Prepare Yourself for a Safe and Healthy Birth

Knowledge is power, and when it comes to giving birth to your baby, it can give provide you with the tools and information you need to make choices during your labor and delivery.  While you may feel as though doctors and hospitals always have their patients’ best interests in mind, there are some situations in which that is not the case. Sometimes, there are other things competing with your needs and desires, like time and money, which can influence how hospital staff handle your labor and delivery.

One thing that you should know going into the labor and delivery process is that birth takes time. While some births do happen quickly, most births take a considerable amount of time from the beginning of labor to the eventual delivery. No one at the hospital will tell you that they have a schedule that they would like to adhere to, and no one will tell you that they are willing to speed up your labor and delivery with drugs and/or surgery to make it fit neatly within that schedule, but it does happen. When births are hurried, birth injuries like cerebral palsy and birth complications like shoulder dystocia are more likely to occur.

Another thing that you should know is that many doctors and hospitals use medical interventions during labor and delivery when they are not necessary. Pain relief medications which are administered during labor interfere with the natural pain relief hormones which are secreted by the body during the birthing process, and can weaken contractions to the point where forceps and vacuum extraction, both very risky interventions, are used to deliver the baby. Epidural anesthesia also increases the odds that the birth will become a cesarean delivery. Cesarean deliveries are major surgery, and, as such, they carry a great deal of risk to both the mother and the child. In some emergency situations, cesarean births are necessary to save lives. In many cases, though, they are not necessary and create an increased risk of injury to both the mother and the child.

While some birthing centers and hospitals are more respectful of a women’s right to make decisions about her labor and delivery than others are, there are things that you can do to increase the chances of having a safe and healthy birth. Learning as much as you can about labor and delivery is a good way to prepare yourself for the choices that you may encounter as you go through the process of giving birth. Writing a birth plan is another good idea, since it encourages you to think through the process ahead of time and decide how you would like a variety of situations handled. Having one or more supportive people at the hospital or birthing center with you can also go a long way towards making sure that your right to choose how your birth proceeds is respected.

Approaching your birth with a clear plan in mind can help you to make safe choices during labor and delivery. Sometimes, hospital staff create risks that could lead to birth injuries when they employ medical interventions during a labor and delivery where such interventions are not needed. At other times, necessary interventions are not implemented quickly enough when signs of a problem become apparent. However the birth injury that has affected your family occurred, the experienced Tennessee birth injury lawyers at Bailey & Greer, PLLC have the knowledge and experience necessary to help you obtain the recovery that you deserve. Please call us at 901-680-9777 to schedule a time to discuss your case.  At Bailey & Greer, PLLC, we are small enough to care, big enough to fight, and experienced enough to win.

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