about the sleeping during 'third stage'....
i watched this happen in Florida at a Birth Center in Gainesville a number
of years ago. A young mexican migrant woman was giving birth there and I
was asked to translate. At midnight she had been having contractions most
of the day and was fully dilated. she said she was exhausted and wanted to
sleep. the midwife sent all of us [assistant, husband... translator] out of
the room, turned out the lights and covered the young woman with a nice
blanket - shut the door and sat down outside of the door to rest as well.
i asked if the young woman was o.k. the midwife smiled and said that we
would know by the sounds the young woman made when labor would kick in
again. 45 minutes later, after a nice long nap - the midwife heard the
young woman making the pushing sounds and the baby was born fine at 3
o'clock in the morning.
i was so impressed by this because during the birth of my first daughter
many years ago I begged the friend/midwife with me to let me sleep - after I
was fully dilated. the need to sleep was overwhelming. she [a friend who
had been present for 10 births in labor and delivery, and was good enough to
accompany me when i desperately wanted a home birth] said she would let me
have five minutes - she wasn't sure what to do about that request. i slept
so deeply and was so sorry when i was woken up. my daughter was fine when
she was born two hours later, but i had been fully dilated for five hours
and the contractions were so light and didn't get really 'serious' about
working even till the end. i'll never forget how much my body demanded
sleep. it didn't happen in the two following births.
just two stories for someone alert to possible research - i think this is
important. childbirth educators here in merida, yucatan who accompany women
through birth in the hospital insist that the 'clock' and the ideas about
how long things should take is one of the biggest reasons women get
cesareans. the idea of 'one centimeter per hour' is part of basic,
socialized knowledge about childbirth..., all women i interview can tell me
the time/story of their dilation. 'it all changed when the 'minutes' came' -
said one childbirth educator [who has accompanied women for over 20 years
in hospitals]. time = money afterall, especially if the 'time' is not spent
using up consumible/chargeable resources.
since i've never introduced myself - i'll try to be quick - my name is
marcia good maust, i am finishing my doctoral (anthropology/ qualitative -
ethnographic) research on physician and midwives ideas about the high
cesarean rates. also... i am interested in how women feel differently about
their cesareans depending on their social position (ethnic, class, etc.). I
was encouraged to do this through my master's research on urban midwifery
here in Merida - all the midwives I talked to had questions/comments/stories
about cesareans.
someone needs to study the sleeping - it is really important. but i can't
imagine hospital routines permitting a couple snores with the lights turned
out and a nice thick blanket....
marcia
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