Childbirth injuries

Posted by yurble

Childbirth injuries
December 11, 2010

Registered: 13 years ago
Posts: 12,441

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/10/torn-apart-by-childbirth

Should they talk about it more? Less? Nobody seems to agree.

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And there are more stories like these â€“ lots more. Two years ago a poster called Cyee started a thread on "birth injuries" on Mumsnet while she was lying in bed after surgical repair for a fistula. More than 1,395 posts have since been added. Under the veil of anonymity that web-chat allows, women pour out the pain, and tragedies, that they have hitherto suffered in silence: some tell how they can't bear to be touched, let alone have sex, a year and more on from the birth. Yet more tell of how they wouldn't â€“ couldn't â€“ contemplate a second child, so terrible was the physical fallout from the first.

Some of the women posting feel mothers-to-be need more information about birth injuries and how to avoid them; others say it is unfair to scare pregnant women, because injuries of the severity they are suffering are very rare. It is hard to pin down statistics, because no one collates them centrally: but Michelle Thornton, consultant colorectal surgeon for NHS Lanarkshire, says third- and fourth-degree tears happen in 3% of vaginal deliveries in countries such as the UK.

Not all these, of course, cause permanent or long-term damage: but some do, and what the Mumsnet posters agree on is that suffering a birth injury is a peculiarly lonely experience: outside of cyberspace, it's rarely mentioned.

Is it common or is it rare?

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Thornton is convinced the incidence is far higher than is generally thought. "One study found that between 25 and 40% of patients will have a birth injury of some kind if you actually look for it," she says. "It's much more widespread than anyone believes."

The part I can't figure out is why it seems to be a mystery to anyone that giving birth can cause obstetric fistula. When some women in the comment thread suggested that this was putting them off having children, they got this lovely bingo:

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I felt the same way, but my pregnancy was a little happy accident.

My birth and labour were incredibly bloody painful, though thankfully quick and the physical effects were minor and short lived. I was lucky. The child it resulted in is one of the crowning achievements of my life. He WAS worth it, though I will admit that the whole process was traumatic enough (in my case mentally rather than physically) to essentially silence my biological clock.
I'm constantly asked when I'm having another. The answer every time is, never.

At least there is some questioning as to why childbirth is being promoted at all:

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Good article. Even though I am squirming now just imagining these injuries. I have been very ambivalent about childbirth (I am 37, married, and have been fiercely avoiding giving birth for the last decade). Now I am almost convinced I do not want to do it. However my question is - why are most men and women so passionately promoting childbirth ? What is driving them ? I keep getting these pitying or disapproving looks from people when I say I don't want children. They are trying to convince me that I am missing something very important in my life. ... Maybe "nature" made childbirth difficult so that all women do *not* reproduce ? Isn't that an interesting idea ?

I honestly can say that I don't spend much time thinking of childbirth injuries--it's never factored into my decision to remain childfree. But I wonder how there can be so much ignorance about it in the general public, when even I'm aware of it, despite never researching or contemplating it. Do most people just live their lives in a bubble without the slightest bit of curiosity?