Interventions in Birth & Importance of Informed Consent

Welcome back beautiful friends! I am ecstatic about this episode because it’s near and dear to my heart as a pregnant mama!! I knew from the moment I got pregnant that I wanted to do a home birth. I was lucky to witness my sister homebirth her four beautiful kids and the peace and serenity I saw in her birth spaces helped me see birth as a powerful initiation. When I shared about my home birth plans on IG, I received some questions as to why I chose a home birth. I have THE best community ever and so there were some earnest questions but zero judgment or criticism. I love you all so much! 

And as always with everything on my platform and podcast, this is educational and never to invoke shame. However you may have birthed your children is valid and beautiful. I believe in informed consent and I do believe many women do not know they have options outside of the hospital and interventions they may not fully understand the risks of. May this episode fall into the hands of women who are interested in learning and/or want to know their options to birth their own way. 

In this episode we talk about:

• Natural birth vs. birth interventions
• The risks of interventions like epidurals, induction, pitocin, cervical checks and more
• Considerations around “emergencies” in birth
• Things to actually invest in for birth and baby
• The importance of informed consent
• Ditching the “nice girl” mentality in pregnancy and birth
• Healing postpartum
• Bringing the village back
• Breastfeeding considerations
• And so much more

Continued reading:

Ultrasound: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12071478/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18635388/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4551225/

https://www.midwiferytoday.com/mt-articles/ultrasound-weighing-propaganda-facts/

https://www.aims.org.uk/assets/media/26/ultrasound-unsound.pdf

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/avoid-fetal-keepsake-images-heartbeat-monitors

Epidurals: https://www.llli.org/birth-interventions/

https://evidencebasedbirth.com/effect-of-epidurals-on-breastfeeding/

https://www.aacc.org/media/press-release-archive/2020/03-mar/when-mothers-receive-fentanyl-epidurals-during-labor-fentanyl-can-pass-to-their-babies

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987718303372

https://academic.oup.com/jalm/article/5/4/686/5809169?login=false

https://www.jabfm.org/content/jabfp/16/1/7.full.pdf

Benefits of physiological birth: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235054/

Oxytocin vs. Pitocin: https://sarahbuckley.com/pitocin-side-effects-part1/

https://www.nct.org.uk/labour-birth/your-guide-labour/hormones-labour-oxytocin-and-others-how-they-work

Pitocin not recommended for elective inductions in pregnant women (see top of page 2):https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2014/018261s031lbl.pdf

Pitocin and risk of PPH: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3555986/

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About today’s guest Saima:

Doula turned Radical Birthkeeper, I run a radical birth education programme teaching women and partners what they REALLY need to know to experience natural birth rather than interventions. 94% of the women who do my course experience natural birth vs. the UK first time mama average of 34% and 66% have a homebirth vs. the UK average of 2% (stats from our groups who birthed in 2021)

Follow Saima for more wisdom

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livewildbirthfree/ 

Website: livewildbirthfree.com

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