Why does it seem everyone has a bad birth these days?

[Littleigloo]

Just doing my research (but I have a while to inform myself as we are only trying, at the moment). Out of all my friends and family who have had babies in the last 5-10 years, I would say all bar one or two of them had difficult births to the extent. Two needed debriefs and counselling. Inductions that fail and needed forceps, baby was injured as a result. I don’t know if this is just an unfortunate group of people or indicative of a larger sample. All different ages, some first and some second pregnancy, most of them were low risk.

This coupled with hearing that maternity services are struggling with poor staff and low ratings. How do you mitigate any risk to yourself? I understand it’s very much a how long is a piece of string situation and highly dependent on lots of variables but is it as bad as it seems or do the people with bad experiences just talk about it more?

Thanks

Obesity, maternal age, more health issues, less active lifestyle, bigger babies due to gestational or type 2 diabetes, more twins due to IVF. All make c-section or induction more likely.

Although I would say any kind of vaginal delivery is actually a ‘successful’ induction, whether that’s forceps/ventouse/spontaneous.

Multitude of factors. Primarily because it’s talked about more now, and women have higher expectations of a ‘better’ birth. Back in the Victorian days (and before) the maternal death rate was high - having babies has always been risky business. As health care has improved, social structure has changed and many people have lost ‘their village’ of close older female relatives and we now have a completely different expectation that birth should be a positive experience. This is a new phenomenon. However, birth is still risky. As a first time mum you have about a 50% chance of needing intervention. But for some reason, a lot of women don’t realise this beforehand (poor education, social media, Antenatal appointments etc etc )

DOI - doctor, but also had 2 horrendous vaginal births. Made the mistake of thinking the first one was likely bad luck!

Have a look at the stats for home birth. Totally different picture.
Rietsma et Al research study is a good start

Very usually because those women are healthy, a bit younger and very low risk

Interesting post. I went to hypnobirthing and that very much stressed that it’s possible to have a positive birth (positive not necessarily meaning a certain type of birth).

However similar to you I don’t know anyone in real life who had a positive birth. Apart from a few smug bloggers.

We were all induced, many with epidurals and instrumental deliveries and on one level of another were left traumatised by feeling like a piece of meat, being in pain, having complications, generally being totally battered. Lots of it being about how we were cared for rather than the actual birth per se. Personally I definitely had safe and kind care but still felt like I was on a conveyor belt and didn’t have any real say in what was happening which was traumatising.

No

Nobody discusses the ordinary, fairly easy no complications births, just not that exciting!

Mine were both easy, 6/8 hours active labour, didn't really hurt (no pain relief needed) and no tearing, this isn't an interesting story to tell

Sometimes it can't be avoided. I had three "bad" births. Maybe I was unlucky, but I also have a narrow pelvis which doesn't help. I assume years and years ago we'd probably both have died.

Also not good nhs maternity services and uncaring staff that don’t listen to their patients

@HannahMontanasbanana incorrect. The vast majority of studies on home births are in lower risk populations (which they have to be to qualify for a home birth). Some are entirely in mulitps (so first time mothers are excluded from the data - the first birth is always the riskiest in terms of general population). Other factors such as BMI, other health conditions and risk factors for pregnancies also exclude people from the studies. Essentially, that means they are lower risk because the higher risk people have been removed - so they can’t be compared statistically with hospital births or the general population.

No, our local team has a very mixed cohort with many older, bigger, more complex women and they still have considerably better outcomes and more positive birth.

I don’t know but I remember my granny (who I adored) saying I was being dramatic and most mums need a couple of stitches after child birth. I looked at her and said “granny, I had 38 stitches” and she was shocked.

Sadly mine was due to poor care. Mw refused to listen to me, believed the student mw over me and told me I wasn’t in labour or if I was it was extremely early stages and I needed to get a grip as it was going to get a lot worse and I had at least 12 hours to go minimum (that’s virtually verbatim 15 years on). Dh was my hero and said in that case something is wrong because I knew my wife and I want a senior member of staff to review her please. I was the only one in labour in the ward so they weren’t stretched. Registrar came in and checked me over. He yelled at the mw (not very professional but finally someone was on my side). I was 10cm and dd was in my arms 25 minutes after me told me I was in early stages.

