By Tim Wood D.C. (The hard work was done by Dr. Suzie Wood – birth champ!)
I have three children with my wife Dr. Suzie Wood. In describing our children’s births to people I am amazed at the shock and amazement on people’s faces when we discuss the birth we had with all three of our kids. It is as if people have no faith that their body could birth a child without intervention and an expert to “make it” happen safely. It shows me how so much of the outcomes of our life are determined by our beliefs. Studies have shown that if women believe labor will be too painful for them to handle on their own, they will need painkillers, but if they believe they can handle it, they will. In the US over 90% of women asked before labor believed they would need painkillers and at their births over 90% did. In Denmark 6% of women believed they would need pain relief, and 6% did. If you believe birth is a natural process that your body was created to achieve, you will have a great birth the majority of the time. We had a home birth with a midwife and a doula which is how births have happened for centuries and still happen in much of the world.
Medically birth has become a procedure, where the job of the team is to get the baby out using whatever tools are “necessary”. Does this sound familiar, induced labour leads to more painkiller use & epidurals, which disconnect mom from the feelings and instincts of the birth which leads to stalled labour or less effective contractions resulting in more forcep and vacuum use and episiotomy and if that doesn’t work a C-section is needed (well over 50% of the time in our hospital). Some or all of this cascade of interventions has become the average birth in North America. Let’s agree that those interventions were invented to save lives and absolutely can save mom and/or baby when truly necessary. The key question is, does the routine use of these interventions make us better off? Currently Canada is around 15th in infant mortality, and the U.S. is 28th with all our expensive and technological intervention into birth! That means 14 other countries have better rates of survival for their newborns. Those countries don’t use more or better medical interventions, they utilize it less. They don’t have more doctors at births, they have less as midwifes are the norm in many of those countries. They don’t give more drugs to the newborn or mom, they give less…
I often hear from moms that the doctor said the baby’s head was too big, or the mom’s vagina or pelvis was too small (termed cephalo-pelvic disproportion -CPD). Those things may be said to comfort a mom after a difficult birth but that should not be taken at face value. The environment was probably too tense or stressful, or the mom’s position not optimal, or in-utero constraint / insufficient pelvic expansion from pelvic misalignment or distortion. Infant mortality rates suggest other cultures don’t have the same problem of heads too big, or pelvis’s too small and ironically midwife’s statistics in BC don’t reflect the same rates of those problems. Do mom’s with “small” pelvic bones or “large” baby’s heads only use doctors for their births and not midwives? Of course not, a different environment would have a different outcome as the pelvis is connected by ligaments that can expand incredibly, and a baby’s head is made of several flat bones which shift over each other to make a very small cranium during delivery. The mother’s body created a baby inside of it from 2 cells into 9 trillion cells. The undifferentiated mass of stem cells “somehow” formed a spinal cord and then the nervous system took over and created all the organs and systems and a perfect child. Do you really think the mom’s intelligence that did this, would make a baby too big to fit out its birth canal? I don’t. Midwives don’t either. Because if the labor is managed differently CPD isn’t a common factor.
Often you hear of mom’s saying they wanted a natural birth but couldn’t have given birth without pain relief. Here is one factor, my wife was horrified at how painful it was every time she had a contraction laying down (twice). Once she got up and was encouraged to do so by her birth team the pain dropped sharply but laying down is the most common birth position in hospitals and reduces the size of the birth canal by 10-20%. No wonder the pelvis is too small or the head too big. No wonder forceps are needed, or tearing happens, or baby can’t get out. Better positions make more room for baby, more pressure on the cervix for dilation, and easier birthing. One of Suzie’s labours advanced most while sitting on the toilet facing it (a great labour position). Statistically for an average, low risk pregnancy the best way to avoid a birth full of intervention is utilizing a home birth or birthing center, and to use a midwife. The team you choose and where you choose to birth your baby play a massive role in how positive and smoothly your birth proceeds. More awareness is needed so moms make informed decisions, and don’t regret their choices afterwards. Having a home birth within safe range of a hospital with a midwife is a very safe, evidence based choice.
