Natural Birth – Why you need to Know with Sarah Simons – TheDeenShow #826

It gets get even more increasingly dangerous to even have a child. Now, people are scared of it. People don't know how to do it. I was talking to my grandmother, she was in a garden, right. And she was wearing a long skirt. She was gardening while she was pregnant. I won't tell anyone give it to us wrong. I recommend everyone a country that spends as much money on health care, it still does not have very good outcome was like a major complication that you've had had. So I signed out against medical advice, this fears pushed on you and you're only going good as a peace. Welcome to the deen Show. I'm your host, subscribe, if you haven't already. Hit that notification bell so you can get

all of our shows delivered to you. As soon as they come out. Don't forget to support us on our Patreon page, we got a very, very important topic that we're going to be discussing today. Because even with all of the madness, all the chaos in the world, people are still having babies. And now people are scared to go to the hospitals. So homebirth, the topic of homebirth has come up and we brought an expert on the show who's delivered over 1200 babies from the comfort of your home. So this is a home birth expert. We're going to ask her on the ins and outs of it so you can be more informed, better informed to make a better decision with our next guest. This is

mentioned Henry, this is what this is this field you you specialize in. What is officially your title. I'm a certified nurse midwife certified. I'm an RN with additional training and certification by exam in nurse midwifery. Yeah. So now especially now it says people are scared of hospitals, they're returning around now a lot of people are trying to stay away from hospitals, right? But then it seems like it's growing now home birth, home birth has seen a little uptick people are nervous about going to the hospital. There are different issues though I always tell people, it's not enough to say you want a home birth because you want to avoid COVID. home birth is a really 150%

commitment. So it's hard to jump in at the end of pregnancy. Just because something scared you at the hospital. It's really good to spend as much of the pregnancy as possible, preparing for home birth, how long have you been doing this? I started attending home births in 1990. As an assistant, I went as a nurse with some a physician group that was doing home births, and then some midwife groups. And I became a nurse midwife in 95. So how many around how many babies have 1200 1200? Yeah. Why is it that when you mention home birth, it's it seems like it's something from the Stone Age, it seems like something like you know, that it becomes something like weird to talk about? Well,

there's a lot of fear around birth in our culture, we're somewhat protected from a we don't see it growing up, we don't hear about it too much. And then women are not always as educated as is ideal. They haven't really been prepared for the experience of birth. And it's kind of common in our culture, not just in birth. But it's kind of common to defer to medical authorities. If anything is wrong with your body. It's a very rare doctor who will say, Tell me what's going on, you're the expert on your body. The doctors usually want to maintain the authority and be the experts. And they are they do have training, and they do you have experience to inform people's care. But I look at my

relationship with my families very much as a partnership. I'm not telling them what to do. I'm guiding them, I'm giving them the benefit of my knowledge, but they are in the driver's seat. The one exception being if in labor, there's some type of emergency then I will take charge of that situation. And that's really why most people hire me, they don't want me telling them every little thing they can do or can't do. But they do want me there making sure the process is staying healthy and normal. So during these times, we want to give people a better clearer picture a better understanding, because now it's on the table. It's definitely something now because people again are

some are scared to go to the hospitals. Some have heard the term, some are considering it, you know, but still kind of nervous and scared. So we want to kind of let them know what it's all about. You know, but you just had to go back to some of your grandparents really and ask them, you know, I was talking to my grandmother about this. And she said,

she told me a story that she was in a garden, right. And she was wearing a long

skirt, dress and a long dress. And she was gardening while she was pregnant and she gave birth while she was pregnant. She pretty much she had the baby in the garden. And the baby came out into to the her her

her dress. And when I talked to her about this Yeah, it was just normal. You know, it was very something very, very normal. But now it's become like the normal at one time become abnormal in this fear. There's so much fear. There's a lot of fear around the pain of childbirth. No, I won't. I won't tell anyone. It's not painful. There's no give it to us raw

