We talk about how this is the point in the labor when even the most composed, polite woman you’ve ever met might start to get really cranky and use words you didn’t know were even in her vocabulary.   She might be sweaty one minute, freezing the next, shaking, nauseous, or even throw up.   No matter how her labor has been up to this point, this might be the part where she starts declaring that she’s done and can’t go on.

Mercifully, nature made this most intense part also the shortest. And some women sail right through and hardly notice transition at all. They glide right through labor, and before you know it, they start grunting a little a the tops of the contractions and soon enough they are working hard with the effort of pushing.

Ever since I dove into learning more about birth every day, I can’t help but compare regular life to the miraculous process of birth.  So here’s my personal birth comparison for the day:   while I am not in any way pregnant or about to birth a child, I am very much so in transition.

We are actively showing our house (yes, we dare in this crazy market!) and rain or shine we are moving to Salem, OR,  from Chicagoland on June 14.   So from managing the details of moving an entire household across half a continent, to trying to pack and simultaneously keep the house show worthy, plus finishing up a course at our local community college, and saying good bye to so many wonderful friends here – I don’t know whether to throw up, swear, throw things, or cry from one minute to the next.

The one thing I do have going over a laboring woman is that I DO know exactly when it is going to end. We have a date set and somehow from here to there I know it is all going to come together. In labor you know you have been told that transition is the shortest bit, but when you’re in it, you don’t know when it’s going to end. I can become all-consuming and overwhelming. That’s when you’re support team of your partner and your doula step in and look you straight in the eye and without a doubt inform you that “You are strong. You can do this. You ARE doing this. We are with you and you WILL get through this and get to see and touch and hold your beautiful baby before you even know it.”

If you ever find yourself supporting a woman through transition, here are some helpful tips from Mother’s Advocate.

Penny Simkin also has some terrific recommendations for Comfort Measures for Labor.

And if your partner is doubting her ability to go on in labor or she is becoming overwhelmed with the intensity, Simkin’s Take Charge Routine can work wonders, and finally,  Nicole at Bellies and Babies has a great post describing the emotional intensity of transition.

Too bad there isn’t such thing as a moving doula – someone to hold my hand, wipe my brow, and tell me that somehow I’ll get to the other side as I cram our life into boxes.

• What a Doula can do For You
• Midwifery Model of Care
• To Push or Not to Push. . .

32.3%

of all babies born in the U.S. last year were born by Cesarean section.

• 12th consecutive year that the Cesarean rate has increased
• the total number of births decreased 2% from 2007 to 2008

See that dip when the rates went down a bit?  That was in the 1990’s when the trend was to encourage moms to have a VBAC.  Then policy changed and we are now at the height of an epidemic that doesn’t seem to be slowing down – especially if an entire state can have an average cesarean rate of 40%.

So in light of the craziness that is going on in U.S. hospitals, you can do a few things to increase your chances that your birth isn’t just a 1 in 3 crap shoot of whether or not you end up with major surgery:

10 Ways to Avoid an Unnecessary Cesarean

Avoid Unnecessary Induction

Carefully Choose Your Provider

Have Great Support at Your Birth

Avoid an Unnecesarean

I describe pushing the baby out kind of like trying to take off my wedding band – with the pelvis being like the ring (I know it’s not perfect, but you’ll see what I mean in a sec.)  I’ll  grab hold of my wedding band and pull forcefully toward the tip of my finger.  In variably, it moves a fraction and then gets stuck.  The flesh between the band and my knuckle gets all bunched up, my finger starts to turn frighteningly red, and I begin to wonder if the ring will ever come off. On my second try, I tug on the ring while gently jiggling it back and forth.  This time it moves right along without any trauma to my finger at all.

All of the moving and changing positions while pushing  – hands and knees, lunge (or Captain Morgan position),  side lying,  squatting,  sitting on a toilet, standing – are the equivalent to the jiggling I did to ease my ring off.  Lying flat on your back and pushing with all your might for two hours or more is the same as grabbing my ring and yanking full force.  In theory yanking can get my ring off, but there sure are gentler more effective ways of doing so.

