When something goes wrong during childbirth, or there is an obvious risk of it, medical professionals take action to, with the least possible damage, achieve the best result. That is, begin to perform appropriate medical interventions according to the level of urgency, such as an episiotomy or, if necessary, a C-section.
The problem comes when these maneuvers are performed without such urgency, without a clear reason, as in this video that a woman shared so we could all see that the gynecologist made an episiotomy against his will (among other things quite unfortunate).
The abuse of the position of power
A woman, a pregnancy, a baby and her birth. Two protagonists, mother and baby, and one of them with all the right to decide which interventions will be performed and which interventions will not be performed, such as the woman in the video. We do not know what he thought of the position in which they gave birth, but from the video it is extracted that He was very clear that he didn't want his genitals cut. And despite that, the gynecologist did it, as if it were a useless one that was not able to discern; as if it were a girl who was clearly wrong.
This is one more sample of abuse of power of some professionals who still think that babies are born healthy thanks to them, when the reality is that happens despite them. Despite making him one episiotomy that he probably didn't need and even though that damage to his vulva and his vagina will have him for a lifetime.
Since when does it give birth up?
The lithotomy position, with the woman lying down, has been criticized and discouraged for years because it makes labor progress difficult and because it responds only to a need for professionals to be more comfortable in childbirth care. In other words, to be able to sit or stand, they knock the woman down making her birth more complicated and have more numbers need more interventions.
But it is that this woman is not only in a lithotomy position. When they tell him to push, they press his legs up and his vagina faces the ceiling. In that position the baby does not have to go down the birth canal: It has to go up! And this is a tremendous nonsense, because the logical thing is to harness the force of gravity to give birth, and not use it so that everything turns against it. If it is already difficult sometimes to give birth on your feet or squat, when the baby is falling down, imagine in such a position (a baby can go down without problems by a slide, but it will take years until he manages to raise it).
A few bids and "your baby doesn't come out"
The posture is horrible, but hey, there are women who have succeeded ... with time. If you give him time, he can give birth, but no, this woman in the video does not deserve time. Someone must be in a hurry or love their job very little to pretend that births have to happen in five minutes. And she must love very little the women she attends and her babies, if by asking her to "not cut her" she puts herself in plan "because if you don't want it that way, you go home."
At that point, not only the doctor and the other birth attendants are against the woman, but also her family. The mother asserts that she does not know, and that if the doctor does not do so, the baby will not be able to leave. And in a situation of zero support, a little more woman can do: she sees nothing, is prostrated in a totally physically and mentally disabling position and is giving birth to her baby. It is not time to defend your rights because your rights should not be undermined at any time! Can you imagine arguing with the person who is supposed to help you bring your baby into the world? It does not make any sense.
And yet it happens, and it happened in this birth because everyone was determined to convince her that the episiotomy was necessary because the baby was very large and not dilating enough. But, of course ... if they only let you push a few minutes, the dilation may not be enough. And if above, as I say, they put you in that position, you will already tell me what control you will have of your delivery and what strength you can do.
But ... if you don't have an episiotomy, it could have been torn, right?
That is what they say: it is better to do it because if it could not have been torn and that would have been much worse. Well, I'm not so clear. The obstetrician cuts up to 12 times causing an opening such that the baby leaves without any problem. In a properly attended delivery, would it have torn apart? Because we do not know. And in childbirth in that position, but with time, would it have torn apart? Because not the same. It does not make any sense cut sex and open it to prevent it from opening by itself.
Because in addition, if a tear had occurred, who tells you that it would have been greater than the (piece of) cut that the doctor makes to the woman? And on the other hand, does the doctor not know that performing an episiotomy increases the risk of tearing in the next delivery?
And you should not know that a Cochrane review of six studies on episiotomy concludes the following:
The restrictive use of episiotomy apparently has benefits compared to the routine practice of episiotomy. There is less posterior perineal trauma, less need for sutures and fewer complications, there are no differences with respect to most of the measures taken to control pain and severe perineal or vaginal trauma. However, with the restrictive use of episiotomy, there was an increased risk of anterior perineal trauma.
That is restricting the use of episiotomy has many benefits and few disadvantages.
Kimberly denounced the obstetrician for ignoring her desire
Nor should the gynecologist know that when the power and confidence of a mother is abused obstetric violence is being committed, nor that there are women who do not forgive him, as Kimberly, the woman in the video. He asked for time, and he was denied. He asked not to be cut, and they ignored him. Everyone turned against him, everyone took the action for good, everyone agreed that if not, the baby could not have been born, except her. The mother felt nullified, abused, and decided to report the obstetrician for (bad) treatment.
To file the complaint, he started a crowfounding campaign that, apparently, did not get enough money to move on. I have not been able to find what happened at the end, after the complaint, because the cost of the lawyers to defend the complaint were high and perhaps it all ended up in nothing.
In that case I can only say one thing: it is a pity that justice is not available to everyone, because bad professionals also hide in that obstacle (you have to have money to report them). So in the face of this possibility, unless women know that these things happen, that they know what an episiotomy is, what it is for and that they look for professionals who attend births loving their work and the women they help bring their babies to world in which they expect it to be one of the happiest days of their lives, and not the day they made them feel useless and cut off their sex for no reason.
Video | Youtube
Photo | iStock
In Babies and more | Can episiotomy be considered a genital mutilation ?, Caesarean section or vaginal delivery with episiotomy ?, What is the effectiveness of episiotomy during childbirth?
