change
While babies are still born today in the same way that that they were 100 years ago, many aspects of childbirth have changed. MM takes a closer look at how, when it comes to pregnancy, it’s…
All change!
that one of the areas most affected by change has been pregnancy and childbirth. A hundred years ago, for example, many women knew of a mother or baby who had died, and so approached giving birth and being a mother with some trepidation. Boy, how things have changed for you from those days…
W
You’re able to plan! Unlike a century ago, women in many parts of the world can now plan their pregnancies and most will tend to have fewer children than was the norm then. Planning has also taken on an increased role in delivery, with many entering the labour suite armed with a ‘birth plan’, which sets out exactly how they want the delivery to be!
You can choose where to give birth! One hundred years ago, most children were born at home. Now, in the Western world, that figure is put at around only one per cent. One important reason for the change in birth location was the development of pain-reducing childbirth anaesthesia, which was only available in hospitals, but, recently, thanks to the growth of ‘natural childbirth’, many are opting to once again give birth in the home setting.
42MODERNMUM Spring 2016
e’re all aware of how much life has changed over the last hundred years and there’s no doubt
If your pregnancy is classed as ‘low risk’,
you’re also more likely now to be able to opt for a midwifery-led unit than a hospital. In fact, most hospitals now offer a midwifery- led unit, where you have more control over the type of birth that you want, but from which there is easy access to medical facilities, should difficulties arise.
You can play a significant role in
your own care! Ironically, it was the growth in the use of anaesthesia during the 1950s and 1960s, which made women aware that the anaesthesia oſten leſt them unable to play a role in both their own care and that of their babies. As a result, a growing women’s movement drew attention to the fact that control of childbirth was moving from the woman to the doctor and this led to the rise in the natural childbirth movement, which believes that women, not their healthcare provider, should be in charge of the childbirth process.
You can choose your own
particular pain solution! In the late 1800s, the painkiller ‘Twilight Sleep’ - a combination of morphine and scopolamine – was used to both relieve pain and help women to forget most of their labour experience. At first this option was only available in hospital to wealthy women, but women's rights activists soon began to
campaign for it to be available to all women. During the mid-20th century, the development of spinal anaesthesia, which was then known as a ‘saddle block’, helped relieve the pain of delivery. Since then, anaesthologists have continued to refine anaesthesia techniques and, in most Western hospitals today, women can choose to have some form of epidural or spinal anaesthesia for birth. Equally, however, there has been a vast increase in the number of ‘natural’ painkilling options, such as hypnobirthing and breathing techniques.
You’re benefitting fom better
research! Medical research has obviously made great strides over the last century and this has been greatly welcomed in pregnancy. For a start, early delivery is now much less likely, mainly as a result of earlier diagnosis and treatment of conditions, such as pre- eclampsia and gestational diabetes, both of which can lead – if leſt untreated – to premature birth. And speaking of pre-eclampsia – which
used to be every pregnant woman's worst nightmare - doctors are no longer waiting until there’s protein in a pregnant woman’s urine before they begin treatment, they now start the treatment if they observe that she has high blood pressure along with low blood platelet count, or high blood levels of liver enzymes.
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