No ‘unnecessary technology’
Teacher touts home childbirth
By JANE DeVIRGILIO
Of the Emerald
Having a child at home is no
longer a throwback to the Dark
Ages for pregnant women, a
natural birth teacher told a
University audience Tuesday.
With emotional support and
the help of a skilled birth practi
tioner, home delivery results in a
sensitive, emotional and relax
ing experience for the majority
of women who choose it, said
Linda Ware, whose appearance
was part of this week’s women’s
symposium.
"Many women no longer want
a cold, routine birthing process
hospitals provide. They don’t
want to be seen as just another
lady in bed 13 who's been in
labor for 20 hours," Ware said.
Ware is director of Birthways,
a Lane County childbirth re
source center that provides
counseling, natural childbirth
classes and birth planning con
sultation to expectant parents.
Natural birth is defined not
only by the use of little or no
medication during delivery. It
also stresses minimum use of
medical technology with more
openness, communication and
support and reliance on a
woman’s own intuition.
Consideration of a woman’s
emotional health during delivery
is as important as her physical
health, Ware said. She believes
hospitals often inundate women
with unnecessary medical tech
nology during conventional
delivery and, as a result, ignore
their emotional needs.
This technology enables phy
sicians to help mothers and
children through complicated
deliveries. In the majority of
pregnancies, however, those
procedures are not required
and may even impair the
delivery, Ware said.
"With routine use of
procedures such as a fetal
Wallet thefts hit library
A recent rash of wallet thefts in the library has
prompted library officials to urge students to hang
on to their valuables.
Wallet theft has increased over the past
several days, says Kate Freidman, who is in
charge of the library’s lost and found.
"It’s been really bad,” Freidman says. "Gen
erally, people who have been coming here (to the
lost and found) have left their pack or purse to
look up something in the dictionary, to Xerox
something or to go to the bathroom, and when
they return, their wallet or purse is gone."
Ten thefts have been reported to her office,
Freidman says.
In each case, the wallets were stolen from
women because men usually carry wallets in their
back pockets, Freidman says.
Freidman is concerned that the thefts may
scare students away from the library.
Assistant librarian Virginia Parr says the thief
or thieves "seem to be hitting in the afternoon,
but cautions that they may strike any time'.
In the past, wallets have turned up — minus
the money — in the bathrooms of the library and
PLC. Parr says this time the wallets aren’t turning
up.
“We want people to know that they absolutely
cannot leave their wallets in their packs even if
they’re going to the water fountain or the Xerox
machine just for a minute.”
The thefts don't occur “just in the isolated
areas” of the library, Parr says.
One student reported a theft from the li
brary’s main reference section — one of the
library’s busiest areas.
And library patrons aren't the only victims of
theft — library staff members also must keep a
close watch on their belongings, Parr says.
“We lock our desks because we have had
purses taken.”
Head librarian George Shipman has asked
Campus Security to visit the library at least once
per day to “let their presence be noticed” and to
discourage theft.
But the security office has not honored his
request, Shipman says.
Campus Security officials were not available
for comment.
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monitoring belt, anesthesia, and
forceps, many obstetricians no
longer have a feel for a normal,
uneventful delivery,” Ware said.
"They even become bored.”
Many doctors now use nurse
midwives for normal deliveries,
reserving their services for more
difficult births, Ware said. “The
nurse-midwife will usually sit
with the woman during the ac
tive phase of her labor, rather
than having a doctor come in
just in time to catch the baby.
It's actually what a lot of women
pay a doctor $1,000 to do," she
said.
"Their preferences aren’t
seen as rights but privileges,
with women looking up at doc
tors in an authoritarian relation
ship when they should be work
ing as a team.”
The recent flood of malprac
tice suits is one major reason for
the overuse of technology,
Ware said. Another is conven
ience.
“Often if the procedure helps
shave a few hours off the
delivery time, doctors will use
it," Ware said. Several such
practices include breaking a
woman’s amniotic sac — com
monly called a "water bag” — to
speed contractions and an epi
siotomy, the surgical practice of
widening the vagina for delivery.
Home delivery and natural
childbirth no longer are prac
ticed by just ‘‘the alternative
crowd," Ware said. Many mid
dle-class women are consider
ing it not only because it is less
expensive but also "because
they don't have to deal with the
technology being imposed on
them."
A birth at home or at a birthing
center with a nurse-midwife or
doctor averages about $1,000
less than at a hospital, accord
ing to Ware.
She stressed that profession
al prenatal and postpartum care
are still necessary and hospital
back-up should be arranged if
sudden complications arise at
home.
Some women won’t consider
a home birth for a variety of
reasons. Ware said these in
clude unfamiliarity, lack of sup
port and a conditioned depen
dence on doctors and medicine.
"But the proof is in the pud
ding,” Ware said. "I hear of so
many positive home-birth ex
periences during the 'family
reunions' we have after all our
class members have given
birth.”
But home birth may not be for
everyone, Ware said. "These
women want to be awakened
after the whole thing is over. It is
up to every woman to become
educated, know the alternatives
she has and make her own
decision."
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