childbirth preparation. That is, I mean, very rarely, maybe a handful, maybe two people in all of 1200 would say they had a relatively pain free childbirth experience, but there's gonna be some pain. But what I try and reassure people about is it's not pain, like you broke your arm. It's not pain, like you have a kidney stone. It's normal pain. It's for purpose, pain, and it's doable. So you have these intense sensations, they call them contractions. And you do think, yes, something really big is happening in your body. But you get some breaks from them, you you learn to relax very quickly between so that you have the stamina and the strength to continue and and women do it all

the time. Is this is this? Are we seeing a turn in the culture now? Are we seeing that now people are, are also insurance companies already covering this or the is it turning around reimbursement from insurance companies, but I would say it's too early to say there's a turn in the culture, it's still probably only about 2% of the population that wants to seek out home birth, only 2%. There's a I don't know if you've seen this documentary, I recommend everyone who is planning on having a child is about to have a child that they watch it I don't know, if you've seen it's called the business of being born. It's a great documentary seen it like is brilliant. Yes, very good. For those people who

haven't watched it, can you kind of give us a breakdown of what you remember of it. So Ricki Lake, whom I only knew, as a comedian, and an actress, I didn't know she's smart. And she put together a very good film. But she talks about the business end of things and how some of the practices in the hospital that women take for granted, like you have to be induced for the set or the other reason, or, you know, you have to speed up your labor, you have to, they assume that that's for health reasons. But actually, there are some other factors that are figuring into that the hospitals are run, to move people through because it's a for profit model. So they don't want women having three

day laborers and tying up a room. And and, you know, it's a little simplistic to say that is really, in people's minds.

And physicians, you know, I don't want to denigrate any physician, they want to do the best for their patients, but they kind of swallow some of the Kool Aid, sometimes I see that they think it's for the best for the patient that her labor be sped up. But there can be some very serious complications from the misuse of that technology. I think technology is wonderful. I'm grateful for it. But it's for the rare labor and not for the every woman that comes through the doors. And so it's misused quite frequently. And it leads to problems. And you mentioned the increasing Syrian, right? Yes, women's bodies have not changed in the last 35 years. It's not like suddenly, women are

not able to give birth vaginally. What has changed is the practice of medicine. There's a lot more emphasis on this healthcare as a business. There are liability issues that

drive practices, sometimes in a negative way.

So that's what she remember talking about in the documentary that these c sections are just, I mean, like you said, okay, it's there for a purpose in case of what would you say extreme emergency.

Right, for an extreme emergency. The most common reason probably given when you're looking at medical reports would be failure to progress. Well, failure to progress is kind of a catch all phrase, meaning the labor didn't go as we expected, it didn't go fast enough, we thought the baby was getting stuck. But honestly, everything is everything is changing in labor, the baby's head is molding, the woman's pelvis is opening. So what that usually means is failure to progress was just you didn't progress in the timeframe that we had in our heads. So it's not in our heads. Right? Right. The the thing that people don't realize is that Syrians lead to sometimes very devastating

complications. And that's part of people don't talk, they talk about infant mortality as being higher than it should be for this country. But the maternal mortality is too high. It's really high for this. A country that spends as much money on health care, and has really

everything every bit of technology that you could wish for. It still does not have very good outcomes. And there are a lot of countries that are that have many fewer resources that do better. Yet that article,

Article rising rate of C section is rising at an alarming rate. And there's a quote here from it. It's very interesting. And this is what the the business of war documentary really revolves a lot about that the business model, but this particular quote is interesting. Where I believe they're quoting it says as an obstetrician told me said you're going to pay me more meaning for the season.

You're not going to sue me, and I'll be home in an hour. So as a very convenient, less liability and more pay.

all true. Now, I would hate to say any given obstetrician has that consciously in their minds when they're performing an operation, but it does play into the way practices unfold. Yeah. That's that's a fact reality of life. Many people it's nice to I mean, there are a lot of great doctors out there, there are a lot of but some gifts get overtaken with I would say the worship of money, and also the fear of losing money because lawsuits, potential lawsuits liability. So is that with the with the C, and C sections, it's like, you are waiting. And you mentioned the hospitals is like, you got to get them out, get them out. And if they're not delivered at a certain time, it's money. Time is money.

