I don't think "too posh to push" cs should be allowed on the NHS

[SoupDragon]

And by "too posh to push" I mean can't be ar$ed to do it "naturally, want to fit the birth into a busy schedule or want it early to avoid stretch marks. That kind of thing.

Obviously where there is a medical need (and by this I include maternal fear/distress where it can not be allayed beforehand} then yes, they should be provided by the NHS.

In the same way, I did not expect the NHS to provide me with a birthing pool, pay for the electricity and increased heating costs or provide me with food for my home waterbirth.

(yes, I know this will descend into popcorn and hard hats but I don't want to clutter up the other posters thread )

I had one real charmer who actually told me he would have preferred cardiology and found obstetrics boring. I would have said "bugger off then!" if I hadn't had a mask on

i really wonder about that too, especially those that are women with no compassion towards their patients

makes me think though

there's me wafting around with my ina may and essential oils and birth plan and my phone number of AIMS in case anything got heated.

am realising that they are fairly good now at low intervention birth where only a numpty would go in guns blazing, but anything even slightly more challenging...

would love to be a midwife but scared that would be quickly driven nuts.

i idolise ina may.....and want desperately to be a midwife...when the kids are older...going to be a doula for the time being....

I guess part of the problem with obstetrics is that it isn't the same as other forms of medicine. In the average birth with no complications all the OB does is catch the baby (my husband did that with ds). It must not be as exciting as say brain surgery. Maybe that is why C-section rates are so high and doctors (at least in the US) push for it, They simply need to feel important.

the terminology in th Ina may book freaked me out though and I was put off by all the pictures of hairy men .
Bit like the hairy man in the "joy of sex' book (which i've never read-honest I only looked at the pictures when I was a teenager)

let us waft, lulu

am of being doula, lulu, cam I be nosy and ask how you do such a thing around kids?

Who is Ina May?

MKG, but surely you would know that before you went into the field in the first place? Why do it?

an OB wouldn;t attend a low risk birth here....my obs said if he was at my birth, it would be because something had gone wrong..so i shouldn;t want to see him there and i was much better off with the midwives!!

think he is in a minority.. a lot seem over cautious and too knife -happy.....!

Greensleeves, I have read your story and feel terrible this happened to you, but not surprised.

I am very glad to have saved the NHS money by giving birth vaginally, but did they factor in the cost of having 2 doctors attend my birth to beat the cr*p out of my baby with a ventouse and forceps used so inappropriately that I ended up staying 10 days in hospital with my baby in an incubator? I think 1 bed day is about £500, so that's an extra £5K to account for on top of the costs of my delivery. Plus all the tests he had to have once at home. And the additional cost to me to pay for osteopathy to try and stop him screaming in pain, as his head was in such a state?

Oh yes, nearly forgot the cost of me having to see an obstetric physio postnatally as they mismanaged my SPD so badly during labour I still had it 7 months later? And the cost of an MRI scan and numerous consultant outpatient appointments to assess the internal & external damage they caused by the inappropriate use of the ventouse & forceps and refusing to stitch my episiotomy?

A hippy seventies midwife who pioneered natural, active home/ caravan births, particulary amoungst the travelling community

ina may is marvellous

and totally impactical. I visualsed doing harm to her when i realised one could not, actually, in any even vague way, liken having a melon sqeezed slowly through ones fanjo to a sexual experence, or indeed, any experience bar agnosing pain.

love her now though. and love the pics.

Midwives are few and far between over here and women that use them are in the minority. I used one with ds but my new insurance isn't taken by the practice so I have to an OB with this pregnancy. Homebirth forget about it. It's illegal in some states. I think it is only 1% of all births.

really? Even the hairy men?

filly...starting in the new year and have an A4 list of people to look after the kids at short notice!!!! look at this website , did the course with them....

\link{http://www.nurturingbirth.co.uk/doula course}

\link{http://www.inamay.com/ina may gaskin}

doula course

ina may gaskin

sorry , still a bit crap at links!

ina may is the only midwife, i believe , who has had an obstetric manouevre named after her....so much more than just a hippy midwife!!! but yes, that;s how she started out!!!

I don't agree. It's non of my bloody business.

And for what it's worth, I would consider an elective C section next time - not because I want to fit it into any schedule or can't be arsed to do it naturally, but because DS was 10lb 4oz and the whole thing was very traumatic.

Do you really think there are women who 'can't be arsed'? That's right up there with teenagers getting pregnant to get a shitty sink estate house.

And just remember pain relief does not mean pain free. Don't judge others on your own experience.

ah see I thought hippy midwife was a compliment there

ah, this is clealy another of my pipe dreams for 100 years hence

would love to do it though. am checking link...

feel free to CAT me Filly! are you norf or sarf ..or even in the uK>>

monkey- don;t think there is any judging here...

hmmm would like to do this

will try to CAT

am a bit incompetant though.

blimey 149 posts.

I take it some people think that lifestyle c sections should be available on the nhs then? (as opposed to c sections for medical or psychological reasons). not sure my blood pressure can stand reading the thread tho.