The Cascade of Intervention

Who knew that to do something so natural as giving birth, in today's society there is so much reading and learning to do in order to let it actually happen as nature intended?! The more I read the better I feel about the choices I am making, to VBAC and to avoid all medications and interventions as much as possible (as long as the baby and I are safe and healthy). But, the medical field is not really content to just let nature take its course many times and what you end up with is a cascade of interventions, which often leads to a c-section as the end result.

What is a cascade of intervention? It is where something that starts out as simple as breaking the water to get labor going snowballs into many interventions... just like what happened to me and caused me to have a c-section. I got a little bit of Pitocin, then my water was broken, which led to horridly unnatural contractions, which made me get the Epidural, which stalled labor.... etc. The problem is that during all of these interventions no one TOLD me what the benefits or drawbacks to each of them was. No one gave me any information, just went ahead and did whatever they thought was best to get me laboring and birthing on the hospital timeline.


I wish that more women knew about the possible (and probable) side effects to letting the nurses and doctors intervene like this... inducing labor for no medical reason, "helping" labor along with Pitocin, offering epidurals too early in labor.... I didn't with my first or second baby. And I am quickly learning that many women don't WANT to know this information. They are comfortable with how medical birthing has become nowadays and get pretty defensive when you try to present the facts of intervening.


It is my hope that at least this blog helps someone out there, whether to question the need for a repeat c-section, to look into more natural methods of pain relief, or just read about how birth is supposed to be- which is NOT how it is shown in movies or popular media!