Time is money. And, and to be fair, the physicians do not have a very, it's not a very

easy time to be an obstetrician in this country. They do have huge malpractice premiums. Yes, big time now. And they have a lot of other expenses, that and even just loans from medical school, they are not it's not a get rich, quick scheme. But you're right, they are concerned about not a get rich, quick scheme. Absolutely.

We've noticed from talking to people, and then they you know, the difference between also someone who's a professional like you, you just seemed like there's more this, there's less hands on approach. A lot of times we hear this term, I want to deliver naturally, what does that mean, when a woman says I just wanted to live naturally,

without intervention without intervention without intervention. So even you could at the most extreme point, you could say that going to the hospital is an intervention, and it does have an impact. Often women's labors slow down, when they go to the hospital, it's the stress of transition, the stress of being in a strange place, actually slow down, slow down or stop completely. So then you're in a situation where of course, they want to add some medication to your IV so that you can get your labor back that's called the potassium, the pitocin. What is that potassium, and what is that the Towson is the synthetic version of oxytocin, which is what a woman's body makes to cause

her uterus to contract. So they put it in an IV, they started very slow, so that because people react to it differently, so they want don't want to overstressed the baby, and then they gradually increase it till they get a contraction pattern that will cause the baby to be born. Now, I'll tell you a most amazing story about how much the mind affects labor. So I had a woman call me on a Sunday, this is years ago, this baby's probably 15 or 20. She called me on a Sunday, and she said, I'm interested in a home birth, can you take me on? And I said, Well, I don't know. Tell me a little more. She said, Well, I should tell you, my due date was on Friday. And I said, Okay, and has your

prenatal course been normal? And she said, yeah, it's been fine. I said, Okay. She said, I should tell you that I was in labor on Friday. In fact, I was at the hospital. And I got to seven centimeters. And they, my labor slowed down, and they wanted to break my water. And they wanted to add pitocin to the IV. And I was uncomfortable. So I signed out against medical advice

in the middle of labor, and so very brave woman. I said, Well, okay, that's interesting. I said, if you're still pregnant tomorrow, I can't take you as a client over the phone without laying eyes on you, or seeing your records. But bring your records to my office. We'll meet tomorrow. And we'll see. And so she came, she brought her records, everything was in order. And I said, Well, I don't usually do this the first visit, but would you mind if I checked your cervix? She said, Sure. She was seven centimeters. She had been seven centimeters for three days waiting to see me. Two hours after she left my office, she called me She said, Well, I think it's time for you to come. And I

went, she had her baby in like two hours. She's had babies before she has her fourth baby, she kind of understood the process. And she understood her body. She understood her body, but I had not imagined it was possible to hold your labor in the middle. Because she was very uncomfortable. She was very fearful that about what the medical professionals wanted to do. That's another complaint that we get a lot. You know, people complain about this. Fear inducement, right? And then they just, you're like, it seems like you're the environment usually like you're in a laboratory. And this fear is pushed on you and you only you're going to get an infection. You have to we have to induce you.

We have to design the other panic kicks in that can't be healthy, Kenny. You're very vulnerable. You're vulnerable when you're in labor, and you're vulnerable when you're making decisions around the health of your children. So

Yes, I have heard physicians say, you will kill your baby, if you don't do what we say.

How can you respond to that? You can not really, it's hard. And then if you're in the middle of labor, you can't even barely finish a thought, much less have a conversation. So the most important thing I think, with having an uneventful or straightforward, efficient labor, is to find a provider that you have very good communication with. And to that you have a similar philosophy. Because there does need to be a deep level of trust, like your you know, there could be I mean, even at home, there are certain decisions that need to be made, like, do you want to give birth in a tub? Or do you want to give birth on your bed? Or do you want to be on a squat? Or do you want to be lying on

your side? And some, most women can make those decisions in the middle of labor, but it's nice to have

thought it through a little bit and think of what you might like, and to have somebody that's going to support you in those choices. What's your feedback on this from watching, if someone watches that film, the business of being born and then people through their experiences have related similar stories, okay, so they go to the hospital, and this is the concern, because

