Take a look at the rooms…. don’t ask for the stats!!
As part of our biopsychology of birth class, we were put into groups and sent out to different hospitals to collect information. Some of the information we received included Cesarean section rates, rates of intervention as well as standard practices in these facilities. We were disturbed with most of the information we found as well as the level of difficulty in collecting it.
The class went to hospitals and birth centers all over the Hudson Valley from St. Luke’s Hospital in Newburgh to Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie. I was actually assigned to the Neugarten Family Birth Center in Rhinebeck and after hearing about all of the different hospitals I must say that this is THE place to give birth in the Hudson Valley.
After visiting the birth center at Northern Dutchess Hospital I was blown away by how understanding they were to the birth process, seeing it as a beautiful experience in which the mother knows her body and being confident that she can deliver her baby without the use of interventions. Then we flip to other hospitals in the Hudson Valley where there is no faith in their patients. Women are confined to their beds and not allowed to move during labor, pain medication is thrown at every patient, inductions happen in most cases.
When hearing about all of the services that the Neugarten birth center provides I was thrilled to know that there was somewhere that women could go and have a birth that wasn’t restricted by impatient hospital staff and these ridiculous ideas of “standard of care”. But it also highlighted how many problems there are in the United States system regarding birth. Being able to move freely during labor or eating when hungry isn’t something that I should be excited about. Women should not be worried about being overwhelmed by an enormous amount of interventions being thrown at them as soon as they walk into the hospital doors. Reforms are being made in the field of healthcare but what is being done about the problems with our birthing system???
This class has truly opened my eyes to all of the issues that need to be addressed in the birth system in America. From the use of interventions to the rate of Cesarean sections, something needs to be changed. The first step is to make people aware of the problems and with this awareness comes change.