the border to Canada to see a system that actually works and results in half the maternal mortality of the USA. One of the key reasons for this is that midwifery is completely legal and integrated into the rest of the medical system, so when things go wrong a midwife can smoothly shift the woman into the hospital system - and when nothing's going wrong they can proceed with a safe home birth. The same goes for many other Western countries like New Zealand and the UK. Because what matters is access to medical help when disaster strikes.

Home birth is usually completely safe. Nevertheless, anyone homebirthing in the USA would be very wise to also ensure they have someone in the room with knowledge of and access to prompt emergency healthcare through whatever means is available locally, rather than going by advice from random people on the internet and hoping for the best.
 
Aww c’mon.
You can rebuild the engine in your chevy by watching a online vid. That takes much more time and is very complicated, as compared with popping a bun out of the oven!



.



:rolleyes:
 
Yes. And just like birth, there's a 90% chance it will go well, and a 10% chance something unexpected will go wrong and you'll need the help of an experienced mechanic...

Your engine however can be left for the weekend and taken to the mechanic on Monday. But your wife or child may need assistance immediately to stop them from dying, even a 20 minute drive to the hospital may be too long. Hence why you don't need a mechanic watching over your shoulder, but you might want to have a midwife. Or, if they're illegal, a doctor. Just in case.
 
It's also worth pointing out that the USA has about the worst birth outcomes in the developed world. Even Iran has a lower maternal mortality rate than the USA, and the USA has the bad distinction of being one of only 8 countries in the world where maternal mortality is actually getting worse, not improving.

This is because (a) American women are horrifically unhealthy and (b) hospital's focus on profitability and convenience not healthy outcomes. They are constantly doing interventions, needless procedures, and stupid stuff that make things worse. Anymore it's a game to find new excuses to induce or do a c-section; which, surprise surprise, leads to more complications. Not to mention all the novel hospital acquired infections one can get.

You couldn't pay me to birth in one.
 
Yes, that is true. However, from the numbers I have seen, home births in the USA are on average even more dangerous. Which is really saying something since the hospital system is so bad. And in countries with better maternal healthcare, home birth and hospital birth have essentially similar overall risk, statistically speaking. So the system in the USA is screwed up for homebirths as well as hospital births - and there are many reasons for that, but the prevalence of unassisted home birth due to stupid laws making midwifery illegal is probably a major factor. Just avoiding hospital does not avoid all risk, it may actually increase the risk - if you don't have access to appropriate emergency care.

Hospitals in the USA cause many problems through overintervention, but they do try and keep people alive. The experience might be a bad one, they might cause all sorts of problems that they then have to fix (e.g. unnecessary c-sections) - but they will do their best to fix them and send both mum and baby home alive at the end of the ordeal. Even if only because live patients are more profitable as they remain future customers... And if you really did need that emergency c-section, you'll get it.

So hospital is a poor experience but usually survivable.

While unassisted homebirth is gamble between a probably far better outcome than hospital, and a possible far worse outcome. If you're forced to do it through circumstances, it's probably going to be ok. But if you've got the option of having a midwife at least sitting in the next room reading a book, so you can call her in if things don't go as planned, take that option. She's cheap insurance against losing your wife and/or child.
 
However, from the numbers I have seen, home births in the USA are on average even more dangerous.
That sounds greatly suspect.
Figures never lie, but sometimes liars figure.
Maybe in the inner cities or something, (drug users?) but out of thousands of acquaintances I know of no mother lost in childbirth. Home or hospital.
I would never want a woman to start delivering one of her first babies at home without an extremely knowledgeable person immediately available, though.
 
The success of homebirth is biased upwards a little in the figures by the fact that a birth that starts at home, and has problems, may end up in hospital. So the worst cases tend to end up being hospital births in either case - but there is a risk that the outcome could have been affected by delays in transferring from home to hospital. So to make a fair comparison, statisticians compare births that were intended to be at home as home-births, and births that were intended to be in hospital as hospital-births. Also, because births that are expected to be difficult are in hospital by default, statisticians try to remove these if possible and just look at normal pregnancies.

Here's a scientific review paper discussing a couple of studies on infant mortality, one in Oregon and one in Canada. The study in Canada had essentially identical infant mortality in and out of hospital (0.8 perinatal deaths per 1000 births). In Oregon, the infant mortality for hospital births was double that of Canada (1.8). And of home births was quadruple that of Canada (3.9, or double that for Oregon hospitals).

That's obviously one state, and the data might be different elsewhere. And it doesn't say homebirthing is bad, as the Canadian data shows it can be as safe as hospital birthing. This just says that whatever the medical and social system is in Oregon homebirthing is risky there because of issues specific to that medical system. And hospital birthing is risky there too. It just says don't give birth in Oregon...
 
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I read the paper.
I am not going to bother listing all of the differences between the studies. Totally cannot be taken as a scientific comparison.
Believe what you want, Samuel, I’m out.
 
I'm not sure what you think the argument is Steve. Homebirth is the best approach, but the US health system puts all sorts of hurdles in the way of it, that result in people being forced to take greater risks by birthing without midwifery assistance. It makes sense that that would affect outcomes. If that did NOT affect outcomes, there would be no point in pushing for better midwifery laws, because it wouldn't matter. I don't think we're really disagreeing, I think you perceive an argument where none exists.
 
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