the community, let's say, or the family, they want to have more children, right. But now, at a growing exponential rate, you see these c c sections, they're growing at an alarming rate. That's, that's, I believe, it's like one in three or something like that. So now you're in this environment, you're scared. And now what happens after a C section. Now it's even harder to have a natural births the next time around, and then you and then the next time around what happened? It's like it gets even more increasingly dangerous to even have a child is that right? Oh, many repeat c sections do lead? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I would say

you wouldn't want to have a big family if you were having all c section. But if those things were just if they let it run its course, do you see in your experience that this would be avoided? I mean, have have you in your 1200 births, what kind of what was like a major complication that you've had? Have, you had to run any to get a C section? Oh, sure. We go to the hospital about one out of 10 times, and it's usually not an emergency. Usually, it's something along labor like the woman's getting tired, she wants pain medication or more, she's getting to the point where the contractions are getting weaker, because her body is so tired. And so then it is helpful to have those tools that

the hospital has to offer, it's helpful to have pitocin, it's helpful to have pain medication, but that should be reserved for the unusual labors. I tell women when they're having their first baby, they can pretty much expect to lose one night's sleep. And if they're unlucky, they might lose two night's sleep. If you start approaching the third night without sleep, then probably you need to look at going to the hospital because I don't think people can really handled that length of time of extreme stress. And so that's so yeah, I'm grateful for the technology to help with those kinds of Labor's but it's not helpful when it's used on every labor, when it too much intervention, would you

say is a bad thing too much, too. So we have it here in case of unique situation situations, extreme emergencies. But in general, yeah, and and birth is not like a television show. Usually these things unfold over time. It's not like, one second, everything's fine. And then you're saying, Oh, my gosh, we have to go to the hospital. It's usually, okay, this is looking a little bit like maybe we'll need to go, we have a conversation with the parents. And it's not. Now there are a few emergencies that can happen at the last minute. And then we activate emfs, we call for an ambulance. And that has gone very well to I mean, the paramedics around in the Chicago area, know enough about home

birth. And they don't actually do that much birth themselves. And the births they do do are usually just normal bursts that came faster than the parents expected. So they're very collegial, they want the midwife to be on board as part of the team. And they are extremely helpful. So what what people have talked about

when they've kind of described the homebirth it was homebirth, which is more comfortable, less stressful, comfort of your own home. They're not tied up to all these machines, Beeping Beeping. It was much like a laboratory cell setting. The fear wasn't there. Right. It's,

they have they're the hosts of the party, and they're people that they know and have invited to be there or they're in the hospital, it's much more stream of usually shifts are coming and going. People sometimes come in the room and look at the machinery and don't even interact with the couple. There can be some serious disrespect and it's just yeah, it's just a

I don't know why people don't go someplace to make love or to go to the bathroom like it's a normal physiologic experience. And it should not normally need to be medicalized. We've seen some hospitals going towards more towards midwives. Sure, because that's what women want. That's very much the result of consumer demand. And the midwives are doing a great job in the hospital, but they're still in an institutional setting. And they still do experience some of the same pressures that physicians do. So they you know, they do do inductions. They

don't give you another example. So between 37 and 42 weeks is a normal term pregnancy. That is, during that time, there's a one in 1000 rate of stillbirth. Those are babies that don't make it for some reason that can't be predicted or prevented. It might be a cord accident, it might be a problem with the placenta, but there's not really anything to be done about it. At 42 weeks, that number is two and 1000. So it is a small bit measurable increase. So from medical legal perspective, why would you ever let a woman gets 42 weeks because that extra risk of stillbirth could lead to lawsuits. I have a conversation with parents about that, especially as we get to their due date or we're

starting to go past their due date. I'm like, we have some testing we can do to reassure ourselves that the baby is still healthy and the placenta is functioning well. But I don't force people to be induced strictly because they are 42 weeks, they might have been off on their due date by a couple days. I really believe that babies know when to be born with a few exceptions. And there might be like a baby that's not growing well, even that can be misinterpreted because of the imperfections of ultrasound. So mostly, I'd say

