Avoiding the Stranded Beetle

It never really occurred to me how I should give birth as far as positions went.  I suppose before I had my first baby I just assumed it must work in a bed, laying down, because that’s what everyone did and babies came out, right?  I’m going to date myself here and say that this was about 19 years ago, when the cesarean rate at my hospital was an “alarming” 22% (That same hospital is now at 42%.)  I really wanted to give birth vaginally and without drugs.  I knew want I wanted and I read a lot of books, which were also extremely limited in number.

Some great books that really stuck with me that were as true today as they were then included:

• Good Birth Safe Birth – This is the one that really won me over talking about the safety of unmedicated birth and how simple it all looked.  I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this book if you haven’t yet read it.
• Spiritual Midwifery – I’ll admit it freaked me out a bit to read this one, but the Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth is a really nice one to offer parents in its place.

Here’s the deal, I truly don’t remember them telling me not to get in bed.  Now before you think it’s a lack of information, I think it’s not.  I think these authors trusted me and trusted my body to know that my instincts would tell me to get up to give birth in a way that I had not even thought about.

It wasn’t until my childbirth class that someone actually said: “Don’t do the stranded beetle!”  All of a sudden it clicked.  All of these women were stranded beetles, laying on their backs with their legs in the air, flailing – trying to give birth against gravity!  As if birth wasn’t challenging enough!

When I talked to my doctor about being more upright for birth I was told that it was not a problem!  I could sit up (meaning that I was allowed to lift my head off the pillow) but that I couldn’t “hang from the chandelier.”  I think many women believe that they gave birth sitting up, when in fact, a slightly propped hospital bed is not the same thing as giving birth in an upright position.

The truth is that if we want women to be able to connect to their bodies natural urges to push, we also need to give them realistic options for avoiding the stranded beetle.  This means that we have to change the imagery that they are thinking of when it comes to birth.  And while it’s hard to counteract years of Baby Story and media in general, we can do that by incorporating upright positioning in childbirth class and even in prenatal exercise classes.  We can show birth videos that have women assuming upright positions (List your favorite in the comments!).  And when at a birth we can encourage a woman to follow her instincts and offer her alternatives other than the bed.  Birth ball anyone?

• Get up, stand up!  Blog Carnival
• Get Upright and Follow Urges to Push