A Healthy Baby is Not ALL That Matters

"Too often women who say they care about the details of their baby's birth day are accused of wanting an 'experience', as if it is selfish to care about how their baby is born, how they feel or how they are treated. But, as the saying goes, 'when a baby is born, so is a mother'. If a mother feels broken, dispirited, depressed or traumatized, how will this affect her baby? Is this healthy?

The following sentence is crucial:
When a woman gives birth, a healthy baby is absolutely completely and utterly the most important thing.
Got that? OK – do not adjust your wig, there’s more…
It is not ALL that matters.
Two things – just to repeat: a healthy baby is the most important thing, AND it is not all that matters.

Women matter too."

My story:
I was told by two different perinatologists at two different mfm clinics here in Seattle that I should have Charlie by Csec. I saw a neonatologist who agreed with the perinatologist, but helped us make a plan should we choose to birth out of hospital. I spoke to several midwives and found an amazing midwife who believed in choices, and supported us in our decision to birth at home.

In addition to all the specialists we spoke to we also read. We looked at the research studies and asked questions of the doctors and the midwives. We talked about ALL the possible scenarios and outcomes. Then we waited for awhile and talked about it some more. It was exhausting but I don't think I have ever felt so well informed about any decision I have EVER made, which is as it should be.

I often found myself defending my choice to give birth at home; that ultimately all that should matter is the health of my baby. I agree, the health of my baby was important, and to me, her health included the way she came into the world. 

Choice. Informed consent. Providers who listen. 

A healthy baby is not all that matters.

Please share this article posted below:

You’ve just given birth. You had a tough time and you’re not sure how you feel – but your body hurts and there are some memories floating around that you’d rather forget. As you hold your newborn and greet the stream of well-wishers, there’s one phrase you’re almost certain to hear: “All that matters is a healthy baby.”

This phrase is repeated so often it has almost become a cliché. New mothers hear it over and over, usually the moment they begin to open up and say that having their baby was difficult or even traumatic. Sometimes they even find they are saying it themselves: “Giving birth was awful, but at least I got my healthy baby, that’s all that matters.”

And this is wrong. Because a healthy baby is not ALL that matters.

This article might push your buttons so before we go on I want to ask you to stay calm, grab a cuppa and keep your wig on. I need to be very very clear, because I know from experience that talking about this issue can cause an outcry.
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So please listen carefully. The following sentence is crucial:
When a woman gives birth, a healthy baby is absolutely completely and utterly the most important thing.
Got that? OK – do not adjust your wig, there’s more…
It is not ALL that matters.
Two things – just to repeat: a healthy baby is the most important thing, AND it is not all that matters.

Women matter too. When we tell women that a healthy baby is all that matters we often silence them. We say, or at least we very strongly imply, that their feelings do not matter, and that even though the birth may have left them feeling hurt, shocked or even violated, they should not complain because their baby is healthy and this is the only important thing.

Not only do we turn a blind eye to the woman’s feelings, but by gaily proclaiming everyone ‘healthy’ we also ignore the complex relationship between mother and baby, and the impact of the birth experience on the future mental and physical health of both of them.

Too often women who say they care about the details of their baby’s birth day are accused of wanting an ‘experience’, as if it is selfish to care about how their baby is born, how they feel or how they are treated. But, as the saying goes, ‘when a baby is born, so is a mother’. If a mother feels broken, dispirited, depressed or traumatised, how will this affect her baby? Is this healthy?

A good birth doesn’t have to be a hippy dippy ‘natural’ birth, all candles, knitting midwives and placenta smoothies. Many women who have hospital births that don’t go the way they planned and end in interventions such as caesareans, report feeling positive about what happened. This is because how a woman is spoken to and treated as she has her baby is much much more important than the actual mode of delivery.

Women need to feel that they have been consulted, respected and given the information they need to make free choices in the best interest of themselves and their child. This allows them to begin motherhood feeling strong, capable and mentally healthy – surely the best way to be when you are about to be given another human being’s fragile developing psychology to hold tenderly in the palm of your hand?

Birth matters. To be respected, to be treated with dignity, to be in control of what happens to our bodies. To really feel the power of bringing a new life into the world – no matter whether in theatre or at home in a birth pool – why is it so wrong for women to want this?

Some women ask for a ‘woman-centred’ caesarean. This means a caesarean in which things are done differently, only slightly, but different nevertheless. Doctors keep their voices low. Music of choice can be played. The screen is lowered for the woman to watch the birth, if she so wishes. Wires usually attached to her chest are instead put on her back, so that baby can be placed immediately on her for skin-to-skin contact. The atmosphere is kept reverent, respectful. Why?!

Because birth, no matter how it happens, is important. It is a huge event in a woman’s life that she will remember in great detail for the rest of her life. We don’t have much ‘spirituality’ these days, but even for the most cynical of us, the moment when a new human being takes their first breath is a special and significant one. And yes, being there and being a part of it, is an ‘experience’.

Some reading this might feel this is nonsense. They don’t want a spiritual experience, or a rite of passage, or essential oils or a statue of a goddess. They don’t want the curtain lowered so they can see either, they just want the baby out safe and sound, and that’s fine too. Women are many and varied; birth can be many and varied too and should, ideally, be just as each woman wants it.

What we do know is that many women DO care about what happens to them when they have their baby, but that they find it hard to talk about these feelings in a culture which persistently tells them that they really shouldn’t, and that what goes on in the delivery room is always acceptable as long as all everyone survives.

Taken to the extreme, this idea that the woman does not matter as long as the baby is healthy can create an environment in which her autonomy over her own body is completely lost. If there is even a very small risk to the baby, what is justifiable?

Recently, we have seen more and more reports of enforced caesareans, putting me in mind of the story – hilarious and awful both at once - of Dr Donal O’Sullivan, who famously declared on Irish radio in 1996 that if a woman wanted a home birth, her husband ought to put a bridle on her and ‘drive’ her to hospital like cattle.
Extreme, perhaps, but if we continue to repeat that a healthy baby is all that matters, we open the doors for all manner of undignified or even abusive treatment to happen to women in the quest for absolute safety. We reduce a woman to being a mere ‘vessel’ for her child, and we quickly silence anyone who wishes to protest against any aspect of their care that they didn’t feel comfortable with.

A healthy baby is the most important thing, and it is not all that matters.
Respect, consent, choice, dignity – all that matters too. - Milli Hill
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Milli Hill is a freelance writer and the founder of the Positive Birth Movement. Find her on twitter @millihill or Instagram @milli.hill
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