Page 141 - Push Back

Look at the picture carefully and you’ll understand how that works. Actually, it seems utterly
crazy to lay flat on your back with your legs up - expecting the baby to come out at all!

In fact, choosing to lie on your back as your main childbirth positions closes up your pelvic area
by about 30%.

Plus if you think about it – you’ll also have gravity working against you. This means when you’re
trying to push bub out, you’re pushing down and then UP before he comes out – Can anyone say
CRAZY!!!!!
[Source: http://traceyrose.com/childbirth-positions/]

A woman lying on her back to give birth makes delivery far more difficult for her and the baby.
Why then is this the common way women in the Western world give birth? It is because it is the
most convenient position for the attending physician. He/she can stand up straight. He/she
doesn’t have to bend over, or get down on his/her knees. To do so would be undignified for one
who is a “professional” caregiver, and usually one of the more affluent and educated members of
society.

If you think about it, almost all non-emergency procedures done in a hospital are performed at
the convenience of the medical staff. It is little wonder that so many doctors recommend that
their patients are either induced, or give birth via C-section. The incidence of C-section in the
United States was 4.5% of all births in 1965, when rates were first measured. The rate reached
32.8% in 2010 and 2011. That is nearly a third of all births. This is insanity. Cutting open a
woman’s abdomen to deliver a baby is major surgery. The inner body is exposed to all manner of
infectious elements, and fever resulting from an infection is a common result.

A woman receiving an epidural early on in labor dramatically increases the chance that she will
have a C-section. Some studies have been done on the reason that C-sections have increased so
dramatically, and one of the factors cited is for the convenience and profitability of the doctor.

Incentives to practice in a manner that is efficient for providers
Many health professionals are feeling squeezed by tightened payments for services and
increasing practice expenses. The flat "global fee" method of paying for childbirth does not
provide any extra pay for providers who patiently support a longer vaginal birth. Some payment
schedules pay more for cesarean than vaginal birth. Even when payment is similar for both, a
planned cesarean section is an especially efficient way for professionals to organize their
hospital work, office work and personal life. Average hospital payments are much greater for
cesarean than vaginal birth, and may offer hospitals greater scope for profit.
[Source: http://www.childbirthconnection.org/article.asp?ck=10456]

Despite such policies being a violation of the Hippocratic Oath, whose primary tenet is “First, do
no harm,” physicians are performing alarming numbers of these surgical procedures to the great
detriment of mother and child.

As was mentioned in the previous post, there are a great many chemical interchanges between