it's a parent's choice if they want to be induced at 42 weeks, if they shouldn't be pressured as much as they are. Because induction is one of the main causes of C section. If you decide that the baby needs to be born, and you're going to start the process of making the woman have contractions, but it doesn't work for some reason. You're stuck. You thought you said the baby needed to be born and if the induction isn't working, what else can you do about a C section? Okay, so help us understand that for the rookies out there for people to understand induction and then 42 at 42 weeks, it's it's more standard practice that the baby needs to be born needs to come out. Otherwise,

we need to start induction what is induction induction is putting pitocin as the pitocin tosun in the IV, and 42 weeks is the latest. A lot of a lot of practices want to start that conversation. Just as soon as you get past your due date, or at least by 41 weeks. They're like Oh, you're past your due date. Let's just make this baby good. I can usually it's not it's not 100%. Right? due date is not 100% it's pretty, it's pretty much your best guess that's the best guess, within of the women that conceived when you can see if so only 5% of babies are born on their due date. Okay, so then so then the induction is a pitocin is a pitocin come with side effects. Like any pharmaceutical drug?

Well, sure. So the first thing that pitocin does, the strength of contractions is roughly the same by the peak of labor, whether it's natural labor or pitocin. Labor, but the the curve to get there, the hill to get up to the peak is steeper for pitocin. So women experienced that as more painful. So there's a greater need for pain medication with a pitocin induction. And that can cause different problems that can lower the woman's blood pressure can cause fetal distress, can make it hard to push the baby out. All the side effects of anesthesia can make it harder to have a vaginal birth.

The other thing is the pitocin can be too strong for the baby. It too many contractions can cause fetal distress. So once you go down that route now, if I understood correctly, that's has a domino effect. So exactly if it doesn't work, and we're seeing that in most cases, a lot of cases, let's say it's not working that equal c section. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then C section equals next time you want to have a baby more, you become high risk. It's much harder to have a vaginal birth after a C section and then again, then that could potentially lead to another c section. And then it's like hybrid, we won't even deliver you naturally. Right? But even even if you're planning, say you've had

four c sections and so you've resigned yourself that your next baby is going to be born by C section. That's not even safe because the uterus is so scarred. The placenta barely has a place to implant. The placenta can actually grow through the uterus and implant in different parts of the body. It can cause horrible side effects. What about when the baby's breached? Usually that equals, there have been some good doctors who can kind of manipulate Can you do it? Do you also work with a breach or you go is that automatically equal most cases see sex

That is a thing that has changed over the last 30 years, there used to be many doctors who would deliver a vaginal breech baby, it is a slightly higher risk birth.

I do recommend that people find a provider that is comfortable and experienced in breech. But it's not being taught in medical schools, it's, it used to be considered a variation of normal. It used to be just some babies come that way. And now, people are scared of it. People don't know how to do it. What's the wisdom behind we're also hearing a lot from people who look into this and that leaving when the baby comes out, usually they'll snatch the baby and they'll give him all the shots and put the stuff that burns in their eye and cut the cord. But how does it work with homework is it whereas sometimes even heard that is there's some science behind this, we're leaving the umbilical

cord, and

absolutely called,

is delayed or physiologic cord clamping. I mean, delayed can be

like someone will say they're delaying cord clamping, if they wait 30 cord clamping that's what is great. But I wait until the cord has stopped pulsing. So the baby gets all of the it's a third of its blood volume in the placenta gets stem cells, red blood cells, white blood cells, a lot of good stuff still got of stuff going through the cord and the baby gets oxygen that's still coming through the core. So it helps enormously with that transition to air breathing, which all babies have to make they come out they've been getting oxygen through the cord. And now they have to expand their lungs and take a breath. And if there's a little delay with that, if there's a problem with that,

