Climbing Everest

I have a hobby - I like reading outdoor adventure and travel books. I am particularly interested in all things Everest - this may stem from the fact that I am not all that likely to climb Sagarmatha myself (although I would love to see her with my own eyes) - or it could be that I am interested in heroic and foolhardy adventures pitting a single person against nature.

One thing they mention about people who do not return from Everest's notorious "Death Zone" 26,250 feet and above (her summit being 29,028 feet - about where airplanes normally fly) is that many of them have only prepared mentally for the summit and have not thought about or alotted the mental and physical space in their mind for the descent.

You ask yourself: "This is all very pretty stuff, and somewhat interesting facts are peppered in your post here - but what's it all about, Margie?!"

Well I am writing my birth plan today - a little guide that they say is a good idea to have so that when you are in labour you and the midwife know what kind of things you do and don't want to have happen when you may be non compus mentus in the delivery suite.

Now you are even more confused - Everest climbs and birthing...one a heroic deed taken on as an adventure the other a pretty common occurance which has been going on since the dawn of time? Hein?!

Well here is my theory - and it seems to play out on the bulletin boards and chat rooms where pregnant ladies get together:

There are those (and this seems to be along cultural lines) who have had the benifit of the more relaxed and inclusive form of birth planning here in the UK and parts of Europe with the midwife role model as key - who have been given free ante-natal classes and who have got down to brass tacks in terms of being informed about pregnancy, labour, and birth. This model is based on as little intervention as possible and presents child-bearing and labour as part of the human process rather than something which should be treated in any clinical way - unless absolutely necessary.

The second model which seems prevalent in the US - and so a certain extent in Canada(and this mind is from my chats on the internet and with some friends mostly in the US and some in Canada) seems to be predominantly based on treating women only in a hospital setting with as much technology, intervention and medication as possible (fiddling with inducements and cesareans when there are no medical indications to perform them -- some women on these boards can tell you to the hour when their baby is due! And one not uncommon post theme is describing the birth including a shopping list of drugs and implements used as though this were a normal every day thing).

Now don't get me wrong: I have friends who are proponents of natural births or minimum assited births on both continents, but the whole prospect of not having a doctor at the delivery seems foreign to many of the North American women I speak to, and midwifery or doulas are considered alternative and somewhat hippyish. It is important also to note that I do not think of anyone who needs assistance during birth as lesser. I don't think it fair to judge a woman by the standards of the care she is offered. What I am all about is the informed choice and think it is a shame when women (and their partners) do not have the benifit of the information I was lucky enough to receive or are left entirely on their own to figure it out because the system doesn't allow for a partnership role between patient and health care provider.

Looking at these two models will not help much with my Everest analogy - so let me explain.

It is my theory that the more a woman is put through a parternalistic system where the birth process is taken over by mechanical intervention as the norm and it is made to seem like a disease to be treated and feared; the less she is brought in to the process of her birth and told up front in a non-threatening and non-panic-inducing way what will be going on the less likely she is to make it down the other side without assistance. In otherwords she is Beck Weathers lost and wandering on the South Col - she will make it down but it ain't going to be pretty.

I am not going to sit here pretending that I know exactly how it is going to be when I go into labour. Every baby's birth is different. I am also not going to imply that I have a rigid sense of what will happen when the time comes - heck I have planned to ask for what is known as a "mobile epidural" so that I can have the benifits of pain relief while still being able to have as active a birth as possible...but if there are complications you bet I'll be waiting for the helicopter to airlift me to safety!

I have been given the benifit of so much helpful information by the midwife team in my area, with such good humour and within the circle of an ante-natal group of women I know will be life-long friends so I feel prepared to make it down the other side with as little fuss as humanly possible. I feel mentally ready to both summit and come down the other side.

So here I will plainly state: women in the Mummy club (and that includes the Beck Weathers contingent): I salute you! Wish me luck on my own personal journey, and bless me with all the good wishes you can - I'm going up girls!