How Birthing Should Be

I just want to share with everyone the letter written by one my clients which she posted in her blog.  Her letter captures the deepest desire of every pregnant Mom.  It is also why it's so critical for every expectant mother to choose the right care provider/doctor for her to have a fulfilling birth experience.  Thank you for this letter Ria!

HOW BIRTHING SHOULD BE

3 February 2014

Dearest Doctor, 

I do not fear pain.

I trust my body's capacity to give birth. 

I trust that my baby will find her way out of me in the right time.

What I fear is that you will tell me my hips are not wide enough so you will have to open me up to get baby out of me. 

I've heard this happen to too many women, I'm beginning to wonder what has made our hips so narrow nowadays that our babies can no longer come out of us vaginally. 
 
I fear that at some point in labor, you will tell me that my baby is taking too long to come out and you will have to induce my labor through drugs. 

Maybe if you help me and my baby feel more relaxed and confident instead of pressuring us about the time, my labor will continue and my birthing will go just fine.

I fear that you will keep me strapped to a monitor or IV in bed, when I know that moving around will help me deal with my contractions and that gravity will help baby come out with ease.

I fear that you will prompt me to decide about interventions that I don't really need when I am already in so much pain and no longer thinking clearly. 

I know you are the expert and you have the capacity to save my life and that of baby.

Still, I appeal to you to trust me and my body's process too.

I understand you want to be on the "safe side."

But I believe birthing is a safe and natural process.

God perfectly designed a woman's body for it. 

We don't have to treat it like a disease that needs to be arrested urgently.

I've heard of too many stories of women not having a pleasant birthing experience in hospitals due to interventions. 

Many have been traumatized and they spread the word about how dreadful birthing is among other women. 

I believe it is not the pain of contractions that traumatizes us. 

It is how we are made to go through birthing feeling helpless and powerless. 

So please dear doctor, allow me to feel empowered in my birthing. 

Assure me that you will be there not to save me from the pain or to hasten my labor, but to help me and my baby have a beautiful and enriching birthing experience. 

I believe that is how birthing should be.

(Ria Pangan, "Everyday thoughts of a soon-to-be mom", http://tatapangan.weebly.com/)