Worcester and Droitwich Branch
―Am I Allowed?‖ Your choices for birth
How often do we hear women saying, “I had to” when discussing their pregnancies and births? “I had to be induced” is perhaps the most common one, but what about those less talked
about things, things that perhaps we don‟t even think about until
we‟ve actually had a baby. Vaginal exams (e.g. to check dilation). Monitoring of the baby, with straps around our belly which
mean we can‟t move. Being told to lie on our back. Being told
when to push. How many of these things are optional – offered
to us as choices we can accept or reject? ALL of them.Every
single one. And how about, “I wasn‟t allowed”? What other
area in our life would we accept being told that “I wasn‟t allowed
to be at home”, or “I wasn‟t allowed to go into the bath/pool”.
You DON‟T have to, and you ARE allowed!
But how can we work out which interventions have value to us,
and which don‟t? Understanding in advance what may be offered is a great start (and no matter how it‟s worded to you, it‟s
always an offer and you ALWAYS can decline the offer). Attending NCT antenatal classes is really helpful but ask questions, read, go to your local Positive Birth group or homebirth
group (even if you‟re not planning a homebirth), or birth choices
group if there is one. Consider a doula. Common interventions
to consider before labour include vaginal examinations (VEs)
(which absolutely do not have to happen unless you want them
to!), foetal monitoring, especially continuous monitoring and positions for labour and birth (you don‟t need to be on the bed,
and you certainly don‟t need to be on your back, unless you
want to be).
Key things to consider are, “what value has this intervention for
me?”. So for instance, looking at VEs, there‟s no way that your
cervical dilation will tell you how much longer your labour will
be, because cervical dilation is not linear. You could go from
3cm to 10cm in ten minutes, ten hours or 4 weeks. Some
Worcester and Droitwich Branch Autumn 2015
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