By Lucrezia Wise

Midwives are a better, safer, and more comfortable option in childbirth. It has actually been proven that midwives have a higher rate of safe births. There are also less artificial methods such as c-sections and drugs used by midwives. Midwives teach the expectant mothers how to deal with the pain in other ways. Women even enjoy the births more, and prefer midwives to hospitals!

Despite the fact that many consider homebirth unsafe, rest assured that that is not true. Midwives take careful care of their patients. They often visit more often than doctors, and have longer visits. They get to know the mother well, and take time to make her comfortable.

The statistics themselves prove the safety of using a midwife, either at home or at a birth center. There is a 19% lower infant death rate with midwives, and a 33% lower neonatal death rate. The babies are often even healthier! There is also a 31% decrease in the low birth weight babies with midwives. (www.fensende.com/Users/swnymph/Midwife/advocacy.html)

It is safe because it is natural. There is a significantly lower c-section rate with mothers who use midwives. Even during difficult births or stalled labor they try to avoid this operation. One of the main goals of a birth with a midwife is to have it naturally.

Births by doctors have a 25% caesarean section rate. The numbers with midwives are quite a bit lower. In fact, less than 12% of women who use midwives have to have a caesarean section. That’s less than half, and the babies are not harmed at all by this. (National Review, by Archie Brodsky)

While doctors sometimes operate automatically with a breech birth (a baby that is feet down instead of head down), a midwife can often successfully deliver the baby naturally. They don’t consider a breech birth by itself cause for a c-section. Many unnecessary c-sections could be avoided if the doctors followed the same philosophy.

Doctors sometimes even operate when labor goes on too long. Midwives give it more time, and let the body work at its own pace. They use natural methods, such as walking, to get the labor going. Doctors often use drugs to speed it up, or even go directly to the operating room after only a few hours of labor.

The drugs themselves, which doctors give to all mothers who request them, can hurt the baby. Mothers even sometimes feel obligated by their doctors to take them, despite the harm they could cause. The mother is often given drugs as soon as the pain starts, without trying natural methods to relieve the pain first. Because of this it is not uncommon for a baby to have to take more drugs that counteract drug overdoses when they are born. (childbirth.org)

Midwives let the mothers walk around, sit, squat, or take hot showers to control the pain. This helps the mother feel more in control of her own labor. Some hospitals make the laboring women stay in bed the entire time, when lying down is often one of the most painful position, especially with back labor (when the baby’s spine is against the mother’s). This causes labor to be more painful, which raises the need for drugs.

Some midwives use water birth, a birthing method in which the baby is born under water. Some hospitals are even beginning to use this. This is very good pain relief for the mother, due both to the fact that the mother’s body is supported by the water and by the warm water relaxing muscles, which decreases the pain. This is a very healthy way to handle childbirth pain. The babies themselves are often calmer coming out in water, which they have been surrounded by in their mother’s stomach, than they are coming out directly into the air. There is no danger of drowning, either, because the babies don’t breathe until air hits their faces, and oxygenated blood is still being delivered to them through the umbilical cord. (childbirth.org)

Women often prefer their midwife birth to their hospital birth. In fact, in a British study it was shown that 85% of the women who have had both experiences preferred the midwife experience. The control, comfort, and calmness that accompanies home births, or birth center births with midwives, is reason enough for this. 91% of the women in that study that plan to have another child say they will use a midwife again next time. (National Review, by Archie Brodsky)

Midwives justify these numbers by their wonderful attitude toward birth. They talk to the mothers about everything, and discuss decisions. Doctors can do whatever they want(within reason, of course), and are supported in this by courts. They are taking the power away from the parents by doing this. Many women go away from hospitals with bad feelings about the birth, after doctors have been rude or ignored their feelings. (childbirth.org)

Midwives are qualified at birthing. 75% of Europe uses midwives, but only 5% of the U.S. does. Money could be saved using them, with better birth results. Despite this, midwives are persecuted by authorities and doctors alike. They are even illegal in some states. Acceptance is growing, finally, but there is still a long way to go. Midwives continue to struggle to keep birth the way it should be. A beautiful, natural, wonderful experience. (National Review, Archie Brodsky)

Bibliography

-Chldbirth.org, [Online] Available at www.childbirth.org

-[online]Available at www.fensende.com/Users/swnymph/Midwife/advocacy.html

-National Review, August 11, 1997. Article by Archie Brodsky.