From Kellie: When I was getting to know Toni and learning all this birthin and midwifery business I noticed she said things like "I was at a birth yesterday..." or "one time at this birth a mom...." and I thought it sounded weird. When a baby be born (LOL) I had always heard it referred to as a "delivery". Being the super sly female that I am, I figured out she was being very deliberate in her usage of the word "birth" so I asked her to elaborate on that in a guest post......
Birth or Delivery, So
What’s the Difference
So do you
want your baby delivered or do you want to give birth to your baby? What
difference does it make? It’s just words right?
Well, I
think our words are important.
I am
frequently asked "who delivered your babies?".
My response is "I gave birth to my own babies myself". The truth is, my first baby was actually
delivered by an OB in a hospital. He cut a third degree episiotomy and used
forceps to pull her out of my body. That is a delivery.
The rest
of my seven babies were birthed without drugs or mechanical devices to assist
with them to come out. They were birthed.
So to
explain this I want to use some definitions from sources we know.
Merriam-
Webster says:
Birth –
1) the
emergence of a new individual from the body of its parent
2) the act
or process of bringing forth young from the womb
Deliver
1) to set free
2) a) To take and hand over
to or leave for another
b) hand over / surrender
3) a) to assist in giving
birth or to aid in the birth of
b) to give birth to
c) to cause to produce
as if by giving birth
From
Wikipedia:
A
vaginal delivery is the birth of offspring (babies in humans) in mammals through the vagina.
The average length of a hospital stay for a normal vaginal delivery is
36–48 hours or with an episiotomy (a surgical cut to
widen the vaginal canal) is 48–60 hours, whereas a C-section is 72–108 hours. Different types of vaginal deliveries have
different terms:
- A spontaneous
vaginal delivery (SVD) occurs when a pregnant female goes into labor without the use of
drugs or techniques to induce labor, and delivers her baby in the normal
manner, without forceps, vacuum extraction, or a cesarean
section.
- An assisted
vaginal delivery (AVD) occurs when a pregnant female goes into
labor (with or without the use of drugs or techniques to induce labor),
and requires the use of special instruments such as forceps or a vacuum extractor
to deliver her baby vaginally.
- An instrumental
vaginal delivery (IVD) is another term for an assisted vaginal
delivery.
- An induced
vaginal delivery (also IVD) is a term for a delivery involving labor induction, where drugs or manual
techniques are used to initiate the process of labor. Use of the term
"IVD" in this context is less common than for instrumental
vaginal delivery.
- A normal vaginal
delivery (NVD) is a term for a vaginal delivery, whether or not
assisted or induced, usually used in statistics or studies to contrast
with a delivery by cesarean section.
Note:
Use of the term IVD is best avoided because of its duplicate meanings.
So, let’s
talk about the process of birth. If you want a natural birth then you are
wanting to labor and birth your baby, on your own, but hopefully with the
support of a midwife or your doctor. This is best done at your home or a birth
center. It is very hard to have a birth that is not intervened with at the
hospital.
Based on
the definitions of Wikipedia midwives only do SVD, spontaneous vaginal
delivery.
If you
want a typical obstetrical delivery then you will be looking at using a doctor
and delivering in the hospital. That is
their specialty, what they trained for. Doctors and labor and delivery nurse
are comfortable delivering babies. That is what they do!
I have
heard doctors talk about delivery and if the baby comes out the vagina it is
referred to as a “delivery down below”! As a c-section is not down below, just
a different place of exit for the baby, but still a delivery.
On the
other hand, midwives tell mothers “you can do this! you can push your baby
out!” It is the mothers work to birth
their baby. The midwife is there to support, encourage and keep a watchful eye
on mother and baby to ensure their well being.
So when
you are pregnant one of the first decisions you need to make is to decide if
you want to birth your baby or if you want it to be delivered. Then you will be in a better place to decide
where and with whom you want to have your baby. ~Toni
