If the conception is usually in itself, an act guided by love between two people, childbirth should also be a delicate process of affection between the mother and her child. Now, we are all clear that at present, the way in which we come into the world is so standardized and protocolized, that the emotional bond is often torn away like that umbilical cord that doctors rush to cut like someone who starts something left over and that it has no use whatsoever.
In our space of «Madres Hoy» we want to celebrate with you the week of respected delivery, there where to reflect on the importance of praising the need to choose in what way we want to give birth. Now we know that Safety and having good professionals is essential when having our childrenbut we can't forget a fact that the WHO itself has been warning in recent years: many women are suffering disrespectful and offensive treatment in health centers during their deliveries. It is necessary to delve into this aspect, change practices and above all, be able to decide for ourselves the way we want to give birth. On this occasion, we want to explain the possible consequences that may exist in the way we arrive in the world.
The way we come into the world: the impact for the mother
Few things can be experienced with greater intensity and emotion than pregnancy. There are nine months of plans, illusions to feed, clothes to buy, a room to equip, a body and two hearts to attend to through proper nutrition, exercise and of course, a successful emotional connection that every day we try to establish with that baby we learn to love without yet knowing his face.
We could say without mistake that throughout that time we carried out a complex path where Above all, we seek to connect with that creature that has grown within us.. However, when the moment of delivery comes, we lose all control of the situation to put ourselves in the hands of the experts, who will guarantee "that everything goes well."
What most women experience in hospitals is humiliation and harsh depersonalization. All the emotional filming that we had worked on throughout 9 months is broken in the delivery room without asking permission and abruptly.
- Moms are placed in the lithotomy position and routinely and extensively undergo episiotomies, premature rupture of membranes, shaving, enemas, and electronic fetal monitoring.
- If your doctor sees fit, you will be injected with synthetic oxytocin to speed up labor.
- In recent years we are also observing the large number of caesarean sections, which together with the induction itself makes us wonder if it is that today's woman is unable to have a natural birth.
- Another aspect that many moms often complain about is the clear humiliation suffered during childbirth.. The fact of not being able to choose the position when giving birth (we cannot forget that «the foal» is the most comfortable way for professionals to work), or things as crazy as being shaved with the doors open, exposed Without intimacy in front of students in practices, undressed and sometimes oriented to cesarean section as the only option, it makes the emotional impact very intense.
Post-traumatic stress syndrome as a consequence of childbirth
From the page "Birth Trauma Association»From the United Kingdom provide us with multiple studies on the consequences of these traumatic births suffered by many women today.
- Monique bydlowski is a psychiatrist specializing in the psychological experience of motherhood and childbirth. So much so, that she is the one who coined the term "post-obstetric traumatic neurosis", as a consequence of a very clear reality that she began to see as early as the 60s.
- Childbirth is a time of great vulnerability for women, at the brain level there is a specific neurobiological and hormonal scenario prepared to give way to the imprint and the beginning of the bond with the baby, that if it breaks, it can cause more than one consequence. Postpartum stress is one of them.
- Anguish, the feeling of feeling humiliated, of not having control or the ability to decide in many cases, seeing how your baby is manipulated and taken from you almost instantly to put it, for example, in an incubator, it's something very dramatic on a psychological level.
- Nor can we forget something important: the level of stress can be so high that this cortisol in the blood will affect the quality of the milk during lactation.
Childbirth should be an act of love, but… what if it isn't?
michel oden is a French obstetrician known for his clear advocacy for natural childbirth. The artificiality of today's operating rooms and medical practices is breaking that emotional imprint that must be created between mother and child as soon as they are born. As he himself explains to us, if emotions and love are what leads us to bring people to this world, It is not understood why today the act of being born can be, at times, something so traumatic for the mother and especially for the child.
Let's now look at some of those consequences of not enjoying what is known as "a loving birth."
The umbilical cord
- We pointed it out at the beginning. A common practice is to cut almost instantly that physical bond with the mother, whether we want it or not, it is a gift of nature that we should maintain for a few minutes.
- Inside of umbilical cord there is 40 millimeters of fluid in which stem cells, nutrients, and multiple substances beneficial for the future development of the child accumulate. It is a tribute to health.
- If we cut it immediately we put the life of the newborn at risk. The umbilical cord is like a "vaccine" that the mother offers her child to fight, eg against diseases such as neonatal tetanus.
The first thousand minutes of your life can determine your existence
We don't say it, it tells us Nils bergman famous pediatrician and neonatologist who once again tells us about the toxic stress of a "bad delivery", of a cold, standardized, dehumanized and sometimes even traumatic delivery for mother and child.
- The immediate separation between the child and his mother as soon as he is born can generate such a high level of stress that all of this can orchestrate subtle metabolic and cognitive changes in the child's own development tomorrow.
- Incubators can sometimes be spaces where we lose a part of the bond with our children. We can't forget that few things can be as powerful as skin-to-skin contact between mother and child, as well as that first breastfeeding.
- Our DNA expects that immediate union between mother and child, and if it does not happen, if that child interprets that the world "to which he has gone" is something hostile, cold and threatening, an emotional problem may arise tomorrow. .
- A birth carried out with love, with respect between mother and child, where they enjoy those 1.000 minutes together, skin to skin, initiates a wonderful neural attunement that will build and strengthen structures as powerful as the amygdala or our prefontal cortex: architects of emotional and social intelligence.
We have to take it into account. You can and should choose what type of delivery you want.
