Do Birth Workers Know What Women are Reading?

Rixa at Stand and Deliver blogged recently about how obstetricians come to their beliefs about homebirth which reminded me of a question I asked myself a few months back.

Do obstetricians and L&D nurses know what women are reading about birth?

And, if they did, how would that change their practice?

Beyond the texts recommended by obstetricians and What to Expect When You're Expecting, it appears to me that many women planning hospital births are reading information on natural childbirth with books like:

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
The Birth Partner
Hypnobirthing
A Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering
My Best Birth
The Birth Book
Birthing From Within
Spiritual Midwifery

A common thread of these books is arguments against using obstetric intervention through replacing interventions with simple strategies employed by the mother and her support people. Most of these strategies require advance preparation and knowledge regarding them though gaining this knowledge really doesn't take much time. Simply reading about it in a book, or even a website makes one qualified to change positions or to breathe deeply or soften one's jaw. It even qualifies someone present to suggest it to a laboring woman.

Now this is where I think this plays into Rixa's discussion. I'm going to theorize that one reason hospital birth workers are not supportive of homebirth (in addition the other reasons suggested by Rixa and her readers) is that homebirth is the epitome of natural birth where it becomes clear how very little knowledge and expertise is needed (except for when it is). This idea would feel like a threat to their livelihood, their career choice and might breed just a little bit of resentment towards other professionals who have not slaved through the initiation rite of medical school and residency to end up doing very similar work.

Doctors might shy away from asking themselves the question: "If birth were simple and reading a few books qualified a person to attend births, then what was the point of all that education? It can't possibly be as easy as these books say it is."

And then, as I continue on this pretend inner-monologue, perhaps hospital workers then would get frustrated with their female patients: "How could they possibly think they know enough and think that reading some silly books are going to qualify them?"

But, now I'm dreaming, what would happen if hospital birth workers read these books with an open mind? Would they be compelled to try some of these strategies or to suggest them during a woman's labor?

Are these books written compellingly enough to convince an obstetrician that maybe hands and knees for pushing is worth the try?


Or--now I'm really dreaming--what if these books became required reading for OB residents and L&D nursing students? Just so they knew what "fluff" pregnant women are filling their minds with as they prepare for birth. Perhaps, the assignment could be given with the intent to debunk the misinformation and to encourage doctors to reflect and prepare for how they will respond when women present these ideas in prenatal appointment.


And, if the less academic, popular press reading is too unpalatable for our esteemed birth workers, perhaps the expose of childbirth in America written by journalist Jennifer Block "Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care" could be recommended first as it provides thoughtful insights into each side of the topic.

In any degree, from a pregnant woman's perspective, this would be more beneficial from dismissing them all together or pretending like they don't exist. Not recognizing their influence creates a vacuum of information, a empty divide where patient and doctor are trying to yell across but the message keeps getting lost.

However, I would hazard to guess that, if hospital birth workers could open their minds a little bit, many of them could recognize the value of the information and see how the paradigm fits together to make the idea of homebirth and non-interventive, unmedicated birth plausible and attainable in relation to relative risk and safety.

Or at least perhaps, we could stop talking past each and be on the same page.