A doctor's visit, and some thoughts on natural birth

An update from the doctors office: All is well. Jen does not have gestational diabetes, anemia, or any other bad things. The baby's heart beats about 140 times each minute, and is moving alot! We are very thankful.

As some of you know, Jen and I are taking a natural childbirth class called the Bradley Husband Coached Childbirth Method. Why are we doing this? Well, first of all it is very educational. While it does advocate unmedicated, natural birth, it also teaches alot about the stages of labor, what happens to the body during labor, what happens right after labor, etc. We also learn ASL signs to use with the baby and helpful tips for breastfeeding. What is so special about unmedicated natural birth? Well, it is how God intended birth to happen. Some of the supposed advancements of modern science have really had some adverse effects. There are lots of risks involved in things like epidurals and vacuum extractors. Before I go on to suggest that anyone should choose not to have an epidural, I will stop. I have zero credibility to do that. I am not a woman and have never given birth, so my voice has little validity.

What I can talk about is my role as "coach" during the birth process. Jen has decided to pursue natural birth, whether that means she has one or not. My job will be to coach and encourage her every step of the way. We practice this by doing relaxation excercises, physical excercises, and studying the progression of birth so that we can know what to expect. We are also creating a birth plan to go over with our doctor (who is very supportive of natural birth) and give to the attending nurses. This will say things like we don't want anesthesia offered to us unless we ask, we don't want to be restricted to the hospital bed (Jen should be able to move around and be where she is comfortable) or to an IV (a "hep lock" is okay though just in case), things like that. The medical establishment is not necessarily interested in us having a natural birth. They want to make sure nothing bad happens under thier watch, so they might unnecarrily intervene. My job will partly be a go-between for Jen and the nurses, so that Jen can concentrate on labor, and not on some arcane practice done for the nurses convience. All in all, I think natural birth is the way it should be. While I am thankful for the medical interventions that are available for the 5% of births that really need them, I think the medicalization of birth is one more way that modernity really screws us over.