She said my waters hadn’t broken (they had).

i needed so many stitches either side of my vagina where the trainee had trapped me either side with the metal speculum. That’s where I tore and everyone was confused because usually mums tear back to front.

i no longer let students touch me. I’ve done my bit.

that’s the short version. It was so bad that the consultant agreed to a C-section for my second pregnancy before I was even pregnant…. Then that was twins and they were beach. C-section recovery was a dream in comparison. I was quite angry for a long time because if I’d been listened to, it could have been a great birth.

Two of mine were induced, I never thought of it as anything negative. They needed to come out and once they had that nudge it went well.

Id say so many bad births are due to too much intervention and often early induction. I had 2 natural relatively easy deliveries in birthing centres, I realise I'm very lucky I didn't need intervention but also I've seen alot of my friends be pressured into inductions when they wish they had waited.

Labour and births are a risky business. I am 40 and out of all of my friends only 1 has had an "easy" birth (4 hour labour, birthing pool, chosen music etc). Some had babies in their early 20s and others in their early 40's, no pattern as to who had good or bad. None were obese, no real existing health issues. It's not easy, this having babies malarkey!!!

I had a good birth. Baby was back to back, loooong labour and an emergency section. But we're both here and we're both well. Don't listen to the natural birth is the only way crap. Healthy mum and healthy baby = best outcome.

I think women talk about it more now. I’m sure it was horrendous in previous generations but it probably wasn’t so acceptable to talk about it. And probably a mindset of as long as the baby is fine nothing else matters. I think women now want to be fine themselves as well as the baby.

Also there is much more intervention now. This has both advantages and the potential for disadvantages.

Highly recommend this website (although very American focused) https://evidencebasedbirth.com/

And Dr Sara Wickham (midwife researcher). I’ve just read her book on inducing labour, and there’s lots of information on her website.
https://www.sarawickham.com/

I had two elective c sections because of the horror stories from my friends and have no regrets. It worked for me but giving birth is a risky business and a matter of individual choice.

Very risk averse hospital policies that endorse induction when true risks are very low eg. "Big babies" or "over due" babies.

And inductions lead to a cascade of interventions and when things go wrong.

If women/babies were trusted to birth when they were ready there would be far fewer interventions.

No horror stories here, I had three fab births including two home births.

Dangerous understaffing is a massive issue but the simple fact is that even 'good' births can be traumatising.

1. Good/positive births are "boring" stories AKA not remembered as easily

2. Anecdotally, everyone I know who had a difficult/traumatic birth was induced. In most of those cases, staffing was stretched and their induction wasn't progressed as fast as it should have been, thus leading to either maternal exhaustion and/or the baby being distressed.

3. Positive/good experiences do happen. I had a straightforward water birth in a Midwife Led Unit with my first. I then had a lovely straightforward water birth at home with my second. Planning same again (pool at home) for my third.

I had 2 great births (home births and quick labours) I think the issue is that people are very quick to tell you their terrible stories but others feel like they are "showing off" if they have a good birth. It is tricky.

Almost as soon as I announced I was pregnant I had 2 separate colleagues at work telling me their horror stories. I've had to seek out positive stories, and friends have told me theirs when I've asked. It seems almost socially acceptable to talk about how horrible birth is and just a bit weird if it wasn't for you. Quite often people stay quiet or just say it wasn't too bad especially in group scenarios. Likewise now I don't shout from the rooftops that I had a great birth, it's not necessarily helpful when someone else is telling you about their (bad) experience - but if they ask about my birth I will tell them.

I think in some cases babies make it to near-term that wouldn’t have 20–30 years ago. I had a lot of interventions and a difficult birth but a few decades ago I would have had an early stillbirth or a late miscarriage.

Could be a multitude of factors. Women are generally older now than previous generations. Most of my generation were married and had 1st babies under the age of 25
Better nutrition , bigger babies
Poor funding of midwifery services
Medicine is becoming defensive due to the risk of legal action, so instead of allowing long labour they intervene earlier
Women's expectations that labour can be planned for. it doesn't matter how healthy you are, how uncomplicated your pregnancy is, and how much you want a home birth and no drugs. Nature doesn't read your birth plan.