So now I'm a convert to home birth.
This is something I would never have even considered doing, if I hadn't lived in the Netherlands where homebirths are the norm, still accounting for around 35% of all births. Recently the BMJ published research concluding that home birth is perfectly safe for low-risk women, and I was swiftly sorted into this category by the brisk, highly trained Dutch midwives in charge of my care.
My son was born in Belgium where they do things very differently, more according to the French model of dashing, omnipotent male obstetricians summoned at the last minute, giving birth lying on one's back and garbed up, an epidural catheter discreetly snaking its way into your spine so that you won't trouble them with any moans and groans, a varied hospital menu to choose from for afterwards.
Not so the Dutch. They are stoic and resistant to pain and there is an interesting dichotomy on what childbirth says about you as a woman here. On the one hand, birth is presented as an opportunity for empowerment, 'No-one tells women what to do here, you give birth how you want' said the midwife. This is backed up by the slightly scary and very anti-epidural Beatrice Smulders and by the persisting normality of homebirth (midwife turns up at 7 cm dilated in jeans with a birthing stool and cheers you on). On the other hand the same advocates make sure to pile on the natural childbirth propaganda: if you have an epidural it affects bonding with the baby, you are letting yourself in for increased interventions, the pain is good and natural etc etc. So it's your body, your choice... as long as you don't want real pain relief.
On the other side of the bench, there is growing pressure from women themselves which has forced health policy towards offering the epidural to all women in labour (previously it was only on the say-so of the attending doctor, or only given during office hours, since it was not considered to be really 'necessary'.
Armed with this knowledge I had a home water birth, complete with lovely Canadia doula, and it was all very idyllic, in an agonising yet mercifully brief kind of way. I came out of it wishing to put flowers on the grave of whoever invented the epidural as I now understood quite how painful natural childbirth is, but also, genuinely feeling extremely happy and empowered, compared to the brain-donor feeling of giving birth in hospital. Home birth, and especially water birth, should be much more encouraged for low-risk women, that's my conclusion. However, I'm still not sure which way is more empowered. Time to 'push' for change?