If you are interested in a gentler more effective way of pushing your baby out check out this fantastic video from mothersadvocate.org:

While we are talking about pushing, I have to mention the fact that you may be asked to not push when you feel VERY much like doing so.  In fact, if you are having the overwhelming urge to push it is going to be a lot like throwing up, except this time your body is throwing down.  You can’t help it.  Your body is on a mission of expulsion and you are along for the ride.

So let’s say you find yourself in a situation where your body is very much telling you that PUSHing is what needs to happen and the people  around you are telling you not to.  The first thing you do is find out WHY.  If there is a good reason why you shouldn’t be pushing -  like you went though transition at how and now you are in the car and you really don’t want your baby to be born on Lake Shore Drive.  Or if  your baby’s cord is prolapsed and the pushing is jeopardizing the baby’s oxygen – those might be situations in which you might not want to push.

If that’s your situation there are a couple of things you can do: Blow Raspberries.  This is where you blow forcefully and let your lips flap away.  Like if you were going to imitate a horse noise.  I used to call this “horse lips” until a client misunderstood me and thought I said they were getting out the forceps. For me they are now forever “Blowing Raspberries” as I don’t like to terrify women in labor.  Blowing out like this keeps you from holding your breath and bearing down.

I have had personal experience with this one with my second child.  She came unexpectedly fast and I didn’t have the luxury of birthing in a facility with L&D rooms.  I was in an L room when the throwing down began and I the nurse desperately needed to get me to a D room two floors below!  My dear second daughter could have been born in an elevator, but I wasn’t too excited about that so I did my best to not encourage my body and two pushes was all it took once we got to the D room.  (I certainly hope they put some more thought into the design of that place down the road!)

Then there was the time when I was a doula for a primip (mama giving birth for the first time) who was having an exceptionally quick labor. I didn’t even made it to their home to support them it went so fast.  As I was turning down their street the dad called me to say they were headed to the hospital.   I saw their car pass me, made a U-turn and pulled up right behind them.  I stayed on the phone with the mom while following them to the hospital.  She was vocalizing loudly in the back seat and it sounded like transition.   I coached her as best I could through a hands-free device.  All things considered she was doing marvelously.  Soon I heard a catch in her voice and knew that she was feeling like pushing.  So for the next 10 minutes getting to the hospital we blew raspberries to each other on the phone.   She did a fantastic job and was able to push her beautiful baby out in two pushes once she got to L&D.

So there are times when it might be a good idea to not push even though you feel like everything in your body is focusing on bearing down.  However, I have witnessed on several occasions in several different hospitals circumstances where a mother is experiencing an overwhelming urge to push and everyone around her is telling her not to, and the only reason is because her chosen care provider is not in the building yet.

One time it was another surprisingly quick primip.  Other occasions it was winter in Chicagoland and the labor progressed quicker than the snowplows could keep up with the snow, so the doc was in transit.  Every single time a L&D nurse was present and every single time there was also a qualified OB on the floor who could have stepped in at any moment.  All of these mothers were unmedicated.  The main reason the mother was told not to push was because the staff wanted to wait until the mother’s chosen care provider arrived on the scene.  Arrgh!

If this is your situation and you don’t care who catches your baby (an L&D nurse can catch a baby just fine) then go ahead and push!  Not pushing with an overwhelming pushing contraction is pure misery.  If  not pushing along with you body saves your baby’s life, I am all for it.  However when it is simply for the convenience of someone other than the birthing mother, I am all for tuning in to your body, informing the staff that the baby is coming – doesn’t matter who is or isn’t in the room – and birthing your baby.

Another great resource for pushing and following what you body is telling you can be found here.

You may also like:
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait – Successful VBAC mom who did tons of scooching and changing positions in second stage

The more I am around birth the more I have opportunity to see that these interventions we have can be both blessings and curses to laboring mothers.  The more I am around birth the more I see births that truly did need medical intervention.    And on the flip side the more I am around birth, the more I see births that certainly could have done without so much fiddling.

