Monday, November 24, 2008

Big Babies = Cesarean Sections

My stomach lurched when I read this in a news story today:

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=29508

So, when I got the call on Nov. 13 at 1:30 p.m., it was no surprise to hear my mother say Ben checked in at a whopping 9 pounds (don't worry gals, Ben came into the world by way of cesarean section at 12:37 p.m.).



Yes, don't worry gals!!! Don't become horrified over the idea that a **HUGE** 9 lb baby came out of a woman's va-jay-jay, hoo ha, pwerta....ah hem, VAGINA. Lord no!!! Who would want that?!?! There's no way! That's an appaling idea!

When did nine pound babies become monsters that required extraction through the abdominal wall? When did nine pound babies become un-birthable? When did it become a societal "joke" that women wouldn't be so stupid as to deliver a "large" baby in any other way than the on-demand birth way?

Last Sunday, November 16th, was my HBAC baby's birthday. She turned three. My baby turned three! She was 10.10lbs, 23" long, and was posterior. It infuriated me that everyone's FIRST reaction when her weight was told, was "You had a c-section, right?"

I got enormous satisfaction by telling them that she was born at home, onto the very bed she was created in. Also, that she was a VBAC baby. That my cesarean baby was pulled out of my body, because my bastard OB told me that he would be "too big" to deliver safely. He was only 8.8lbs...and spent 9 days in the NICU because of severe respiratory distress ( i.e., wasn't READY ). I didn't know any better.

So women...be offended. This article plays up the social stigma that women are INCAPABLE of delivering a large baby. We are, in fact, more than capable! We are WOMEN. We are made to birth. Whether the baby be 7lbs or 11lbs...we are made to birth.

And in honor of my baby's birthday, here is my MONSTER of a HUGE baby now :

7 comments:

Brewer Family said...

All of my mothers children were well over 8 1/2lbs and my brother who weighed in at 10lbs 1oz was her easiest labor and delivery. She said he would have been a perfect home birth because it went so smoothly. He wasn't born at home but luckily he was born vaginally and drug free under the suervision of a doctor who believed in home birth and un-intervened births. That was over 30 years ago but I am positive if it were today they wouldn't have ever let her birth a baby that big. How do people think humans have survived so long? Pain meds and ultrasounds haven't been around forever!!

Amber said...

Wow...always a powerful a blogger...thanks for all the encouragment!!!

Emily said...

I just delivered my HUGE 8.12 baby at home in July. I never thought anything about "big" babies, since I was the smallest of my siblings at 9 lbs. My sister was about 11 lbs (and born at home). It's just silly. I believe doctors are widening the definition of what constitutes "high risk" for the purpose of retaining patients.

Gombojav Tribe said...

ADORABLE PICTURE!


And of course, I agree with you 100%. I've had a nine pounder (my biggest baby to date) and it was by far the easiest birth of my five so far!

Anonymous said...

Hi... never been here; clicked through via Zimm's Zoo. I have had all five of my children in a hospital, but have had absolutely no medication, and as little intervention as possible (the last two, after studying Bradley, I wouldn't let them break my water...) My first and last were the smallest at 8.13. The other three were 9.0, 9.11 and 10.0. I, too, lately, have been horrified because, as I've been nursing my 2 mo old baby in the afternoon, I sometimes watch Birth Day on Discovery Health, and several times I have seen c-sections (which I can't even watch) because of the "HUGE" baby that then turns out to be 8-something.

I was talking to a friend who is newly pregnant with her first, and it's just so hard not to want to shake some sense into a woman... WE CAN DO IT!! We can actually birth babies they way they're supposed to be birthed. The prevailing medical "wisdom" is that it's just too hard, and why go through it... Birth is so empowering, powerful, joyful, exhilarating...

Anyways, I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I just wanted to agree with you that so-called big, or even actually big babies do NOT have to be birthed cesarean.

Dan and Sarah said...

hey...Dan and I were just saying we haven't talked to you guys in forever...so I checked in on the blog...how goes it? :)

Gombojav Tribe said...

Hi! I left you some Bloggy Bling on my blog! Please come pick up your award!