What is a Midwife?

Midwifery is the term traditionally used to describe the art of assisting a woman through childbirth. In the modern context, this term is used to describe the activities of those health care providers who are experts in women's health care including giving prenatal care to expecting mothers. They attend the birth of the infant and provide postpartum care to the mother and her infant. Practitioners of midwifery are known as midwives, a term used in reference to both women and men (the term means "with woman").


Sunday, February 14, 2010

"Preterm labor awareness"

What causes Preterm labor?

Well this is still a scientific mystery. There are many risk factors as previously discussed, but nobody truly knows the exact cause. Stress can significantly impact your body in a way that can increase your risks of preterm labor.

Preterm labor can not always be prevented so that is why it is so important that every pregnant mother be educated to get early treatment that can help prolong her pregnancy as long as possible.


Warning signs of preterm labor

You are the best person to determine if there is a change going on in your body that is out of the ordinary. From day one in your pregnancy you will have a pattern that will become routine or normal feeling. Some of the signs of preterm labor can be misinterpreted as what occurs in a normal pregnancy. Just try to notice something that does not feel right. You may just have a feeling that something is different.

• Uterine Contractions: The muscles of the uterus are tightened or flexed. To determine if you are having contractions you must place your hand and fingers on your abdomen. Look at your hand, and your abdomen, can you push in and feel that your abdomen feels soft? When you are having a contraction your abdomen will feel like a flexed muscle. To determine how this feels try placing your hand on your bicep muscle in your arm. If you flex your muscle you will feel the change that you may feel in your abdomen. Having a contraction once in a while is normal in pregnancy but regular contractions are not. There are things that we do that can increase contractions. If you have a full bladder, change positions or other activities this may cause your uterus to contract. Determining if you are having contractions is a skill that is particularly important because preterm labor can be fairly painless in the beginning. If you feel a series of tightening in your abdomen that seems to have a pattern, contact your healthcare provider. Preterm labor contractions may occur every 10-15 min or closer and may last 40-120 seconds in duration. During this time your abdomen will be tight over the entire surface and will feel like a tight muscle.
The following signs may occur normally in pregnancy as well but if they are present you should monitor yourself to determine if you are having preterm contractions.

• Menstrual –like cramps: May be felt in low abdomen, back or near pubic bone. This may be rhythmic or feel like fluttering. You also may feel a constant cramp.
• Low back ache: the pain may start in the back and radiate to the low abdomen and be either rhythmic or constant.
• Pelvic pressure: a feeling of fullness or pressure in your pelvis and feeling as if the baby is going to push its way out.
• Gastrointestinal disturbances: Diarrhea, feeling of gas or bloating.
• Increase or changes in vaginal discharge: Determine what is normal for you and notice if there are changes or increased amount of discharge. This may be either watery, contain mucus, blood, or be pink or brown.
• You may just feel that something is not right. Even if you can not pinpoint a cause listen to that feeling and go to see your provider.
If you notice any of these things monitor yourself for contractions


Things you can do if you think that you are contracting

1. Use the restroom and empty your bladder frequently (every 2-3 hrs)
2. Drink at least 8-12 (12oz) glasses of non caffeinated beverages per day
3. Lie down on your right or left side
4. Palpate your abdomen for contractions.
5. Call your healthcare provider.

Emergency situations:
If you experience any of the following:
CALL YOUR PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY OR GO TO THE HOSPITAL

• Vaginal Bleeding: if you have bright red bleeding that is a large gush or steady trickle or flow this is an emergency. Get help right away. Lie on your side and keep your feet higher than your heart and head. Please keep all pads to show your provider at the hospital when you are evaluated.
• Spontaneous rupture of the amniotic fluid membranes: “Water breaking” Note Time, Amount, Color, and Odor if there is a constant flow or gush keep the pads and bring to the hospital.
• Severe stomach pain: This pain does not change or go away with position changes. This may occur with or without contractions.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

"Why Do Women fear Birth?"

Over the last decade, there has been a rise in both medicated and instrumental deliveries. In some communities, the induction (Pitocin and Cytotec) rate is near 85%; the epidural rate is near 90%; cesarean section rate is above 25% and instrumental (forceps and vacuum extraction) is near 50%. What makes women of this millennium different from those of women at the beginning of the natural childbirth movement in the 1960's ~ in terms of trusting their bodies or seeking out managed births? Will women rediscover their true instincts for birth and what role can childbirth educators and doulas play?
We, as a society, have encountered a devaluation of life itself. Slowly over many years, this devaluation has seeped into the area of reproduction and taints some views of pregnancy, labor, and birth. This devaluation has contributed to the intensity of the fears women feel toward birth. With the help of the book, Birth As An American Rite of Passage by Robbie Davis-Floyd, these fears can be summarized in three categories.
Fear of the Unknown
We've heard of a proven pelvis. What about a proven spirit? Each pregnancy is different and each labor is different. Expectant women are no longer around family (mothers, sisters, aunts) to see the normal birth process. They tend to view birth as a mechanical process rather than a deeply spiritual and life altering event. Robbie Davis-Floyd, noted anthropologist, says, "birth rituals should affirm and reaffirm the unity and integrity of the family and the individuals that comprise it, instead of sending patriarchal messages about the primacy of science, technology, and institutions. Each of these have their place, but that place is to be of service to - rather than exploit - nature, individuals, families, and most especially birthing women."
Fear of the Known
Only 4% of all women who will ever birth feel no pain. In this modern age, women are too busy to investigate childbirth classes or read. Davis-Floyd makes the point, "hospital procedures are not specifically designed to serve as vehicles of concern and reassurance to birthing women, and often they do not. Women who fully believe in the technocratic model, expecting that 'the doctor will take care of everything' often experience feelings of shock, upset, and abandonment if he doesn't. Since these women do not take childbirth preparation classes, they usually have no cognitive matrix in terms of which they can interpret their experiences, no breathing rituals, no 'labor support person,' to mediate for them between cognition and chaos." Their frames of reference do nothing to assist them in coping with this fear.


Fear of Change
Many people are afraid of change, especially change in their routine or comfort levels. Birth typically does not come on a schedule. It is unpredictable. There is no one prescribed way that labor can begin, progress or end. Hospitals have prescribed to a comfortable technocratic belief system and practices that are standard for most laboring women. Davis-Floyd states, "I argue that these procedures serve as rituals and are so widely used in hospital birth because they successfully fulfill several important needs: (1) the individual psychological needs of the hospital personnel officially responsible for birth for constant confirmation of the rightness of the technocratic model, and for reassuring ways to cope with birth's constant threat to upset the model; (2) the individual needs of birthing women for psychological reassurance in the face of these same unknowns, for official recognition by society of their personal transformation, and for official confirmation of the rightness and validity of their belief systems; and (3) the need of the wider culture to ensure the effective socialization of its citizens and thus its own perpetuation."
So why change if everyone is comfortable? Why encourage women to birth naturally, trust their instincts when labor can be actively managed? Perhaps the closing paragraph of Birth As An American Rite of Passage will cause you to think, as it does me whenever I read it: If it is true, as psychotherapist Gayle Peterson says, that 'as a woman lives, so shall she give birth,' then perhaps it is also true that as individuals within a society shape birth, so shall they shape social life. It is both my belief and my hope that in the end - or the beginning - the salvation of the society which seeks to deny women their power as birth-givers will arise from the women who, nevertheless, give that society birth."



Reference: Birth source.com