And so I get to Christine’s post on Pitocin.  I think it’s great because it cautions parents not to  blindly enter into an elective induction or augmentation simply for the sake of time when mama and baby are both doing fine.  I have supported labors where the labor was progressing just fine and the OB ordered Pit simply because that’s how she rolls, and then watched as the baby quickly became distressed.  I have also supported labors where a little Pit at the end of a long labor kept the mom out of the OR by giving her body the nudge it needed to finish well.

So to all you pregnant women check out the link, learn a little about Pit, watch the video clip and then file that info away for your labor or your discussions about inducing your labor. . .

And to you mama’s who have labored before with Pitocin -  I’d love to know what your experiences with Pit have been.  Love it?  Hate it? Necessary? Unnecesary?

My personal Pit experience was with number two.  I was unnecessarily induced.  I was in early labor and didn’t realize it and was asked to come in for an induction.  At that point in my life I didn’t even think to question the advice so we went home (THAT should have been a clue that the induction was NOT a medical emergency!!) got our stuff and returned for the induction.  Well, I certainly didn’t need it.  Within two hours of starting the Pit, I was in the throes or transition and my dear little daughter was almost born in the elevator on the way to the delivery room.  (She was born overseas in a maternity clinic that had a LABOR floor and a DELIVERY floor.  You have no idea how sensible the whole L&D combo is until you are trying not to birth your baby in the hospital’s elevator!)  I would have much preferred my body’s slower pace because it would have been so much more manageable.   Spreading out all that work over a little more time would have been so much nicer.

So there’s my little trip on Pit.  What’s yours??

Yesterday, both the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times ramped it up with pieces on issues greatly affecting the health of mothers and babies.

The Trib ran a great piece on the whole issue of VBAC and how it’s actually not as risky as it’s often presented to be and how it should be readily available  option for women.

Health Experts: Most Repeat C-Sections Unnecessary

Then the NYT ran a great article about a Brooklyn Lactation Consultant who provides women with wonderful breastfeeding support and advice.

The Breast Whisperer

Noruishing a Baby

I love her ground rules:                1. Enjoy the baby.   2. Feed the baby.

Sometimes the first few weeks of an infant’s life can be so stressful (ours was with our first) for new parents that rule number 1 can be forgotten.   I love that she sees her job not simply as getting breastmilk into babies, but fostering the relationship between mothers and their babies.

Underlying both of these articles, which appear to be about two very different things, is the issue of adequate support for women and families during the childbearing year.  Giving women the options, the benefits and risks of these options and then letting them decide which they are most comfortable with and then SUPPORTING them through the outcomes gives families a much better start.

Many times the disappointment I hear in women’s voices when they tell their story about breastfeeding or birthing comes not because of a bad outcome, but it comes at the point in the story when they felt most alone and least supported.  Had these same women been truly supported in a decision that they were allowed to make in those moments, instead of a decision they were coerced into, I believe that in the same situations with the same outcomes, these women would be telling their stories in a very different way.

Adequately supporting mothers and families during the birth year is definitely one major reason that drew me to teaching childbirth classes, serving as a doula, and referring women to La Leche League and lactation consultants when needed.  I support whatever decisions families make for themselves – if a woman herself chooses a repeat cesarean or to formula feed knowing all the benefits and risks on both sides, that is her choice.  What kills me is when women are backed into corners and finding themselves headed toward a repeat cesarean or formula feeding mainly becasue they didn’t have good support for the choices.

This past October I was interviewed by the Chicago area  TribLocal newspaper about being a doula and what role we play in the birth process.  I love how she talks about the role of doulas supporting dads and partners as well.

I really enjoyed the interview because it made me realize how much I really love what I get to do as a doula and childbirth educator.

Check out the article here.

This birth pretty much took everyone by surprise. She was a first time mom who was two weeks early and her labor went so much faster than anyone anticipated. I ended up turning around on the way to their house and meeting them at the hospital. As soon as she got up to L&D she was already crowning! No time for an IV, not even a gown. That beautiful baby was here!! As soon as someone the hospital saw fit to catch the baby arrived, this mom gave her first real push and birthed her baby. That baby was so excited to be born that she had both her hands raised – celebrating her birthday.

