News Flash! America! Society! Listen up! No one, I repeat, NO ONE "delivers" a baby other than the mother of that baby!!!! Do you comprehendo?? A doctor does not deliver a baby. A nurse does not. A midwife does not. The baby daddy does not. MOM DOES. That baby comes forth from HER Vagina. Okay....I admit, I have issues with cesareans....and it would seem that yes, a doctor must "deliver" the baby if it is a cesarean. I mean he's doing the cutting, he's the surgeon. But still it irks me. The mother is still spewing (for lack of a better word?) forth a life out of her body. It is from her guts, her blood and lifeline, that new life springs forth. Okay, not that she was alone in the creation, but you know what I mean. IF a doctor truly saved mom and/or baby's life due to the surgery or some intervention, then kudos to him! I'm all for that. Truly. But I still gotta give mom her glory...most of the credit. And ESPECIALLY do not tell me that they "delivered" a baby out of that mother's vagina. BULLfreakin' CRAP!
What spurred this rant? A fellow birth list member posted about a card she received in the mail in honor of her child's first birthday. It was from her OB, which on the outset sounds really nice. Gee, what a thoughtful and personable doctor, wish I knew more like that! But when she opened the card, it gave happy birthday wishes from "The Doctor who delivered him."
It sounds so boastful and prideful. And why not? Our Culture has come to believe this is the way it is. Doctors deliver the babies. Without them we would die. They are gods. Sigh. And maybe it is a subconscious thing, mixed in with the reasons behind the rise in cesareans over the years. Maybe doctors so want to be in charge and in control, and "deliver" babies, that they make that happen, ....more times than than ever should. Cesareans. Blech. Special Delivery. Sigh.
Whether it's a female or male doc, it is all too paternalistic. The whole process is. Wait, not...not paternalistic....PATRONIZING!! I'm so sick of it.
I am not a "hippie" in the classic sense. I AM a free thinker though. I have educated myself in most things birth. It can be done very easily. We don't have to sit and let everything be "done" to us. WE WOMEN GIVE BIRTH. WE FEEL. WE BREATHE. and we must learn to use our VOICE. STAND AND DELIVER! WE ARE WOMEN! (and I hear in the background of my mind: I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!!!!!!
