I had the book almost finished when an acquaintance asked me for some help in the form of texts, to get ready for childbirth. I needed positive readings, a book that gave him confidence, that gave him security, and I didn't hesitate for a moment: 'Birth Guide' It's the book you have to read.
With a cover throwing soda and a title not at all striking, this book by the Captain Swing publishing house hides 388 pages written by one of the most important midwives in the world: Ina May Gaskin, whose contribution to the world of normal birth is unquestionable, and whose history interests, above all, because it does not exercise in a hospital, but in a delivery house, with results that many hospitals would like to achieve with many more means.
A care model based on trust and not fear
Ina May worked for almost 50 years as a midwife in a town in Tennessee where women had, unlike usual, much confidence in their ability to give birth; and I say unlike usual because the medical model of childbirth care is a model based on the prevention of problems, in avoiding them, in fearing them, as if they were to appear at any time and only the work of the professionals could alleviate or avoid them .
During that time both she and her companions attended about 2,900 babies at birth, and most were born in their homes (couples often moved to live there for a while) or in the births they had created. With a project started in 1971, Ina May explains that "My experiences as a midwife taught me that women's bodies work", and the women went there to have a normal vaginal delivery because that was what happened except in one or two out of every one hundred births.
In these cases, the women were transferred to the hospitals so that the delivery ended by caesarean section or with the use of an instrument, or for epidural analgesia to be administered so that the mother rested a little before the expulsion. But these cases were the least, since they got a caesarean section rate of 1.4 percent (In Spain we have been above 20% for years and at the same time as La Granja deliveries, in the US, it was 32.8%).
A first part full of normal births
The first part of the book is full of stories of births of women who gave birth there. There are very intense moments, of complicated births, with shoulder dystocia, babies that come from the face, very large babies, from a couple of tocologists who wanted to see their baby born outside their work space, and many more; but they are all births explained by women, with their feelings and feelings, that help the reader understand births, understand birth, and even connect with the logical belief that says that women are fully prepared to give birth to their babies (Do you know that in many countries in Latin America, caesarean section rates exceed 50% because professionals say that women today are not able to give birth?).
Undoubtedly, the confidence offered by these pages to those who read them is such that surely a woman will be able to give birth with another mentality, feeling very capable, and willing to bring your baby into the world with the love and support of the professionals who accompany her. And although it seems a lie, in this book you learn to value the same thing: confidence and security in women's abilities as a method to give birth in a normal way.
And the more a woman is afraid of her birth, the greater the chances of something twisting. And the greater your confidence and the more capable you are to get carried away by your feelings, the easier the dilation and the expulsion will be.
A second part full of knowledge and evidence
The second part of the book talks about physiological process of childbirth. It explains the connection between the body and the mind that is so neglected in many hospitals, where unfortunately many professionals only see the body of a woman who should help expel her baby, and how this, the lack of affection, support and empathy, can help hinder a delivery that then requires intervention.
In other words: many of the problems of childbirth happen because Many professionals are unable to help women have a birth in which they feel capable and confident. Then the dilation is slowed or stagnant and the rush and methods to accelerate labor appear, which only add more stress, more difficulties, and new solutions in the form of techniques and instruments that end up transform a normal birth into an instrumental birth or even a caesarean section.
But this is not all, in this second part Ina May explains the "Law of the Sphincters," which is a very different way of explaining what a normal birth is like as most people and even most professionals know when they speak. of the time it takes for the dilation and delivery phases, the size of the baby with respect to the mother's pelvis and how again, inadequate care can cause a delivery that was going well (or could have gone well), to end needing one or several interventions.
The good and the bad of Ina May Gaskin's 'Birth Guide'
The good thing about the book is that every woman who reads it (and every man) will learn that when a woman has adequate and professional attention, the chances of normal birth are very high, especially since the birth of the baby will be subject to the mother's confidence in being able to do so, and precisely because in the moments she doubts, the midwife skilled in normal births will know what to do to help her regain control of the birth and the trust.
The bad thing about the book is that readers learn what a normal birth is like, how it should be, what the relationship the woman should establish with the professional (or rather, the relationship that the professional should establish with the woman), and then this does not always happen in reality. That is to say, it is very hard to read such a book and then go to a hospital to be treated as if you were a little girl or as if you had just arrived at an assembly line to take your son out as soon as possible and "they are going, behind come more ", and" do not complain so much, that you are not the only or the most special ".
No, it's not always so horrible, but many times it could be better. Because if that were the case, the final data would be very different (surely there would be fewer caesarean sections and we would approach the 10% suggested by the WHO), and from the hospitals people would leave happier, without women doubting whether or not to have another baby for the fear of feeling mistreated again, and without women thinking that, had he received other care, his birth would have been very different.
