Re: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 13:02:13 -0700

Thanks for that story, too, Alesa.  It reminds me of a Greek woman that I cared for many years ago.  She was dragged by her friend to my childbirth classes.  She was very frightened to be having a second baby and her first birth had been a brutal forceps extraction.  She had no confidence in her ability to give birth.  I got to know her and was hired to do hospital support.  In one of the prenatal visits, she told me about her grandmother's birth of twins in Greece.  Apparently, her grandmother was getting a very hard time from the other villagers because her pregnancy seemed to be taking forever.  She got so fed up with all the comments about how big she was that she decided to take her donkey and ride out to the next village to visit her sister for the day.  On the way back, she began having cramps and pressure and, finally, she had to get down off the donkey and squat.  Out slipped the baby so she gathered it up in her skirts and got back on the donkey to ride home.  A little further along the road, she felt more cramps and extreme pressure so she got down again and squatted and another baby came out!  The placenta followed and she scooped up both babes and the placenta and rode back into her village with that collection in her arms. 
 
After hearing that story, I said to my client "You are from a long line of women who were able to give birth beautifully.  This story will be our inspiration for the birth you're going to have."  We kept her at home until late first stage and then took her into the hosp that was 20 mins away.  When we arrived she squatted down on the floor and her membranes released.  She continued to squat while holding onto the end of the bed.  The physician came in and lay down on his tummy to catch the baby.  It was so amazing to see that lineage of giving birth while squatting re-instated.  Thought I would share that Greek story.
Gloria
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth

Thanks for your reply. You are right about our perceptions sometimes and this gives me another view of the issue.
Alison
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 12:07 PM
Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth

I vividly remember a young Greek woman many years ago sitting in a corner of the room labouring away totally oblivious to the many conversations in the room. There were  23 'support' people in this room who were really getting in the way and taking absolutely no notice (much to her disgust) of the very important midwife,  who was in charge of all important medical type things . However said midwife on one trip out of the room to fetch some very important piece of equipment actually reflected on the labouring woman and perhaps she had an epiphany because she realised that for this particular woman the noise of her close family members doing what they always did when they got together (talked and chatted in small groups amongst themselves) was exactly right for her. When the young woman started to make very obvious birth type noises, most of the 23 melted away to wait for birth outside the room, leaving just the now humbled midwife, the father of the baby and the two grandmothers. A very valuable learning tool for the midwife, who now really looks at the woman when there are support people chatting and asks herself "Is this bothering the woman?". If not she does not interfere.
Cheers
Alesa
 
Who really tries to keep the number of support people below 23 these days:)
 
Alesa Koziol
Clinical Midwifery Educator
Melbourne
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 9:53 AM
Subject: RE: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth

Dear Alison,

I am a midwife in small public hospital.  It is important to maintain privacy to mothers in labour, quietness and I like to have soft lights.  Reduce the support teams chatter to minimal.  This is sometimes difficult when you get both mother/mother-in – law present, plus sisters and partner:  they all want to chat about everything else in their lives.  The use of a sheet as a birthing cape can help mother form her own world.

With the birth of my own babies, I felt the “all fours” position disempowering. However I let mothers chose their own positioning.

Barbara

 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of AlisonThrum
Sent: Wednesday, 20 July 2005 6:53 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ozmidwifery] Privacy, comfort and dignity during birth

 

Hi

I am a midwifery student in Perth WA. I am keen on finding information/personal stories about issues surrounding privacy, dignity and comfort during labour and birth, which may be more an issue in hospital births.

If anyone would like to share information, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Alison

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