It seems that there is always a discussion revolving around natural childbirth vs medicated childbirth, hospital vs birthcenter vs homebirth, and the wants/desires of women in all this. I see a lot of blog posts, articles and webpages dedicated to those who want to bash the medical community and state that all women's bodies know how to birth and that birth should be in the home, etc.
I am very supportive of the women I see who want natural childbirth, and do everything I can to assist them in achieving this goal. But I also see a good number of women who WANT an epidural, who WANT induction (beg for it in fact at a shocking 30-32 weeks pregnant!), who couldn't imagine wanting to breastfeed, and who look at me like I'm crazy for encouraging them to drink water instead of carbonated drinks all day long. I know that these are also the women who would not consider and seek out birthcenters or home birth midwives for their delivery, but they are women who have voices and wants/desires surrounding their birth.
In my current job, I struggle more with trying to convince women that their pregnancy is not a disability or a disease, and believe they they do have the ability to birth their baby vaginally instead of electing to have a cesarean.
Thankfully, I do not work at a practice that offers elective primary cesareans, and that more information is coming out daily to support vaginal delivery and lowering c-section rates. Possibly, over the course of my career, this will become the prevalent thought process surrounding birth.
For the time being, I will continue to work daily to find out exactly what women want and do my best to support their decision.
