Birth Horror

My Infant Development class had a seminar with Midwives discussing the different stages of labour and what to expect about birth and afterwards. They scared the living daylights out of me - I actually felt faint. The most horrifying thing was - the practice of Episiotomy. I must warn you, if you are a woman who is planning to have children in the near future - DO NOT READ IT.

Oh, what the heck. Go ahead - it’s good to be educated so you can make informed decisions. Like adopting, I mean warning the doctor that you’ll sue him three ways to Monday if he ever comes near you with scissors..

So an episiotomy is “..an incision into the perineum (area of skin between the vagina and the anus) to enlarge the space at the outlet.”

Now I would understand doing it when the baby is stuck and there is no way that the mother can push him out - but doctors perform this routinely when they think that a woman is taking too much time in labour. It has been proven to cause deep lacerations and sometimes rip the woman from her vagina to her anus - they cannot walk or sit comfortably for weeks and are in so much pain. That is so tragic. Letting the woman push the baby out herself might cause natural tears - but they are way smaller and heal faster than the barbarism of mutilating her! (Of course always justified in an emergency but most of the time tears can be preventable or can be reduced without the need for hacking).

That is so wrong and I’m so angry. Imagine if if took a piece of cloth and tried to rip it in the middle - now imagine if you took some scissors and snipped it in the middle. Now try to tear it - what happens? Rips faster and further doesn’t it?

Hmmm.