In the natural birth world there is so much talk of trying to avoid interventions to have the calmest birth possible, but what if having that very intervention DOES make your birth the beautiful, calm birth that it needs to be?
Now, I am definitely not pro-intervention, far from it, but sometimes there really is a need for these interventions and I want to assure you that you can still have a beautiful, calm and empowering birth even if you do end up having an intervention.
You see, when I fell pregnant I was adamant that I would have a natural water birth, potentially in the comfort of my own home and with soft candles and beautiful music playing in the background. I thought that interventions would be unnecessary for me. So therefore I naively did no research whatsoever into caesareans or caesarean recovery.
What I didn’t factor in was that my baby would be suffering from IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction) and it was, in fact, 100% medically necessary for me to have an induction. What I also didn’t factor in was that after hours of labour and not much progress, my baby was too weak to be born ‘naturally’ and that the absolute safest and best option would be for me to have a caesarean. I also didn’t factor in how EMPOWERED I would feel throughout the journey.
I think that natural births are wonderful, raw and empowering and I really hope that my next birth will be a VBAC, with only a midwife, a doula and my husband present in the space, but I also think there needs to be less shame if interventions are needed. Mumma’s need to feel empowered, not be made to feel like they failed because they needed or wanted an intervention.
As long as you are making informed decisions and you feel heard, seen and supported during the process, do it your way. Trust your body and know that it will do whatever it can to bring that precious baby into this world the best way it knows how.
I follow so many empowering women on social media who have given birth at home, and there are photos of them birthing their babies in a pool by candle light, looking euphoric. All power to these women, you are absolute goddesses and you deserve to be honoured. But so too do the women who opted for or needed an intervention, so too do the women who are suffering from birth trauma or who feel like they failed because they had an intervention. The women who gave birth in a hospital surrounded by an abundance of doctors and midwives, the woman who needed to be rushed into surgery, the woman who opted for surgery or an epidural. Let’s not forget these women, for they too are warriors and they are just as much of a mother as
anyone else.
All birth is sacred, let’s not forget it.
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