it's wonderful to have that cord. Still pulsing and helping that baby transition the skin to skin with the mother helps the baby bonding. It's not even just bonding isn't the baby doesn't even know it's a separate person from the mother. So its physiological processes are so tied up with the mother, it responds to her heartbeat and her breathing noises. And it's been hearing all of that in utero. So putting the baby I've seen a baby that looked a little bit like maybe a little lamp a little bit blue wasn't like perfectly transitioning, put it on the mother's chest and it picks up and it starts doing its thing. And it's it's quite amazing. But it's quite under appreciated in the

hospital because they'd have a different physical setup, if a baby needs a little help. They're not prepared to do a resuscitation at the bedside. So that's where that clamping the cord and rushing the baby across the room comes from because they have a warming table where they have a team of doctors around. And I actually find my recessive recessive patients go very well, just simply with me and my assistant at home at the bedside with cord intact. So pretty much at home home birth is pretty much just more laid back. It is more laid back. because really we only need to intervene very occasionally. Yeah. And you just kind of let it just run its course. Exactly. It's pretty beautiful

thing to see. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't seem complicated at all. I mean, I mean, obviously the pain, everything that goes through it, but just the process. It just seems that complicated, more natural way. And we've been doing this for 1000s of years. All over the world, women assist women in childbirth, and they don't have a lot of degrees. They just have that hands on experience. And it goes very well for the most part. Yeah. So in our last few minutes, what advice would you have? For someone who knows?

They're thinking about it because they're scared to go to the hospital because of everything that's going on. They've heard the term home birth, they mentioned it their family's like, Are you crazy? What are you talking about? But they're considering it? You know, what, what advice would you give to someone like that people out there? I think being comfortable with your provider is important. So interviewing different home birth providers. I think that film you mentioned is very helpful the business of being born, the business of being born, that's a must watch, Would you say that's a must watch the business of being born and just to trust your body and know that you come from a long line

of women who have given birth and until recently saved the last few generations, mostly vaginally and mostly without much assistance. So

yeah, I think just confidence and and knowledge educating yourself a good childbirth classes, a good thing to do, and that's one of the beautiful things because fear can just it can be crippling, you know, just talking to you. I mean,

and talking to others, it just just seems much more peaceful. Just

the whole process the hospitals just seems like it's that fear just something that

many people complain about and less so with the midwives in that but this do you think the system is somebody needs to be some some modifications is broken or you know,

Well, I think that it's it's very complicated because, right, our healthcare system is broken. And it's very dominated by pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. And so hospital administrators as well. There's the risk management, people don't want you to step outside a certain line, because what if, what if, what if, and they're afraid about lawsuits. So this, I think single payer health care would help a lot, if we had simplified that. And also, if we had a greater social safety net for people that do need some special care, like, say you had a baby that had a birth injury and needed some sort of long term care, who could pay for that people have to sue, but if we

had a more of a safety net on a global level, then that would be

less incentive to sue. You know, this is gonna sound a little political, but Cuba has very good outcomes for infant mortality, maternal mortality, and they really do a low tech now they do do hospital births, mostly. But they are family practice doctors attending Cuba, Michael Moore did a documentary about right yeah, he mentioned it I think in sicko Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's what it was. Yeah, yeah. sicko was another great to see Yeah. Okay. So that's a whole different topic. We're out of time but this the the healthcare Big Pharma and all that, but uh, would that would you say like when you look at the data, because we prescribe the most drugs give the most shots, but we

still and we have the highest level of infant mortality of sick baby Sick Kids, sick adults. I mean, this is another whole nother discussion that wraps around. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. If somebody wanted to, if they're in the Chicago area in Illinois, that's where you're based. That's why they wanted to give you a ring. How can they look you up? My practice is called New Life midwifery. What is it called New Life midwifery. And I have a Facebook page New Life midwifery. And I also have a phone number 773-573-9100. So but there are other providers and I do encourage people to interview around because a lot of the success of homebirth is based on the relationship so you

want to get someone you click with and communicate well with or you might get some fans of the deen show giving you a ring.

All right, thank you so much for being God bless you. And if you like this episode of the show, like this video, share this video far and wide and support us on our Patreon page and continue this work. Thank you for tuning in. Peace be with you as salaam aleikum, subscribe right now.