Imagine you're a woman in labor. Your environment is relatively stress-free, you have everything needed for a normal delivery, and friends and family of your choosing are there offering support. And best of all, your caregiver puts you in the foreground, letting your body do what it’s made to do. You feel what your body is going through and how to best accommodate it. She lets you be in control of the situation. This is what it’s like to birth with a midwife. Feeling like you have control over your birth can greatly influence the whole birthing experience.
The differences between giving birth in a hospital and giving birth at home, or at a birthing center, are great. But the main difference I see is the lack of control I feel a woman has in a hospital setting. I find it interesting that celebrities, especially, are sacrificing this control for the sheer convenience of hospital births and elective c-sections. That they, who have already sacrificed a great amount, and sometimes all, of their autonomy, would allow someone else have control over their intentions.
There have been several celebrities that have reportedly planned their c-sections around their Hollywood schedule and also because they don’t want to go through the terrible pains of childbirth. Yes, childbirth is painful. I don’t think anybody would dispute this. But somehow they see a planned c-section as the better option? A c-section is major abdominal surgery that takes weeks to fully recover from.
So, if celebrities are willing to sacrifice their autonomy for their career, should we really be so shocked that they’re handing it over to their surgeons?
I really don't think that celebrities can have a normal pregnancy. I am really surprised that they get pregnant in the first place. Their fame is built around always looking good. Thousands of fans admire and adore celebrities. To keep this edge, celebrities will use any method to stay that way, such as plastic surgery, Botox, wearing the latest fashions to trying stay on the best dressed list and off the worst dressed list.
ReplyDeleteNutrition is very important when a woman is pregnant. If an actress needs to stay slender for a part or to fit into a designer dress, problems in the pregnancy can be caused if the pregnant mother has an eating disorder. Not eating right while on the road. All of this is not good for the baby.
Hotels and tour buses becomes their home. They travel on planes and limos and are away from their families for long periods of time. Waking up early and going to bed late. It seems as though celebrities would be stressed and exhausted most of the time. Not a good environment to be pregnant in. Because, as you say in your post, celebrities do not have much autonomy. There are a lot of people depending on them for a living.
To talk about celebrities as if they have normal circumstances, is a little absurd. I cerainly do not hold them up on a pedestal by any means, but it is safe to say that, like models, or any profession that is dependent on looking a specific way, how you deal with pregnancy is going to be different. Maybe if you gave an example of some famous actresses who you know of have had a c-section I could relate some to your argument.
ReplyDeleteI am the father of two little girls, both of whom we had at the same hospital. My wife gave birth naturally, for her to have scheduled a c-section would have been out of the question, but it was her decision. Celebrities make their decisions like all other women, basing it upon their work, family, and any other situations that they need to be in control of.
This is a difficult subject for me to comment on, but I would hope that even though pregnancy is important, raising the child is equally important. How a celebrity woman chooses to deal with her pregnancy is up to her, and as long as she is a good mother to the child, what is the difference?
In response to Baum D's comment: Thank you for your feedback. First, I feel that the main point of my posting was not to discuss whether or not celebrities had "normal" circumstances. Rather, I was speaking broadly about women, birthing in a hospital setting and how that correlates to a loss of personal autonomy. In another of my posts I detailed how the administration of epidurals and pitocin actually lead to fetal distress and an increase in emergency c-sections. Emergency c-sections are rare in home birthing situations. Midwives can facilitate a transfer if needed, but it’s typically unnecessary. The facts of the matter are that women's bodies are designed to have babies. Left to their own devices they are successful most of the time, and require no intervention. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and I'm not advocating removal of the c-section from medical practice. Rather, I find it sad that so many women are made to fear what their bodies can naturally do. They fear the pain of childbirth, and more importantly they are terrified that unless they have a baby in the hospital surrounded by doctors, their baby will be in danger. Studies show that women who plan on having a natural home birth actually wind up needing less interventions than the same demographic of women who plan on having hospital births. The comment about celebrities was simply to illustrate that I found it strange that a person who had already given up so much control over their personas, would allow someone else to coerce them into a procedure that may not be necessary.
ReplyDeleteIn the interest of providing you with context however, here are just a few names of celebrities who had elective C-sections: Victoria Beckham, Claudia Schiffer, Elizabeth Hurley, Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Kate Hudson. Most importantly, I didn't mean to imply that just by having a c-section a woman was going to be a bad mother. What I feel was important to say is that many women, after having hospital births that led to emergency c-sections, felt they missed out on an entire experience. To them, they felt like they were in a car accident, and then there was a baby. Whereas women who had homebirths felt an immediate and strong connection to their child. This physiological response is the direct result of the natural hormone, oxytocin, which is responsible for flipping the maternal switch in a woman’s brain immediately after birth. This is the hormone secreted once the infant’s adrenal gland matures, and causes contractions. Pitocin, the artificial version, does not have the same after effect on the mother. They also felt at peace, and completely happy with their birthing experience. Many women (obviously your wife is an exception) felt robbed of something magical, and had deep regrets about having hospital birth. I don’t understand why any woman, but specifically celebrities in this case, would opt out of this amazing experience. I believe it’s largely due to a failure on our part to educate women. It seems like it would be so empowering. And for those celebrities lacking just that - I ask, why?
This is just scratching the surface of what I feel is a very interesting idea. It goes deeper than body image and scheduling. A c-section, hands down, is far worse for your body than natural childbirth. Its major abdominal surgery. Today 1 in 3 babies in the United States is born via c-section. No matter how you slice it, that is not natural.
Maybe you answer this in another post, but what is the cost difference between a home birth with a mid-wife and a hospital birth? How much to midwives get paid?
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