Whenever someone starts to talk about choices with laboring/delivering//parenting you can put money on the fact that this statement will be followed with a thinly veiled soapbox about that person's own choice...and why it is best, and why your choice should be their choice.
Case in point- I attended my regular Sunday prenatal yoga class at Schoolhouse yoga this week, but it was taught by a new teacher. She spent the first 10 minutes (no exaggeration) of the 75minute class talking about her vast experience with birth coaching, labor, delivery, Lamaze, etc, after asking everyone how far along they were and where they were planning to deliver. Interestingly to the story, this was the first prenatal yoga class where all (5) of the students planned to deliver at the same hospital (Magee Woman's). Typically there is a wide variety - from home births, to numerous different hospitals, to midwife centers, to midwifes at a hospital, it is usually pretty diverse and interesting. Perhaps because this group happened to be choosing a hospital birth (some with midwives, some with obstetricians) the instructor felt she needed to talk to us about "choices" during a hospital birth. It did not matter to her that we were all well into our 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Give us pregnant women some credit! True, not everyone reads about different birth options, watches movies, goes to websites, etc. But I would guess that those in a prenatal yoga class have done some thinking about labor and delivery, or pregnancy health at the very least.
Choices. "You have a CHOICE to get an IV, or external fetal monitoring. You don't HAVE to do it. And if they suggest Pitocin to speed up labor, you have the CHOICE to say no. You don't have to get it. Ask why. Is it just because they (always the evil medical they) just want to get your labor and delivery over with faster? Often there is no medical need! You can CHOOSE to labor longer! You can CHOOSE to eat! You can CHOOSE when to push! And careful- midwives at the hospital have to follow hospital rules! Oh yeah, and if you have the book "What to expect when you're expecting"- BURN IT! It's full of advice followed by if your doctor allows. Allows? It's your CHOICE! You don't need PERMISSION!"
on and on
I think you get the idea.
I wanted to say- yes, I know this, let's get to the downward dogging! Chances are good that the women in this room know this. And you know what? If they don't, the first 10 minutes of a prenatal yoga class is not the time for mass hospital birth education! From someone, by the way, who did not have a hospital birth. Cause that was her choice. Which I fully understand. What was she trying to achieve? It seems to me that relishing those 10minutes with her captive audience was her way of justifying her own birth choices, whatever they were, which probably were great for her. I said I don't have a birth plan, I just plan to give birth. I have no idea how it will go, how I will feel, what will happen. I have a mixtape (well, iPod playlist, but y'know), I'm taking yoga, Lamaze, I'll probably bring my yoga mat and some other props, and we'll see how it goes. The best we can do is to be educated consumers. No one should pressure us into ANYTHING. OBs aren't bad people, midwives aren't bad people. Pregnant families have choices. Please stop trying to convince me that yours was best. I will ask for your opinion or advice when I want it. Not when I'm paying $15 for a yoga class.
And by the way, I asked my OB the other day if I could not be hooked up to anything at the outset, and she said "sure."
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