However.
Has anyone else noticed the similarity between this debate and the pro-life/ pro-choice debate surrounding the issue of abortion? Both debates in their most extreme forms become polarised and hinge on a similar issue. The sovereignty of a woman’s body and her right to unilaterally choose what happens to it. Whether to have an abortion or not and where to give birth vs the right of Doctors/ politicians/ lawyers (the priestly class and mainly male?) to censure this right and advocate the “rights” of the unborn baby either not to be aborted or birthed in an unsafe environment.
In the debate on NHS blog doctor the following comment caught my eye from Anonymous @ 12:53 06/05/08’s to Petra.
“Petra,
What interested me about your post is your statement that “you” would bear the consequences of your decisions.
Actually in homebirth & in your own teaching example, the person bearing the consequences much more than you is “your child”.”
I know in the maternity debate Doctors/ hospital midwives,
1. are not all male
2. are not seeking to over ride a woman’s right to choose a home birth if that is what they want
But are seeking to dissuade women from a course of action they see as inadvisable and risky to them and their child but I suspect that the independent midwives of Kent possibly see the debate in these terms which might explain their antithesis to the medical profession which they view as a male dominated priestly class bent on restricting a woman’s right to choose.
I wonder if the same people are on the same side of the debate i.e. is Nadine Dorries in favour of home deliveries and independent midwives?
Loading ...
*hides*
10 Comments
Are they similar debates? I’m not sure.
After all, the abortion debate is an issue of ethics (should the baby be born or aborted?), whereas as the disagreement on independent midwives is more one about patient safety and levels of expertise (we all agree that the baby should be born, but do independent midwives have the level of training/facilities to do the job safely?)
Personally I have no particular stance on the independent midwives issue. I have cats so I don’t have to have children.
What Zarathustra said.
Oh good grief, people will start thinking we’re an item.
Except the bit about cats, I’ve no cats and do have kids.
My wife wanted water births and funny stuff. We went for a birthing centre that is adjacent to (i.e. 3 metres from) an obstetric unit where I’d worked. I’d never ever ever entertain an independent midwife. We had NHS midwives who I knew. By happy chance (rather than design) ambulances are stationed minutes away from the unit. She got the benefits of water (better analgesia, betetr positioning) but none of the risks of either a home birth or isolation from a operating theatre.
That kind of compromise can’t be made in termination of pregnancy. As such, midwifery practice and abortion are, to my mind, two separate debates both in content and ideology.
You’re quite correct, of course, that folk polarise to extremes in both debates.
What Zarathustra said.
Oh good grief, people will start thinking we’re an item.
Shrink, is this why you won’t hold hands with me in public any more?
No no, Zarathustra, that’s not the reason at all.
It’s just . . . you’re not there when I want you and you don’t satisfy my needs any more.
I mean, for example, it’s now Saturday and where’s the round up, eh?
See?
You’re just not giving me what I desire now
I think the paramilitary wing of the home birthing brigade (aka Kent midwives) might see the issue in ideological / ethical terms.
At this point, myself and The Shrink would like to apologise to those members of the readership who have just thrown up a little in their own mouths.
I think the paramilitary wing of the home birthing brigade (aka Kent midwives) might see the issue in ideological / ethical terms.
They have a paramilitary wing?????
Midwives with guns. Scary.
I think the paramilitary wing of the home birthing brigade (aka Kent midwives) might see the issue in ideological / ethical terms.
And this is what makes them madwives. The reason deaths in childbirth have gone down is because of modern obstetric care.
Someone said (can’t remember who) that there had developed a strange brand of female machismo about pregnancy and birth, with those who hold out against the epidurals and the gas and air being seen as somehow morally superior to those who avail themselves of all that modern medicine has to offer. It’s all bullshit - yes, pregnancy isn’t an illness BUT childbirth can be bloody dangerous.
If I were a woman, having read the hair-raising account of negligence and incompetence documented on Crippen’s website, I’d be giving independent midwives a very wide berth - just like the insurance companies do, in fact. And please God, the govt doesn’t pick up that bill!
I really don’t know enough about these madwives to comment.All I will say is being in labour is not a laugh a minute.I can only liken it to feeling as if you are going to be split in half & so any woman who does without pain relief must be superhuman.Having both my children in hospital both turned out to be different experiences.The first time with the aid of vacuum extraction in theatre, which caused a lot of horrible complications & a blood transfusion.The second time the beeping epidural didn’t work !!! Loved gas & air made me sound like Darth Vader !
So glad neither was a home birth.
I remember as a student nurse doing my first general placement and working a smnall cottage hoispital where they did day surgery on Wednesday mornings.
I prep’d a youngish man of not even 30 for his vasectomy. I went thru the procedure with him and discussed with him after care pain relief. He told me - It’s ok, I’m into natural remedies and I’ve got some Arnaca.
Within two hours post op he was crying for codeine.
slightly off topic but not sure when Z was going to post about vasectomies so gave up waiting.
Incidentally, I was born at home. Mum said never again. I think it was cos she found it hard to latch me whilst trying to also mop the kitchen floor later that same morning.