| In fifty years from now many things might be quite different than they are today. In the field of childbirth there possibly may be changes in the birthing methods, pain management, and technologies used. Women may no longer have to endure the excruciating pains of labor and delivery. Women have been having children for as long as anyone knows and childbirth stories are just as old. Growing up I remember hearing stories of my mother's long painful hours of labor. I don't think these stories were meant to make me feel guilty, but it is kind of like a right of passage for women to go through childbirth. My mother wasn't the only person I had heard these awful stories from. My grandmother, aunts, friends, and even strangers will share their labor and delivery stories with you. After they tell you these horrifically painful details of their childbirth experiences they then try to tell you that you'll forget all about the pain as soon as your child is placed in your arms.
I heard these stories for years and was scared to death to deliver a baby. I was fine with the conception part and the pregnancy part, but would get nauseous at the thought of childbirth. I didn't buy for a minute their stories of how they forgot the pain; this was until I had my son 8 months ago. I went through nineteen hours of labor with about maybe five hours of hard painful labor. I wanted to have a natural, drug free childbirth. At the eighteenth hour of labor I received an epidural (which I ended up begging for). At the nineteenth hour my Doctor informed me that I was not progressing like I should and we needed to do an unexpected cesarean section. I trusted my Doctor completely and twenty minutes later we went into the operating room for surgery. Once my son was born I was able to see him for less than a minute before he went to the nursery and then it was over three hours until I first held my son. I was completely miserable with the experience until the nurses brought me my son. I lay in my hospital bed, held him, and wept. All the pains of the childbirth that I had gone through all just melted away. I really do believe in the love-induced amnesia that I had always heard about. My son was the most precious, beautiful baby I had ever seen (I'm a little partial). I finally understood how pregnancy and childbirth were truly miracles of life. I was holding something that came from my husband and I and was made out of love.
From the beginning of time women have delivered babies without medical doctors, hospitals, and drugs. The first maternity hospital was founded at the University of Pennsylvania in about 1892. Before this time women gave birth with midwives. The founding of the hospital was the beginning of clinical obstetrics and hospital births. The new methods incorporated the use of instruments, pain management, and care for the mother and child.
As time passed on new methods were discovered and put into place. In about the 1950's women were injected with a drug combination of scopolamine and morphine. This seemed to be great for women because they could merely go to sleep and then wake up. This was called "Twilight Sleep" because the morphine allowed the women to be pain free and the scopolamine caused amnesia. What many didn't know was that this injection also affected the newborn. I am sure you can all remember movies where they had to slap the baby's bottoms to get them to cry. Well I always thought this was normal, but what was really going on was that the baby was so heavily sedated the Doctors needed to shock them awake. There has been research showing that there were some psychological disorders as a result of this childbirth method.
Today's childbirth methods have advanced quite a bit over the years. We are much more aware of the affects of medications on the mother and infant. Most of the births in the United States take place within the hospital setting. We are able to see the babies in the womb with ultrasound technology. We also have the capability to do prenatal testing to check for many birth abnormalities. All of our technologies can only go so far, they are not perfect. Many of us know people who were told that they were having a boy and surprise it was a girl. Even though we had pictures and a video with evidence that it was a boy, I made sure not to buy only blue things just incase the ultrasound technician was wrong.
In fifty years from now I hope that our technology would be so advanced that we can clearly see the baby in the womb. Many things will be able to be determined by advanced technology. Doctors will be able to evaluate any possible delivery complications prior to delivery. If a woman is anatomically unable to deliver naturally then the doctor will be able to determine this before she goes into labor.
