Sad State of Birth in American Society

My husband just announced to me that a fellow programmer he follows on Twitter: Jeff Atwood/”coding horror” that his wife was sectioned 7 hours ago. We have been following him on Twitter for a bit- but of keen interest to me was that his wife’s labor was induced…

I am beginning to wonder if you can even call an “induction”  labor- as the majority of the normal physiologic process of labor is skipped, left out, ignored and over-ridden. There is a supreme dance of physical, chemical, emotional, and mental processes and send-offs that happen to make birth happen as it should.

Geek Speak: if your string is incomplete or not formed properly: your guaranteed to throw an exception.

Same with your woman’s woman parts. They work fine- and best – when left undisturbed with chemicals, repeated vaginal exams by strangers, bright lights, uncomfortable strange places, noises, lack of sleep and lack of food.

Geek speak: you wouldn’t DREAM of expecting to your mid-grade site with avg traffic to suddenly handle the amount of traffic and DB queries that an enterprise class site does… Without FIRST taking the necessary steps of installing the necessary software, and paying for the bandwidth, and testing.

This is what pre-labor and a normal, naturally occuring not forced labor does: …gearing up mom mentally and physically- tipping off a chemical cascade to ripen and open her passageway for the best-timed smooth sailing.  Allowing her the physiologic and psycholgical process she’s meant to be allowed: for her go from fearful, coping through, to making effort and triumphing in her journey with good support.

A woman allowed to birth in her and her baby’s own time – will leave her strong of mind and spirit, a resiliant woman and mother for years and years to come.

Geek Speak:

The site that kicks-ass and takes names on its big debut when it was complete and ready to roll…

vs.

the poor site that was cripplingly ill-prepared  that tried to pull-off a too-early launch date…

Which one do you think will  be the one making it happen years later… And its poor counterpart will be gone….or languishing in the back of a DB somewhere… left and forgotten.

Mothers and babies, and Dad’s too- often come out from the “Big Push” mangled. Emotionally, and physically. Surely not what anyone wanted when they had sweet baby dreams, while they concieved their babies…

Birth doesn’t just happen anymore- it has become another money machine industry in America…. But our bodies and babies and minds… All still work the same as they have since time immemorial, and need the same things to work as intended: peace, patience, support, gentle , honest, respectful care to arrive safely on the otherside as a whole family.

~ by ladymissjme on March 23, 2009.