HMW 39 - Insights from book part 2

'Baby Catcher' by Peggy Vincent

Scribner

2002

1. In 'Baby Catcher' Vincent describes more of the ups and downs of homebirth, wehreas in 'The Business of Being Born' the filmmaker only depicts home births as being 100% positive. Also, the doctors try to persuade patients to comply with their desires, rather than informing them fully of the options.

2. To me, the major insight of 'Baby Catcher' is that a natural birth is a life changing experience that simply cannot be recreated by a hospital experience. "She sprawled on the edge of the bed,grunted once, and pushed her baby's head out." The romanticised way in which Vincent recalls her natural birth stories shed an illuminating light on the spiritual aspect of birth, and create an image that is incomparable to a hospital birth.

The fact that Vincent's evidence is anecdotal gives it an extra edge, as it is real stories from real women, but I cant help but wonder, 'ICBTS'? Whilst Vincent gives the odd sign of a non spiritual, idyllic scenario, there is always the prominence of an underlying triumph. I don't agree with the one size fits all theory, and whilst most of her stories are in the hippie era when the rejuvination of natural birth was erected I think that some women dont want to go through the pain, for there own reasons, and more of this opinion should be explored.

3.

5 Interesting aspects of pregnancy or birth:

• The spirituality factor of birth and why it does not occur so strongly in non natural births (according to Vincent)
• Hormones released during birth, Oxytocin and how and why it has been artificially mirrored in the drug 'Pitocin'
• Why doctors constantly change the rules and guidelines, ie. how long you can go overdue
• How a 'perfect' birth can affect the mother in comparison to a 'troubled' one
• The emotional investment comparison between doctors and midwives

4. "Women's bodies have a near perfect knowledge of childbirth; it's when their brains get involved that things can go wrong." -Peggy Vincent

I agree with this quote completley, and think that it perfectly sums up what Vincent is trying to get across in her book. I do not understand the mentality of inducing a pregnant woman if she is a few days overdue, isn't it common sense that the baby will come out when it is ready? I also think that this is the main arguement for natural childbirth. Woman delivered perfectly healthy babies for centuries the natural way before hopsitals and epidurals, so why now do we so desperately need the medical intervention? I think that one aspect of the reliance on hospital care is the terror that is instilled in women in our culture. Pregnant woman are overwhelmed with the horror stories of 'a friend's friend' who had a nightmare during birth, or the home birth gone wrong, rather than filled in on everything from the start.