support . Join a positive birthing group or other support groups on Facebook or Girl GoneInternational kids group .
Changing childbirth culture
Stay positive and try to ignore negative birthing stories . Accept your own unique experience of giving birth abroad and keep an open mind . If every woman is given the necessary support , respect and choice when giving birth , we would be hearing many more positive birthing stories . Birth culture is changing and women everywhere are demanding greater freedom and choice during childbirth . With empowerment through education and the creation of a supporting and loving environment , women might just get the birthing experiences they desire .
An Island Baby
BY LIZZIE SHH
I arrived in Jamaica 7 ½ months pregnant . My husband had been offered a 2-year contract here and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to ditch gloomy Ireland for a while to drop a few kittens in the sun ! I never thought twice about giving birth in Jamaica . Thousands of Jamaicans are born here every year , so I would just go with the flow . Staying home would have meant being apart from my husband for the last 2 months of my pregnancy , and he might have missed the birth .
When I arrived , I rang a recommended Obstetrician and asked about the possibility of having a homebirth . The receptionist laughed and said , ’ No man ! We don ’ t do homebirths no more . We got hospitals now !’ The doctor was lovely but old-fashioned in his approach . In forty years , he ’ d only ever attended women lying on their back with their feet in the air ! At home , I ’ d been planning a homebirth with midwives . Now having to go to the hospital , I thought I could at least deliver the baby kneeling , but he said he wouldn ’ t be able to protect me from painful tears that way . Then I found out the hospitals only offer Pethidine or epidurals as pain relief . As in the US , gas and air is not available , which seemed crazy to me .