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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susan Fekety
Days: 207-781-6715/fax 781-4470
Email:
susan@pocketmidwife.com
Modern Obstetrical Practices Defy Principles of Evolution
Portland, Maine—Four million women give birth in the United States every year. At
last count, about a quarter of them should expect to deliver their
babies not in a warm, inviting, relaxed setting where they’re
surrounded by loving friends and family, but via major abdominal
surgery in a bright, cold operating room, surrounded by mostly
strangers. That’s 1 in 4 women, though the World Health
Organization recommends that this number should be more like
1 in
10. There are hospitals where the cesarean section rate is over 50
percent, even for women without medical complications. But there
are others where the rate is much lower—and those moms and babies
do just fine.
Why? Midwives know.
Surely Mother Nature didn’t create women’s bodies so they’d need
this much potentially-hazardous intervention to get their babies
born—if she had, humans would have died out many years ago. Still,
some obstetricians all but encourage women to schedule their
induced labor—or even their elective cesarean section—as a matter
of mutual convenience.
Worries about malpractice suits contribute to our high rate of
cesarean section. Insurance companies pay doctors a lot more for
surgery than for a normal birth—and surgery is a lot faster when
you have a busy practice to run. Though there are a bunch of
reasons why a major surgical procedure is starting to take the
place of a natural human bodily function, it’s as though the pain,
risk and expense of this radical intervention are only of minor
concern.
Why? Midwives know.
According to Susan Fekety, a practicing certified nurse midwife
who has worked with pregnant women for 20 years, “It’s the rare
American woman who gets the kind of consistent, empowering
education and support she really needs to be able to have faith in
the normal birth process, whether from her family, friends, or
from her obstetrical provider.” Fekety says the message being sent
to the mother whose pregnancy and birth don’t go as she
expects—that her body “doesn’t work right”—is one that may stick
with her for a remarkably long time. Many women even begin their
pregnancies feeling this way.
In present day, every woman needs a midwife on her maternity care
team if she wants to beat the odds—and she must cultivate her own
inner confidence in her power to give birth in a normal and
healthy way. Despite what you’d think from ridiculous mass media
messages, getting ready for labor does not mean learning to
“pant-pant-blow” and setting aside a truck full of “onesies”—and
although horror stories abound, it is quite unusual for a healthy
pregnancy or labor process to suddenly turn into a life-threatening
disaster without any warning.
Midwives know it takes more than a six-week class to prepare a
woman to give birth, let alone to re-program the negative cultural
messages she’s probably been inundated with since childhood.
Midwives know that the midwifery model for prenatal and birth care
results in excellent outcomes for the mother and the baby, a
reduced need for medical intervention, and far fewer cesarean
deliveries. Midwives are trained with a holistic philosophy, using
skills and traditions that have been passed down from generation
to generation for as long as women have been getting pregnant.
Still, fewer than 10 percent of women giving birth in the United
States work with midwives. The ones who do say they enjoy having
relaxed, personal and informative prenatal care; seeing a provider
who has faith in a woman’s body and who is an expert in what’s
normal (and what’s not); who knows how to help her stay healthy;
and who stays with her as she works to give birth—whether in the
hospital, birth center, or at home. The women who don’t work with
midwives probably still believe some of the myths about them—but
as the cesarean section rate continues to climb in the United
States, the special skills of midwives to keep birth normal and
healthy are needed now more than ever.
According to Fekety, “affirmations are a valuable, simple,
powerful tool for daily use during pregnancy. With affirmations, a
woman can begin to re-set her body and mind with images of
confidence, power and commitment”. To this end, Fekety has written
The Pocket Midwife, a bound deck of 70 pregnancy affirmations
designed to support women continuously as they wrestle with their
own inner—and sometimes outer—blocks to healthy pregnancy and
normal birth. Affirmations include: “My body is my friend,” “My
body knows exactly what to do,” “My body opens to the energy of
birth,” and “I am a part of the endless chain of birthing women.”
“I want every pregnant woman to move through her journey feeling
supported, capable, and able to trust her body as it performs the
everyday miracle of childbirth—as it was intended to do. I’d also
love to see more women working with some of the fantastic midwives
who are available. Even for those women who are fortunate enough
to have their own midwife, I envision The Pocket Midwife as a
gentle reminding voice of assurance a woman can keep with her all
the time.”
Midwives know it’s possible to change the odds—woman by woman.
About the Author
Susan Fekety MSN, CNM has been a certified nurse
midwife for 20 years and has helped thousands of women through
pregnancy and birth. A committed believer in the power of positive
thinking in general and the use of affirmations specifically,
Susan started writing The Pocket Midwife by collecting
healthy, helpful thoughts “in a grubby purple file folder” as
particular issues came up again and again in her clinical practice
with pregnant women.
Twice a Yale graduate, and after several years on the faculty
of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Susan moved to Maine to
practice midwifery at Women to Women in Yarmouth, attending births
at Mercy Hospital in Portland.
Susan currently practices at the True North Center for Health
and Healing, offering holistic women’s health services in
Falmouth, Maine. Though she closed her obstetrical practice in
2001, Susan made a vow that once she began to keep regular hours
and sleep nights like normal people, she would work to raise
awareness of the importance of midwifery care as an option for
every woman.
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