When I Grow Up: The End (How this Experience Softened My Judgement)

One last post on my doula excitement (for now) and one more look at this adorable little guy.  Because I want to point out the amazing cone head he's rockin'.  

It's from the vacuum extractor.

Let's talk about natural vs. necessary.  I am definitely in the hippie-camp of "a woman's body is designed for labor and delivery and we don't need to be messing around with that process thanks".  I hate it when women buy into the western philosophy that you are somehow "sick" when pregnant or incapable of handling childbirth without extreme amounts of pain meds or needles in your back.  It's just not true.  Most women and most pregnancies are totally normal and don't need intervention.

BUT I'm also in the hippie-camp that can be prone to judging women who do not chose to deliver their babies naturally. And watching Kayla's birth experience really helped me to see that I have to be careful to remember that sometimes the intervention is necessary.

All the good hippies out there will tell you that vacuum extraction is a no-no because it can cause bruising, bleeding, and in some cases even more serious problems (hemorrhage, brain damage, and other scary stuff).  There are also risks to the mother (greater likelihood of bad tearing).  And in some awful situations I've heard about it doesn't even work so you have all these risks and then they have to resort to other scary things like forceps, etc.

Thankfully, Kayla and the Dr. were rockstars and worked together really fast to push/pull little Kendel out safely.  And he didn't experience any serious side effects from the vacuum.  Besides some bruising and that amazing cone head.

So what I'm saying here is that I understand now after seeing a vacuum extraction that there are situations where it is necessary.  I saw it in the doctor's face and so did Kayla, because she asked him why he was worried... and he told her clearly and honestly that he was afraid she was going to run out of energy for pushing the baby out.  So he gave her a few more tries but he said that he felt it was time to use the vacuum to aid her delivery.

The hippies want us all to believe that vacuum extraction is of the devil and that doctors use it unnecessarily because they're bored and want the delivery to be over with.  And I'm sure that some doctors use intervention for inappropriate reasons.  But that wasn't the case here.  And so I want to remember to always keep an open mind when I hear a woman's labor story.  The goal is a safe and healthy baby.  And sometimes the means to that end isn't "natural".  But sometimes it's necessary.  And I'm okay with that now... especially after seeing a good doctor in action.

Okay, the end.  Until the next time I get to partner with Leah and watch another baby be born!