For some time now, the guides of the Ministry of Health related to Normal Childbirth have been advocating a labor that was not very well operated and little instrumentalized if everything is going well, to let nature take its course and that the delivery takes place in a normal way.
These guides should serve as action protocols for hospitals, but as palace things go slowly, there are still many hospitals that have not changed the way they act too much and continue to do too much preventive medicine, which continue to intervene too much in deliveries without risk and that end up causing more problems than if they did nothing.
Given this perspective, there are couples who decide to inform themselves before going to a center to know if there is the possibility of having a normal delivery in that hospital. That's why we are going to tell you what ten things should you ask the hospital if you want to have a natural birth.
- If the center belongs to the hospital network with the Initiative for the Humanization of Birth and Lactation Assistance (IHAN), an initiative commanded by WHO and UNICEF whose objective is try to achieve maximum respect for the rhythms of mother and baby during childbirth and promote exclusive breastfeeding from the moment the baby is born.
- If the father can enter during childbirth: there are hospitals that do not allow the father to enter during childbirth, there are hospitals that do not allow the father to even enter the dilation process (the mother can be in the dilation room hours and hours alone ) and there are hospitals that allow the father to enter during childbirth and even if a C-section is performed.
- If there are means to try to ease the pain as an alternative to epidural anesthesia: if what is intended is to have a natural birth without anesthesia it is important to know if in the hospital they can offer you alternatives to alleviate pain such as a room with low light, a bathtub with water, etc.
- What is the hospital's episiotomy rate: if they are practiced systematically or only when it is considered strictly necessary. There are countries where the rate does not reach 10% and hospitals in Spain where it does not fall below 90% (2008 data).
- If there is a program or protocol that enhances the skin-to-baby contact of the baby with the mother: in this way you make sure that you make the first breastfeeding with the mother and many subsequent problems are avoided.
- If bottles or blood serum are administered to babies at birth: it is related to the previous point, since if at birth they give by protocol serum or artificial milk by bottle with nipple they can impair the establishment of breastfeeding. Anyway, and although I think this is getting less and less, they may deny something they do (in a hospital in my city they have caught more than once a nurse giving serum to a baby to calm him).
- If administered synthetic oxytocin or serum in normal deliveries: to know what the "rush" is when deciding when to wait or when to accelerate the delivery, all knowing that the use of synthetic oxytocin causes some risks that must be taken into account (risk of fetal distress, breakage of uterus, ...).
- What is the position in which the women who are going to give birth are placed: to know if freedom of movement is allowed during dilation and if the mother can adopt the position that best suits her when giving birth.
- If they have non-electronic auscultation methods or if intermittent monitoring is allowed: related to the previous point, it is important to know if the baby can be auscultated from time to time without having to knock the mother to put the electrodes of a monitor or if the monitoring is done intermittently so that the mother can walk and move. My wife, like many others, suffered several hours in a bed in the first birth in which they insisted that she should stay so that the monitor signal was not lost.
- Yes they break the bag when the woman arrives for her birth to evolve or if the rupture of the bag is allowed to occur spontaneously: an aspect that is more important after knowing that it is a maneuver that does not help much in a delivery.
Surely there are many more points that could be interesting to know when knowing what to ask when choosing a hospital to give birth, so if you dare, you can leave here those questions that I have not commented on and that you think are important .
Photos | a4gpa, Jon Ovington on Flickr
In Babies and more | What is a normal birth, Natural childbirth is already a trend in Spanish hospitals, 70% of pregnant women who ask for a natural birth end up changing their minds, is natural birth a folklore?
