Please note that infant mortality rate has been reduced by 85% since the 50s due to interventions by doctors and midwives. Also note http://www.2womenshealth.com/Postpartum/Maternal-Mortality.htm – the graph is shocking…

I would seriously recommend to please refrain from portraying personal experiences as sacro santo fact. Relax and try to relay on the proffessionals. I am sure that no one working at any hospital is intent on worsening anyone s labour experience, nor certainly to endanger anyone s life… Any procedure done is based on individual and circumferential parameters. And most importantly all are done to safegaurd life. (And quality of life… Episiotomies for instance, as horrible as they may sound, make sure the ‘natural tear’ does not happen in a way that makes you incontinent to urine or faeces for the rest of your life)

Please relax… We are lucky to have good, trained professionals.

Take a deep breath and prepare for a roller coaster ride… You will leave hospital with a story…an adventure… But also with a precious baby….

And please feel free to tell your story to the world, but unless you have had 20 babies, witnessed 100s of labours, have a medical degree, and read 1000s of studies (and not just a handful), do not try to portray your story as a bible for what to do and what to avoid…

I have no doubt that in your case the episiotomy was truly necessary. Again I was referring to completely normal progressing births. And I believe a lot of medical interventions that constrain women to the bed during labor might also make episiotomies more necessary. First of all, it is a lot harder to push your baby out when you are on your back and secondly all throughout labor changing position and using gravity helps (which is of course not possible any longer when you need to be on the monitor, have an epidural etc). But in any case, necessary or not, you should be informed before they cut you (Which I am sure they do. I must have misunderstood Kelly here).

Regarding the episiotomy, I assume that like in my case, at this stage it was necessary for Kelly. The baby was descending with the wrong side of the head and they had to pull it out. I was in pain for at least 2 weeks after birth. Painful to sit, painful to go to the toilet, horrible.

Episiotomy is also one of those interventions that medicals nowadays seem to make frequent use of without always being necessary. I know for sure that in Germany the rate increased over the years but now criticism has arisen. An episiotomy might make healing harder and definitely more painful. I know of one woman (in Germany) who had trouble walking and sitting for three weeks post-birth. And it increases the risk of tearing the scar on further births. If you leave women to tear naturally (if so), usually the tissues tend to break at their weakest point, making healing easier. Seems to me that an episiotomy in many cases unfortunately is another measure to speed up the process of labor.

Like Liza I think a lot of the procedures and measures taken nowadays are not necessarily related to an increase of risky births but to the economy of the hospitals. If hospitals can calculate and “schedule” births a bit better, they can be more efficient. What is good for the hospital is not always good for the patient. I was told that at Mater Dei they give you 4 hours to progress from arrival. If you do not make enough progress in their eyes they put you on the drip to help the contractions get stronger. I don’t know whether this is true but if it is the case, it shows that it is obviously done for reasons of getting the labor over with fast. Nearly the same counts for inductions (which are also more likely to end up in a c-section).

I don’t want to talk anything bad or be overcritical. I am sure there are very dedicated and experienced good midwives and staff at Mater Dei. And I am sure they are very helpful and do whatever they can. But maybe with one public hospital for the whole island their situation is predetermined with thinking economically.

However I still opted to give birth there (instead of St James) and I will leave a birth story here and share my own experience with Mater Dei afterwards.