If there is one thing those of us in the natural/home birth community (dare I say, movement?) hear over and over and over again, it is:
The most important part about giving birth is making sure that mom and baby are healthy and safe! It shouldn't matter how we get there, or what sacrifices we have to make.
Of course, I completely agree with this statement. However, I don't take it to mean what the OB crowd wants it to mean: that mothers should be happy to put up with sub-par and dangerous care, or with a traumatic birthing experience, so long as mother and baby walk away with their lives spared.
That would be like saying we should not strive to stay safe on the roads for the sake of preventing accidents and trauma, except for fatal accidents only. Lived to tell about it? Must have not been that bad, so shut up, get over it already, and BE THANKFUL!
Sigh. I better slow down before I get worked up.
And for the record: 1 in 3 babies being born via C-section is definitely what I would consider "sub-par and dangerous care." If that makes you angry, please stop reading now, or else spare me from the fallout of your indignation, and comments telling me why YOUR C-section was necessary. They all are! All 33% of them! I am still waiting for that OB to finish up suturing a mom, and then declare: "Coming to think of it, that really was an unnecessary C-section. Ooops! My bad! Better luck next time!"
So we can all agree that delivering 1 in 3 babies surgically, with the supposed goal to save the life of mother or baby, is too high. I mean, that's a no-brainer, unless you want to argue that (a) God didn't know what He was doing when He designed reproduction, or (b) evolution is bent on self-destruction. Yet nobody ever wants to acknowledge any single instance where a C-section, especially THEIR C-section, was unnecessary.
That's fine. You make your choices, I'll make mine.
What today's post is really about is the hypocrisy put forth by the OB crowd, when a planned home birth ends up in the hospital, and possibly, likely, in a C-section.
My first thought is:
CONGRATULATIONS! The most important part about giving birth is making sure that mom and baby are healthy and safe! Boy, am I glad they made the necessary transfer, to ensure a safe birth!
Is that what we hear from the OB crowd? I sure wish it were the case, but that's rare.
Case in point: The news today of Jill Duggar Dillard delivering her son has the internet ablaze with snark, sarcasm, outright hatred, and worse, all because of the above photo being released, without any more specific details on her mode of delivery. Jill is a midwife, and was planning a home birth, while the photo was clearly taken in a hospital. Of course, the possible scenarios are literally limitless, but that is not stopping the internet sleuths from speculating about the tiniest details to piece together the puzzle regarding the mode by which this child was born. Scrubs? High-risk wrist band? How tired is she looking? What is that makeup hiding? Is she holding the baby like someone avoiding a tender incision site? And on and on and on.
Of course, delivering in a hospital, and having your FIRST child, also makes you the target of well-deserved hate, such as comments about her headband, how her uterus will fall out eventually, that they won't be able to think of 20 names starting with the letter "I", how she put her child in danger for even attempting a home birth, etc.
Truly, misery loves company. Many of those women who have had an unnecessary C-section (which is the majority of women today) seem to have become bitter to the point where they now take pleasure in the possibility that someone else also might have had to undergo a C-section. In the meantime, the haters seem to be overlooking the obvious (and stated) fact that mother and baby are healthy, that the little guy is super cute, and that the parents are obviously in love with each other and their newborn. All that doesn't matter, and cannot be acknowledged, until we know how this child was born. Because evidently, in their minds and contrary to their stated ideals of worrying only about the health and safety of mom and baby, that IS what it's all about.
I wonder how these birthing hypocrites would feel if I started expressing no surprise at the fact that their induction led to a C-section (it does in 3 out of 4 first-time moms), scolding them for not getting a doula, reminding them of the fact that VBACs are near impossible any more due to legal woes, and outlining how they will still be able to recall their traumatic birth experience decades from now.
And that, dear reader, is birth hypocrisy at it finest.
