I’m yet to receive a birth plan that reads…..
If you're planning to labour and give birth in a Hospital, and you are 'hoping' to avoid unnecessary medical interventions you need to prepare to navigate the hospital system.
The 2023 AIHW Mothers and Babies Report shows an alarming gap between what women want and what they’re getting!
I’m yet to receive a birth plan that reads: "I’m open to the idea of an Emergency Caesarean"
I’m yet to receive a birth plan that reads I’m open to the idea of an unnecessary episiotomy.
I’m yet to receive a birth plan that reads I’m open to the idea of vacuum extraction of my baby.
I’m yet to receive a birth plan that reads I’m open to the idea of a forceps delivery and am fully prepared for the likelihood of meeting my baby with indentation marks on their face, covered in my blood from the cut to my vagina, clitoris and perineum.
I’m yet to receive a birth plan from a woman accepting the following statistics that result in her holding her new baby having navigated obstetric violence, and being the 1 in 3 that are processing birth trauma.
I’m yet to read these outcomes as my “birth preferences” or my “birth wishes”.
And yet far too many women are experiencing exactly this…
Our most recent birth statistics have been released via the AIHW Mothers and Babies Report for 2021,
Let’s dip our toes into the numbers shall we…
38% of women had a cesarean birth (The WHO recommends 10%-15% to ensure mortality rates are kept low for mothers and babies).
ONLY 50 % of women experienced a non-instrumental vaginal birth (remembering that 38% of women are having cesareans)
7.2% of women had a vaginal birth assisted by vacuum
4.9% of women had a vaginal birth assisted by forceps
34% of women had an induction of labour – that’s an alarming amount of babies that did not choose their birth dates, that did not benefit from the hormonal dance of labour with their mothers
These statistics are not improving the experience for mother and baby, and year on year we are seeing more intervention and more birth trauma.
Our women and babies deserve better
If you are a first time mum with a low risk pregnancy your best chance of avoiding these outcomes is by planning to birth at home, with the support of Midwives. If Homebirth scares you we need to be asking why!
Our birthing culture is doing a fucking great job at scaring women away from the safest option and into the arms of the very system that is continuing to result in less than satisfactory outcomes.
If homebirth is not an option to you in your local area either through a private midwifery program or through a publicly funded program your next best option might be to request a continuity of care model commonly known as Midwife Group Practice with your hospital.
Where you should have the opportunity to develop a deep relationship with your midwife or a small team of midwives, and avoid a fragmented model of care.
You then need take responsibility in building a birth support team, a team that makes you feel safe, well supported and one that will offer you privacy, avoid unnecessary interruptions and interventions. A birth team that understands you, your goals, your fears and is working with you to achieve or avoid these goals, for some women this includes hiring a doula.
If you have a partner, they should also be well prepared to support you, has been involved in your antenatal appointments and feels very much a part of the experience if this is what you and they want. A partner that is not stepping into the birth space, fearful, uneducated and unfairly replied upon by an uneducated, frightened unprepared birthing woman.
If you are choosing Obstetric led care, know their birth statistics. You deserve to know what you working with or are up against if you are hoping to avoid unnecessary medical interventions.
Well women are struggling to transition to life as a new parent with our disconnected postnatal support networks. Our birthing culture isn’t doing a great job to nourish and care for women in these early weeks, Imagine the overwhelming strain on a brand new mother, healing from birth injuries, processing her traumatic birth and reflecting upon the obstetric violence that was inflicted upon her? These women make up a huge percentage of our 311,360 mothers who birthed in 2021 now chasing after a 2 year old.
Our Mothers, Our babies and next generation deserve better!
If you know of a brand new mother at home with her newborn baby – check in on her, make her a meal, put on a load of washing and deeply listen when you ask her, so how’s it all going?
Author – Bethany Meakin (LCCE) Director Childbirth Education Australia
