Has conventional medicine misunderstood their role in birth?

My name is Aubree Jarrett! Welcome to my page. I am a birth educator and doula. Most of the time my blogs will be very playful with lots of humor! This one will be intense but I promise to write in this manner sparingly as to not bore you! So let’s get started…

A doula is a woman who supports women physically and emotionally in childbirth. I specialize in natural childbirth.

I became a doula because I was completely fascinated with birth after my first child.

If I lost you after “Natural Childbirth”, stick with me. You won’t regret it. Now, as I was saying…

Have you ever seen a movie where there’s a woman in labor. What do we typically see? Her water breaks and she’s immediately in immense pain. She’s screaming at her husband “Why did you do this to me?!”

It’s no wonder we’re all choosing the epidural before we even go into labor! That’s terrifying.

My labor looked nothing like this. My husband and I slow danced as he held my hips firm with counter pressure. He breathed our breathing techniques in my ear so I could follow along. He served all my needs. When anyone doubted me, he assured me I could do it. The pain of my contractions subsided as long as he was holding me. While not a perfect couple on a regular day basis, we’re unstoppable in birth. A core memory of mine.

After my experience, I could not accept the mainstream view of birth. I had to show women they could birth their babies in a way they didn’t know existed and men that they could comfort their women in birth as they originally did in the beginning of time. Remember we’ve been doing this since the beginning of time and anesthesia was only invented 100 years ago.

I think it’s important to note that in my everyday life… I am not what most people would consider tough. My pain tolerance is low, I hyperventilate before getting blood drawn, I almost always think someone is hiding behind the shower curtain, and on occasion I still have an irrational fear there’s a shark in the deep end of the pool.

While, natural birth is not something I would consider a walk in the park, it’s 100% doable for women who are medically able. I saw another movie recently where they showed several mothers giving birth in different ways. They showed the mother going natural sneezing and her baby coming out with an entire birth that was painless.

I think a birth without any pain at all is possible but requires stable mindset or peace, effort, and preparation. The movie portrayed this mom as just being lucky. No way. I don’t buy that for a second and have not witnessed it with any woman I have ever worked with but I digress…

My life is evidence that I am someone who would never go natural... UNLESS the truth was that going natural doesn’t take the strongest woman. Unless the truth was that all women in the majority of case were designed to do it.

Speaking of “most women”.

Did you know 90% of women can have a normal vaginal delivery?

Did you know that the ACOG says the US C-section rate should be only 9%?

So what is the current US C-section rate is? NONE OF THE STATES have a C-section rate below 30%.

Our local c-section rate where I live is 28%.

That’s three times the amount of what the American college of obstetrics says it should be. Just 50 years ago the c-section rate was 5%. That’s a 500% increase and

we have no decrease in cerebral palsy. We actually have a slight increase in maternal mortality. I can’t take credit for this information. This is a paraphrase of one of my favorite OB/GYN, Dr Stuart Fischbein, who you can listen to on his podcast called Birth Instincts with the lovely Midwife Blyss.

The US has the worst maternal and fetal outcomes in all the industrialized nations yet we have the most resources. The parish I live in has the 2nd to worst outcomes in the

country. So what are the other countries doing right? The answer is they have an integrated healthcare system.

We have a huge problem of overuse of medical intervention. Other countries standard of care is your care is with a midwife as long as you remain low risk. Which again 90% will be.

Other countries prepare their women thoroughly for natural childbirth and epidurals/inductions are used sparingly and at the last minute. Other countries have not let the women’s field of traditional midwifery care die. They still use methods that we’ve used for thousands of years that do work today before intervening with medical intervention.

OB/GYN’s are used appropriately as the surgeons they are in high risk situations

We don’t avoid cesarean sections because they can’t be beautiful. They can be. We avoid cesarean sections because they come with an increase immediate risk, and also long-term risk in your life. They also can influence subsequent births and the health of generations of children.

Working with a doula can decrease risk of c-section by 50%, decrease risk of epidural and induction medication by 25%. Thus,

I help women lower their risk, and have a birth that they are satisfied with. A birth that comes with peace and a birth that they find joy in.

1 in 3 women suffer from birth trouble and this is totally preventable. The first day of our baby’s life should not be preceded with fear, tyranny, and abuse. It should be preceded by love, nurture, trust, and support.

Keep coming back for more talk on how to give you and your family a standard of care that will change generations to come.