I wanted to talk just a bit about obstetricians. In their defense, they are only working within their training and nature. Most don't go out of their way to be bull headed, opportunistic, business-minded, opinionated, god-complexed individuals. They are simply doing what they were taught to do: stand in the way of birth.
The typical course of study for a med student hoping to become an obstetrician includes, roughly:
- Undergraduate degree (BA or BS, 4 years)
- Medical school (4 years)
- OB/GYN residency (4 years)
In other words, whereas a midwife spends her whole career focusing on the normal and natural, and thus are experts in normal, natural childbirth. Obstetricians are experts in risk and conditions of pregnancy and birth.
Because midwives are experts in normal pregnancy and birth, they will see deviations from normal and natural pregnancy and labor/birth early on, be able to assess these variations, and take immediate and early precautionary measures to ensure your safety...
Because obstetricians are experts in risk and conditions associated with pregnancy and birth, they will be seeing the process as 'guilty until proven innocent', watching expectantly for these conditions to crop up, managing and attempting to control the event so that they can, in their trained minds, control the outcome.
Unfortunately, studies have found that the more we 'do' to pregnancy and birth, the more active management we try to assume over nature, the more unnatural and risky the event becomes. In other words, the very thing that doctors set out to avoid becomes reality - iatrogenic complications.
This training is amazingly beneficial for when true emergencies arise, when we truly medically need these services, when natural acts up. But, when nature takes it's normally uneventful course, obstetrics can really mess things up.
The very word 'obstetrics' comes from the Latin root obstāre, which means to stand in opposite/opposition to, obstacle. Medicine.net states that the clinical definition of obstetrics is: The art and science of managing pregnancy, labor and the puerperium (the time after delivery).
Doubly unfortunate is that, because of their training, most doctors loose sight of what is truly going on here: the miracle of life through the conduit of the feminine form. Oftentimes, they forget that the majority of pregnancy and birth IS normal and natural
Likewise, often they forget the autonomy, as well as the humanity, of the individual giving birth. For 12ish years they have been staring at diagrams of parts of the female anatomy, illustrations and models of the reproductive organs of the woman, not the person of the woman.
Not all doctors are ready to cut, or probe, or induce; I have been blessed to meet and work with many obstetricians who are midwives in wolves clothing, and you can find them every once and while in the blogsphere.
Not all doctors are ready to cut, or probe, or induce, or whatever... but the majority are. And, I cannot blame them, it is what their training has prepared them to do - to stand in the way of.. I cannot blame them, and neither can you. They are simply doing what they were taught to do: stand in the way of birth. And, if you don't want them to, then why did you hire an Obstetrician?
On the other hand, you have no one else to blame except yourself if you choose this model of care for your health care and should not feign surprise at the outcome of your experience.
This is just one more reason to be sure that you trust and are happy with your choice of care provider. If you aren't, then find another who you can trust and who does reflect your believes and ideals.