The best was later when the mom looked up while cuddling her beautiful baby and said she wouldn’t change a thing.

Birth is one of those few moments in life when the natural process of things makes you keenly aware that a powerful transformative event is about to happen.  I love how labor begins when it is ready and how not only are babies born, but mothers, fathers, big sisters and big brothers.  It is one of those few moments when Life takes over, we drop everything and pay attention.

Some of these situations we cover are  not necessarily dangerous for the mom or baby, they just change the options that are given to the couple.  Being post-date or going past the due date is one of these.  Depending on your caregiver’s policy induction may highly encouraged anywhere from 39 weeks 6 days to 41 weeks 6 days.  That is a BIG difference.  And if both mom and baby are fine, then they have a lot of options including refusing an unnecessary induction at 40 weeks on the dot.

Another option-changer is breech position of the baby.  While there is a movement in Canada to encourage vaginal delivery of breech babies, the recommended route here in the US right now is surgical.  And since many OB’s do not have the proper training or experience with vaginal breech deliver, I am not comfortable advising moms to ask for vaginal breech delivery with inexperienced caregivers.  So, for parents who find out before the onset of labor, there are many things they can do to encourage the baby to turn: lots of positions for mom to try, chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, etc can be effective at turning many babies.

So when preparing for these discussions tonight, I came across Dr. Onyeije’s presentation on avoiding a Cesarean.  It mirrors so many of the things I try to stress in class, the  most important being finding a caregiver who shares your perspective on birthing.

That one thing can pave the way to avoiding so many difficult situations for a pregnant couple.  If you are wanting a natural childbirth and go to a practice with a high rate of intervention, then you will probably be very discouraged.  If you want every bit of technology used on you and your baby from the first twinge and you are with a more laid back practice, you will be so frustrated when they send you home from the hospital when you are at 3cm and still in early labor. It makes SUCH a difference.  I they to encourage couples that statistically they will not be the exception.  Exceptions are out there, but you can’t expect to be the exception for the particular practice you are using.

So here it is: 

Merry Christmas from the Swain family!

Thanks to all of you who allowed me to serve and support you through your wonderful and amazing births this year.

Here is an excerpt from her article and you can plainly see how where you go to give birth can play a huge role in your outcome.

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington—35 percent (1,724 births 601 C-sections)

Advocate Medical Center in Oak Lawn—35 percent (4,233 births 1520 C-sections)

Resurrection Saint Joseph Hospital, Chicago—34 percent (1895 births 647 C-sections)

Advocate Condell Medical Center Libertyville, 30 percent (545 births 165 C-sections)

University of Chicago Medical Center, 29 percent (2,013 births 585 C-sections)

Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, 29 percent (2,931 births 866 C-sections)

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, 28 percent (11,958 births 3,418 C-sections)

Elmhurst Hospital, 26 percent (1,426 births 374 C-sections)

Evanston Hospital, 26 percent (3,590 births 966 C-sections)

Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, 26 percent (2,252 births 588 C-sections)

Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago, 25 percent, (2,464 births 618 C-sections)

West Suburban Hospital, Oak Park, 20 percent (2,175 births 453 C-sections)

University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, 14 percent (2,893 births 433 C-sections)

Some notes about the three hospitals with the lowest cesareans:

• UIC is one of the few hospitals in the area that supports vaginal birth after 2 cesareans (VBA2C).  Most hospitals in the area view women who have had multiple cesareans as too risky for vaginal births and schedule them for repeat cesareans.
• West Suburban and Swedish Covenant both have alternative birthing centers on the premises used by midwifery practices that support natural childbirth and evidence based maternity care.  Women birthing in these birth centers aren’t forced to having labors conform to a curve or else face called cesareans for: “Failure to Progress”, “Arrested Labor,” or “Cephalopelvic Disproportion- CPD.”

if your hospital is not listed here, leave a comment and I’ll crunch the numbers and post your hospital’s rate.  Or you can check out the report yourself and leave it in the comments.

2008 Illinois Hospital Profiles

It does make a difference where you choose to give birth.