Women who give birth at home have fewer interventions and higher satisfaction with the experience. This in turn influences the breastfeeding relationship and their bonding and attachment to their babies. Women who give birth naturally at home also suffer less with postnatal depression.
Human rights in childbirth are a global issue as women in different parts of the world struggle with various issues around the arena of rights in childbirth, autonomy, and choices in childbirth
Pain relief medication interferes with the neuro-endocrine systems of mother and baby during labour and birth. While the short term impacts may be negligable, no research has yet been undertaken on the long term effects.
I imagined how through the centuries, African people had been giving birth in their thatch roofed dwellings, now replaced by glistening tin roofs that do not insulate the home from the heat of the strong African sun. Almost akin to the hospitals and clinics where African women now give birth and that do not insulate them from the emotional and physical trauma of medicalized childbirth.
The obstetricians at Vincent Pallotti hospital have decided to no longer provide a back-up service for my practice. Apart from the loss of the medical back-up as a professional midwife, the greater loss is to mothers and women who are not able to choose this private hospital for medical back-up when they have chosen me as a professional midwife.
Ane’ wanted to be allowed to walk around, and to eat and drink during labour, She did not want her baby to be separated from her after birth and wanted to experience the the labour and the birth without pain relief.
Marianne Littlejohn is holding a Natural Birth Workshop for first-time and experienced parents in Cape Town on the 8th of October 2011 at the Jai Yoga studio.