Pregnancy Is Way Better Without An OB/GYN

 

Four years ago, I had a typical pregnancy (aside from severe morning sickness) overseen by a typical obstetrician. I gave birth at a typical hospital and received a ton of typical birth interventions, none of which were based on actual need. When my first child was born she was immediately taken away to be poked and prodded instead of being held by her mother. Typical.

The whole experience was normal by any doctors standards, but I wasn’t impressed with the treatment. It was highly impersonal and at times, bordered on uncaring and unprofessional. Like the time I asked if I should make a birth plan and was laughed at for assuming I had any choice in how to deliver my child from my womb. And like the time I was told I had to get directly into the bed within moments of arriving to the hospital and had a fetal heart monitor strapped tightly to my belly, restricting my movement. Like the time when the on-call doctor walked in and gave me an episiotomy (a procedure that is no longer standardly recommended) without so much as a hello or a damn good reason. I could go on.

What was lacking in the care I received was even a small amount of choice about my body, my rights and my baby or the acknowledgment that this was, in fact, a natural event that was about to occur. I believed it was. Modern day medicine however, did not. So when I got pregnant again, I decided to seek out a different mode of care. I wanted someone I felt I could trust but that also trusted me. Time and time again I was told “you’re looking for a midwife.”

 

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