Every birth we have had leaves Suzie and I overwhelmed with joy and gratitude, but afterwards it makes me sad thinking about how different our birth experiences are from the majority of families. If parent’s beliefs were changed through education, resulting in different choices being made before hand, birth experiences could be much more joyful and exhilarating (and shorter!) with less pain and intervention and better infant mortality rates. Do your best, make informed choices and never look back! When baby arrives safe and healthy we tend to forget the process but it can often be improved with the above info.
Three Choices For A Better Birth
There are three choices “moms to be” can make that I believe, and studies show, will improve their birth outcome. We have followed these three rules with our three births and they all went according to our birth plan. Sienna arrived after two hours of active labour, with contractions spread 8-10 minutes apart. 2 pushing contractions were needed for Suzie to push her out in the birth pool in our bedroom. Mom was up and about the same day. This is what is possible when birth is managed working with the mom’s inborn abilities, not against them. Our boys went to sleep before labour started, and when they came into our bed in the morning they had a baby sister in bed with us.
1. The first choice for a better birth outcome is to choose a midwife.
Midwifes are experts in assisting and understanding the natural process of pregnancy and birth. I feel obstetricians are more experts in understanding the problems, sickness and complications that can occasionally happen in the process. So for me it makes sense to choose a midwife for a normal uncomplicated pregnancy, and if she feels you are no longer low risk she will refer you to an obstetrician. MIDWIFERY IS 100% COVERED BY BC HEALTH because midwives have proven that birth outcomes are better under their care! They can manage hospital births or home births!
Whether or not you choose a home or hospital birth is something to discuss with your midwife.
Home Birth Myths: There is a lot of misinformation and fear about home births. The birth process requires relaxation to dilate. Are you more likely to be relaxed at home, or in a hospital room? As for safety, studies repeatedly indicate that midwife assisted homebirths for low risk pregnancies are as safe or safer than hospital births. When a midwife attends the birth and you are within a safe distance from a hospital in case of emergency, it is very safe. Hospitals are where sick people go for crisis care. Birth is not sickness or a crisis. If it becomes a crisis, then a hospital is a good place to go! I often hear moms say “If I had a home birth my baby would have died” or “I could not have done it” followed by “You don’t understand, the cord was around his neck”, or “he needed resuscitation…” It astounds me how often moms are told by their attending physician, or a nurse, that they are lucky they were not at home. In my experience that is almost always misinformation. For the record, there is resuscitation equipment at a home birth, I-V, and the cord is around the baby in 30% of births and is easily removed during the birth by the midwife so this does not mean a home birth can’t happen.
2. The second choice is to have a doula at your birth.
Often people think this is the same as a midwife but it is not. Historically a doula is a female birth assistant. It could be a friend or mother of the mom to be but trained doulas love helping with births and help the mother follow her instincts throughout labor. Research confirms drastically better birth outcomes with less intervention when a doula is present. We used a doula who had attended over 240 births. Ask your midwife or call a local midwife and ask for the doula who has the most experience with intervention-free birth.
3. Being under regular chiropractic care is the third choice for better birth outcomes!
Three reasons for this:
- The First is that when your pelvis is misaligned or distorted it will not expand properly to maximize the size of the birth canal.
- The second is that nerve pressure on the nerves going to reproductive organs (usually from pelvic or lumbar misalignments) cause weaker contractions, uncoordinated and less effective contractions, or labor that never starts or stalls partway through. Both of these problems are helped by regular adjustments.
- The third reason is that preventing the first two problems results in healthier babies due to less interventions that can affect baby’s health and alignment. Better births mean less forceps, vacuum extraction, and head pulling during delivery which means less misalignment in the newborn’s neck, better connection from their brain to body and as a result, better health (less ear infections, colic, asthma and allergies). NO ONE has pulled out our children by their head, they were pushed out and caught by their mom or the midwife hence them being clear at birth, no subluxations! Less drugs and epidurals also mean better health of the newborn and better initial breastfeeding and latching. Every cell in your body requires optimal nerve supply (connection to your brain) for proper function, reproductive organs included. Nerve interference reduces connection to the brain, meaning worse function, and worse labor and delivery.
Chiropractic care is not a treatment for a symptom or problem, it is to improve the alignment and function of your spine to improve your nerve system so you can heal better and function better. You have to be better off with a healthier spine and nerve system, this will always impact your ability to perform well in life, including labour and delivery!