The case for natural childbirth

Three Births
The author of this reflection and response has been asked to take in the story of the three-time mother mentioned in a story and how the overall birth process varied so extremely from birth to birth. The third and final birth was apparently without any major hitch but the first one was a train wreck and disaster by comparison. The question to be answered, and that answer is quite obvious, is why the earliest birth was so traumatic and problematic and why things got so much better for the future births. While doctors and nurses surely have at least some good intentions when it comes to the facilitation and expediting of baby births, there is something to be said for letting nature handle things as it may and being more patient.
Analysis
Before getting too much into the reflection angle of this brief essay, the first question to be answered is why the birthing process varied so much from the first birth to the third. The answer, of course, is that control was not in the hands of the mother for the first birth and the use of drugs and other means to hurry the process along led to a trauma and an amount of pain that was entirely unnecessary. The baby was indeed early and this is not to say that all situations where Pitocin is administered will end up in this manner, because that obviously is not true. What is true is that had the mother in question had the situation to do over again, she surely would have insisted to let nature take its course. Indeed, unless the baby or mother were in obvious distress or danger of dying, the process should have been allowed to play out as it normally would and should based on nature, biology and what is naturally going to happen. The mother in this case study almost died due to the damage to her vagina, uterus and perennium. It is quite likely that none of that would have happened if the birth had been allowed to happen naturally.
What changed, of course, was what the mother knew the second and third time around. She used her voice and expressed that no overt interventions or expediting forces (E.g. drugs) should be used unless it was absolutely necessary. Indeed, in the case of the first birth, the Pitocin was only used because the contractions were not happening as expected rather than because there was any danger. In other words, it would seem that they just wanted to get the birthing process over with so that they could move on to the next patient and situation. The woman absolutely took issue with this and she reasoned from a psychological standpoint that she should have control over how quickly things happen unless medical patterns and results dictate otherwise. Another psychological nature to the change is that the woman was surely traumatized but the loss of personal control and the ensuing pain and distress that she faced as a result of the rushing of the delivery. Her body and medical status were saying one thing but the doctors were trying to say something else. Her mind and psychological facets were telling her that patience and allowing the proper time were more important than getting things “out of the way” so that the next patient could be seen or dealt with (Butler, 2017).
Conclusion
If there is a lesson to be learned from the above, it would be that even if a woman decides that an epidural and facilitated birth is her preference, the woman should know the implications, the dangers, the options and the factors in advance rather than having to make decisions in a rush. Indeed, the odds of this woman’s first birth happening again are quite slim. Beyond that, even if chose not to have the drug to facilitate contractions, there might still have been problems. Even so, the choice was taken away from her as the doctors and nurses basically took over and did things as they saw fit, which would be to get it done as soon as possible. Even if it is not the choice of all women, there should be the option to let things happen as they may.
References
Butler, K. (2017). Did having a baby leave you with a horrible, debilitating, embarrassing injury? You’re
not alone. Mother Jones. Retrieved 13 August 2017, from http://www.motherjones.com
/politics/2017/01/childbirth-injuries-prolapse-cesarean-section-natural-childbirth/