The Inevitability of Natural Childbirth - Essay Example

Our team is entrusted with the task of taking the expectant mother to the city where facilities for delivery are available. We cover about half the distance, when the mother begins to scream, and that would frighten and cause anxiety to any heart. Obviously she is in labour pain. I convince her to lie down, apply some force to do so, but she gets up and holds my hair with force. I have been trained for emergency cases, but this experience frightens me. A part of my hair is in her hands, and I hold her hands tightly.

In that situation, I can do only that much. I have a first-aid kit meant for the obstetricians, but it contains cotton and some bandage cloth. About thirty minutes pass thus, the mother will not stop screaming and I cannot do anything and I only ask the ambulance driver to speed up so that we can reach the city hospital as quickly as possible. …and soon, to the astonishment of us in the ambulance the baby quietly comes out of mother’s womb, to the great relief of the mother. She stops crying and hugs the little angel-like baby.

Now it is the turn of the baby to cry and mother makes love and hugs her repeatedly but softly. Both the mother and the bay are in perfect health. With the above experience, I learn the lesson that the baby and the mother have the right to be born through natural process, without undue interference from the medical fraternity. . Wagner are absolutely right and every expectant mother needs to follow his guidance and instructions contained in the book. He highlights the important role of the midwife in the process of delivery.

Many of the expectant mothers are not aware of the nature-given strength of their own bodies. The hospital authorities have no business to follow unethical practices based on the fear psychology of pregnant women. Many of the practices in vogue like using injections to force the baby come out of the womb, are harmful for the mother and they are an unnecessary interference. Use of forceps in caesarian delivery is also an unhealthy practice. America prides itself in giving the topmost health care facilities to the pregnant mothers but the birthing procedures adopted in the hospitals are not up to the mark. Dr. Wagner makes a strong case how and why a broken maternity system must be reprogrammed to put women and children first, over all other considerations. Dr. Wagner cautions that the decisions of the doctors are business-based and they have their own agenda to extract the maximum profit possible from their patients.

The procedures adopted by the obstetricians are faulty and he cites many examples and argues, “Having the bag of water break before labour begins means that the baby and the womb are no longer protected from germs and infection.”(93) A mother who delivers the baby in the normal course is the happiest and she will cherish her memories throughout her life. So, procedures should not be imposed on the expectant mother, redundant doses of drugs must be avoided, and the practice of working on the rules and regulations fixed by the insurance companies with profit motives needs to be discontinued. Dr. Wagner argues, “Any intervention that