I have been so busy with life and organizing the Change of Shift nursing Halloween blog carnival, that I have been neglecting my own little blog.  I have been meaning to write an update on the “normal” or “natural” community birth panel that I recently attended.  It was very interesting and fun.

Because it is Halloween time (my favorite time of year), and in honor of one of my favorite movies “Young Frankenstein”, I planned on writing the entire birth panel update, get this, in the voice of Frankenstein himself.  I kid you not.  It would have gone a little  something like this, hit it!:

Medical Interventionists…..BAD!:   Midwives…….Good!

No Support…..Bad!:   Doulas…..Good!

Ignorance….Bad!:  Independent Childbirth Education…..Good!

……………………………………FIRE!!!!!………………………………………….

Well, the best laid plans of mice and bloggers often goes awry.  As it did for me.  Instead of writing a cute, Halloween post on the perception of birth of moms in my community, I was forced to do what I hate the most……think.  (Remember folks, my brain was replaced with the brain of “Abby Normal,” in a crazy mishap in the OR.  Thinking hurts).

I am putting a hex on these bloggers and their thought provoking posts for making me think (I would suggest wearing garlic necklaces for awhile ladies):

Thinking-No Conclusions Yet from Stand and Delivery

Birth is a Journey-Does It Have to Be Life Changing? from  Enjoy Birth

One Day in a Life from Sweet Salty

What these posts have in common (beside that they are now cursed), is that they examine just how important the actual birth of a baby is to a mother.  The birthing “event.”    Prenatal expectations seem to run the spectrum of “Just knock me out and extract the baby like a tooth,” to “I want my birth to be an out-of-body, spiritual transcendence to heaven.”  Postnatally the birthing experiences range  from a forgotten event, to euphoria, to tragically, women feeling violated and assaulted during the process.

The birth panel I attended consisted of midwives, experienced moms, moms on second pregnancies, newly pregnant first moms, birth partners, nursing students, and (believe it or not) a curiosity seeker (who was very, shall I say…curious). This diverse group echoed the thoughts of the above bloggers.  They all were very hungry for information.  Everyone on the panel had an idea of how they wanted their births to go, but no one seemed like control freaks about it.  The majority wanted unmedicated births.  Some seemed very scared, but less so at the end of the discussion.

• The midwives spoke calmly and knowledgeably about birth.  They seemed to be very much advocates for their patients.

• The childbirth educators were very animated and excited by the topic.  The talked the most actually (guess they are very used to public speaking!).

• The experienced moms gave good “motherly” advice to the newbies.  They stressed that a lot of times birth, no matter where you are birthing, is out of your control.  Be flexible, but not a pushover.

• The newbies did seem somewhat scared.  They asked great questions focusing on what is the big deal about interventions?  What happens if I do get out of control?  How bad is the pain?  General questions about being afraid of the unknown.

One of the childbirth educators gave the crowd a great analogy.  Many of you may have heard this before, but it was new to me.  Birth is the great unknown, but if you arm yourself with education and support, it is a lot less scary.  She gave the analogy of how frightening it would be for someone to reach out and touch your shoulder from behind in a dark alley.  Yet, if that same scenario happened at a party with all of your friends, not scary at all!

For me personally, both births were scary.  The unknown of the first birth, ending up with a C-Section, and having a horrible post-partum recovery.  The second was scary for the thought of VBAC (catastrophic uterine rupture….get out of my brain please!), will this baby have colic also, will I be depressed postpartum?  All scary thoughts.  But I made it.  Here I am, along with my beautiful two daughters.  For me, the birthing experience had zero influence for me as a mother.  Zero.

Everyone is different.  Who are you?  What is your life story?  To me, as shown in the diversity of the birth panel I attended, is what helps form your birth experience and life as a mother.

So this very tired, rambling post is a word salad of all the blogs and birth panel ideas fighting with each other in my Abby Normal brain.  Maybe one day I will write a more coherent post on this (But Frankenstein is not exactly coherent, is he?)

I leave you with this quote from Young Frankenstein.  Twist your Abby Normal minds around it anyway you please:

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein : ” You know, I’m a rather brilliant surgeon. Perhaps I can help you with that hump.”

RR