Study raps effects of labor coaching
Salt Lake Tribune Tue, 03 Jan 2006 11:49 PM PST
During the birth of her first son in 2004, Trinity Moore had her mother, husband, two sisters and a midwife in the delivery room to help her through 36 hours of labor. When she forgot to breathe, they reminded her; and they encouraged her to push for 2 1/2 hours before David Grae Moore came into this world.

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Surely you have seen the headlines? LITTLE BENEFIT IN LABOR COACHING, COACHING MAKES LITTLE DIFFERENCE FOR WOMEN IN LABOR– look around.

Of course the study validates what most of us already know — that the holdyourbreathandcounttoten, nurse yelling in your face, valsalva pushing probably has little effect and probably does more harm than good.

But the spin machine will tell us differently — “coaching is associated with mec staining” (click on one of the above links), is of “little benefit.” I don’t even want to know how many OB-GYNs in Birmingham, Alabama are discouraging their clients from seeking a doula because “coaching has little benefit and may be associated with mec staining and bladder problems later” never bothering to consider the entire study.

My upcoming editorial in the JOURNAL OF PERINATAL EDUCATION (holler if you want a sneak peek!) implores all of us who care about normal birth and evidence based maternity care to look at successful social change movements and individually adapt something. I’m thinking fist-in-the-air revolution, gals! Think. Neither the homosexual-rights movement nor the physician movement to discredit midwives happened by accident. Au contraire, they were and continue to be part of concerted efforts to change the thoughts and attitudes of laissez-faire Westerners.

What I would like for all of us to do — keep your eyes open… this will sooner or later hit the BIRMINGHAM NEWS, the TUSCALOOSA TIMES or your local paper. Please keep an eye out for it and when it shows up, write a letter to the editor. If you have letters behind your name like RN, CPM, CNM, CD, or CCE, please consider sending a press release from “Anne’s Nurturing Touch” or whatever you call your birth-biz, to clarify. There are hundreds of sites out there for info on writing press releases.

Please, ask your childbirth related advocacy group (DONA, CAPPA, ALACE et al), too to get into the media to “clarify.”

Yours in making the world a better place for mothers and babies,

Anne