It is
very difficult to break away from the TV image of women lying down on
beds to labour and give birth. Society has done a great injustice to
women where birth is concerned by allowing programmes like One Born
Every Minute where women's faith in themselves to birth their young
is eroded week after week.
Research
has shown us (Lawrence et al 2009) that women who remain mobile and
adopt positions that they are comfortable with during labour have
less analgesia and labour much quicker. The mobile elements found on
most CTG machines today are not just there as a fancy add on, they
are there to be used to help keep women in charge of their labour by
staying off the bed. Hand on heart, how many midwives reading this
can say they have ever used the mobile CTG attachments or have
strived to keep women off the bed while obtaining a necessary CTG
trace in labour?
If we
are truly going to obtain better births for our women then we have to
start with the basics, often lost when working within a busy hospital
obstetric unit. Normality is often the last thought on our minds as
we strive to follow all the guidelines and protocols available to
'keep women safe'. Once a woman is in labour from IOL then we have
the power to stop any further interventions that may cascade her into
an operative birth.
The USA
have obstetric nurses in their obstetric units and they seem to be
nothing like midwives. The internet is full of unhappy women who feel
they have been violated by hospital care received in labour.
Obstetric rape is often the cry from these women who are desperately
trying to reclaim the lost art of birthing within the doctor led
services available in America today. This is one model of care that
we must strive to stay well away from by supporting midwives to look
at their practice and reflect. Am I being truly 'with woman'?
Student
midwives are our future and yet the number of students who pick up
the very bad habit of calling contractions 'pains' to women really
drives me crazy. I once mentored a student, well into her second
year, and she had never laboured or birthed a woman off the bed. This
was all she had ever seen and she was quickly becoming an obstetric
nurse without her even knowing that there was a choice.
Women
need knowledge. We can give them this knowledge during parent craft
classes that teach them how to labour as nature intended. Relaxed and
confident, giving them the choice of mobilising or simply sitting on
a comfy chair or birth ball. When was the last time you even saw a
birth plan, have women simply given up writing them as they learn to
expect the carnage they see on TV?
Better
birth is an achievable choice for most women going into labour today
with the right support from their midwife. We need
strong midwives, confident in the simplicity of normal birth, lets
rise to the challenge and make a difference today.
Reference:
Lawrence
AM, Lewis L, Hofmeyr J, Dowswell T, Styles C, (2009) Maternal
Positions and Mobility During the First Stage of Labour. Published
online 2009. Available on the internet from: The Cochrane
Collaboration and Wiley Online Library.
