Birth Evolution

…women aren’t being treated the right way. It made me mad and it hurt to know that I wasn’t treated like a person during my own labor and delivery.

Now, when I listen to the stories of some of my grandmothers, I am sad that I wasn’t able to labor as they did. I wonder if my story would be different if I had been allowed to go 42 weeks as one grandmother did with four of her five children. Would my story have had a different ending? Maybe a better ending?

Then I think about some of the not so good stories my grandmothers have to tell me. One grandmother who was violently sick for her entire pregnancy with what we now know is Hyperemesis. There was no diagnosis then, and certainly no treatment. She lost 20 lbs during her pregnancy and survived on crackers the entire time.

I’m grateful that I have medicines available to me and IVs for rehydration as I battle Hyperemesis. I can’t imagine lasting 40 weeks without it. Can you believe she did it more than once? I’m not sure I could.

Finally, I think about the grandmother who adopted children. She couldn’t have her own after battling endometriosis for most of her adult life. Today, there would be so many more options for her. It’s not that she regrets adopting at all or that there is anything wrong with it or less about it… just that today she would have more options.

Modern medicine has certainly come a long way since our grandmothers’ time. I’m oh so grateful for that. I have personally benefited from it during my pregnancies. However, what if we are missing something? If this is a pendulum, it has definitely swung the other way. Now we just need to find a nice spot in the middle. Maybe we will get there by the time I’m the grandmother.

Written by: Sara Parise