I've learned that, to some people, this makes me a bad person. I didn't squat over a rainstick in my bedroom while creating a birth quilt with my mother, grandmother, and 17 of my closest female friends chanting in unison. You know, the NATURAL way.
I get it: Pregnancy and childbirth are natural processes that have been happening on this planet since human life first came into existence. Cave women didn't need doctors. 14th-century mothers didn't get epidurals. No one induced Mary Hanks Lincoln's log cabin labor, and look how well that one turned out. This is all true. But you know what else is true? A lot of women also used to DIE DURING CHILDBIRTH. Like, a lot of women.
Fact: If I'd been one of those pre-modern-medicine pregnant chicks, I could be dead right now. My doctors elected to induce my labor three weeks early because I had pre-eclampsia -- a potentially fatal condition of elevated blood pressure that I believe I read affects about 20 percent of all mothers, including several in my family. I could have gotten very sick had I continued carrying my baby until labor happened naturally. Everything else about my pregnancy was normal and healthy. I felt great and had almost no pregnancy complications -- but without the medical care I received I could, like I said, be blogging from Deadsville right now.
I believe medicine -- and, quite frankly, science in general -- gets poo-pooed way too much in this day and age. No, I didn't experience and fight through the pain/illness like pioneer women did. And no, I don't feel guilty about this or like I "cheated" at having a baby. We live in 2011, and I'm okay with what that means. Despite my somewhat incongruous opinions on cell phones, I DO actually believe that technology is our friend.
I've read about hospitals and doctors going overboard with inductions and C-sections, and I don't disagree that there are highly questionable medical practices out there that need to be examined. But in my situation, I'm sure glad I received the medical care I did and that the NICU was available nearby in case my son needed it.
And if you used a midwife and a water tub at your house and eschewed all drugs during childbirth, I am happy for you and wouldn't dream of judging your decision. But there's nothing wrong with me for making a different choice, and I find it annoying that there are people out there who want to tell me there is.
That is all. And now a picture of my cute baby.
