Healthy mom & healthy baby... ?

I would like to share an excerpt from a recent blogpost by Rixa at Stand and Deliver. Rixa is such a wonderful, articulate woman who writes with passion and encouragement. Her recent post on "all that matters" is incredibly important to me. Since I had Evelyn in the hospital, it makes me so thankful that I had a midwife and OB team to truly respected the health and well-being of us both.

"And all that matters is that you have a healthy and safe delivery... no matter how it's done.


All that matters is a healthy baby and healthy mommy.

Whatever happens, what matters most is a healthy baby girl and a happy mama and daddy.

In the end, all that matters is bringing a healthy baby into this world, by whatever means necessary.


These are all real statements I came across one day last week. 
  
I find these statements both tyrannical and tautological. Tyrannical because it leads to a restriction of choices in the name of safety. Tautological because *of course* mothers want their babies to be born healthy and want themselves to come out of the process unharmed.


The "healthy mom/healthy baby" rhetoric, if followed to its logical end, leads down several ridiculous and contradictory paths. 


First, it allows widespread abuse and manipulation of birthing women by negating anything that happened in the course of the birth, as long as the mom and baby survived. (Because in this context, "healthy" is a euphemism for made it out alive, not necessarily thriving and vibrant and injury-free.) It excuses any and all deviations from principles of evidence-based medicine and informed consent. And ironically, it often leads to greater net harm. Why? Because the "healthy mom/healthy baby" rhetoric is usually used to justify increased medical intervention. Pressured to have a c-section you didn't want or need? Encouraged to have an induction for dubious reasons? Given an episiotomy even though you clearly said you would rather tear? You should be grateful, because all that matters is that you have a healthy and safe delivery... no matter how it's done.


Second, it creates a false dichotomy between Good Moms who do the Right Things (like doing whatever their care provider says without asking questions) and Bad Moms who care more about The Experience than their own and their baby's wellbeing. You know, the hedonistic, selfish, narcissistic moms who'd rather listen to Enya and labor in an Aquadoula than have a living baby. 


Third, it creates an artificial hierarchy of women's wants and needs, in which the mother's--and especially the baby's--health cannot coexist equally with other goals. Goals such as feeling respected and honored and joyful during the birth process, being able to make decisions about their care, and emerging from the birth feeling powerful and confident. 


Fourth, the healthy mom/healthy baby idea opens the door for dictatorial top-down decisions. Because if the most important thing is a healthy mother and a healthy baby, then logically anything that adds additional risk to mother or baby should not be allowed."

I believe that the type of vague language like "whatever it takes" used in hospitals is incredibly manipulative and only serves to make women and families conform to the wishes of the persons NOT actually birthing the baby. I do not want to be one of those women/moms/doulas who thinks all OBs and hospitals are evil, but I sure am sick and tired of hearing the "whatever it takes to have a healthy mom and healthy baby" crap.

Sigh. It's pouring outside and I'm tired. Evelyn is sleeping soundly after a good nursing so I suppose I'll read another chapter of Twilight. Night!

~Christine