Labor and delivery may revert back to how it was before the first maternity ward, at home births. Midwives hopefully will be much more accepted by the medical community and society. Insurance companies will have no qualms about this type of delivery. Doctors may even begin to make house calls for at home births. Doctors and expectant parents would have a greater understanding of various birthing methods. Water births may be a common thing in 50 years because its use is just now starting to be known. Water birth is a wonderful experience because the water is warm, soothing, and makes you feel weightless. Doctors hopefully would have more training and experience that incorporated different birthing positions. Breathing techniques probably would still be a crucial aspect of childbirth. In 50 years many women may choose to use hypnosis for the relief of their discomfort. There are some who currently swear that this method was wonderful and decreased if not completely took the pain away during childbirth.
In 50 years the medical field should have made a considerable amount of progress in finding medications that are safe for the mother and child to have. The medications would not be painful to administer and would have no immediate or lasting after effects. Medications would be strong enough to sufficiently reduce the pain to a tolerable level.
The complications that accompanied epidurals such as: prolonged labor, respiratory insufficiency, and severe headache/backache, poor muscle strength in the infant, and neonatal jaundice would no longer be a possibility. Epidurals also have a side effect of intense itching. A couple hours after my sons delivery I fell asleep and woke up to the most intense itching I have ever experienced. My face and mouth itched so bad I was afraid that I would itch my skin off until I was given some anti-itching medicine that helped.
Psychological research will hopefully be taken to heart in 50 years showing how crucial it is for the mother and child to bond instantly. The nurses will no longer take the newborn for testing and washing immediately after the birth and they'll place the baby directly on the mother's chest for bonding. This is done today, but not as a regular practice. Another thing that I hope will be mandatory, is it that the mother and newborn are not jostled around in the hospital like they are in most hospitals today. The mother would have only one room in which she would deliver in and stay in after delivery. This would be a private room with only one patient per room. Each room would be equipped with a shower that may be used during labor and after delivery. I also hope that it'll be standard practice that there are accommodations for the father and he'll be encouraged to stay with the mother and newborn as a family unit during their hospital stay. My poor husband had a chair that was comfortable for only a little while and it didn't lie back at all. He went home every night and I usually sent my son to the nursery because it was difficult for me to get up all the time because of my incision. We really would have preferred to be together during our stay in the hospital, not separate.
Medical instruments and devices for labor and delivery will be improved as well. Forceps and suctions will be outlawed for use. New, safer, and kinder instruments will be used. Internal fetal monitors will be designed to adhere to the infant's skull instead of the current method of twisting a thin metal spring into the baby's scalp. External fetal monitors will be much smaller than the two-belt system used today. These instruments are vital but I just think that they could be a little less harsh.
In fifty years I truly hope that these advances and changes have been made in childbirth. I know that all this information can be overwhelming to learn about. A good majority of the population really doesn't understand what goes into having a baby until they have one. I tried to educate myself before and during my pregnancy about what to expect. My husband even read a book called; "The Expectant Father" and I highly recommend it. Not only should the mother know what to expect, but the father as well. I was very uneasy about childbirth because I didn't know what to expect. Even today, I am a little apprehensive about my next delivery because I had a cesarean section the first time and I'll have to have one again. I know that it sounds crazy but I would love to have the next baby naturally if I could. Even with all the pain! Unfortunately, there could be several awful complications if I don't do a cesarean section again so more than likely I won't have the baby naturally. I am excited about the thought of having another baby. My husband and I would like to have about four children and I know that the advances I have written about won't help me out. I do hope for my children and their children that these advances really do come forth. I don't want my daughters to fear something that is so beautiful because they don't understand the process or because the process is painful and uncomfortable. Whether or not radical changes are made in the field of childbirth or not women will continue to have children, we've done it for as long as anyone knows.
· Great sources for information on childbirth can be found at/in:
Websites Books
babycenter.com What to expect when you're expecting
childbirth.org The expectant Father
obgyn.upenn.edu
*You can type in childbirth in any search engine
*There are many magazines with childbirth information and your Doctor will have lots more information for you. I recommend anyone having a baby to take a Lamaze class. You not only learn breathing techniques but lots of valuable information is given as well.
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