Humane Birth

The approach to humane birth starts with the premise that birth is an involuntary process and that therefore, the professionals that participate in a birth should make an effort to not disturb it and allow the mother to live the experience in the most natural manner possible. Those who defend the advantages of humane birth reject the cold surgical treatment provided to the mother in labour who is considered an unwell patient who must be subjected to conditions in disaccord with the nature of this intimate and familiar event implied in the arrival of a baby into the world.

Midwife Patricia Sánchez, of our Maternity Service underlines the importance represented for a woman in labour who arrives at the Clinic, of her first contact with the midwife. “The kind look, the smile, the words and gestures of the midwife have a beneficial effect on the process of labour.” The decisions taken at this moment may also be very significant. For example, an experienced midwife will be able to determine the exact stage in the labour of a woman. If it has just started, the midwife may tell her to wait before coming to the Clinic, to perhaps take a walk or even ask her to go home for a while. If the woman returns to a familiar atmosphere, it is probable that when she returns to the Clinic, labour will be well advanced. If the woman remains at the Clinic during the entire initial stage of her labour in which the neck of uterus is dilating gradually, we assist her, but not in a preconceived way, because experience has shown me not to be mechanical nor dogmatic. Each woman is different and of course, each process of labour is different. We must not plan on strategies nor adopt rigid rules”.

The approach to humane birth does not interfere with team work. “Having worked together for a long time, often we can communicate with a simple look or gesture. This does not mean that we should not have general procedures. On the contrary, some have evolved naturally through the years in harmony with our interest for flexibility, innovation and the central importance of the mother. These points are applied equally to all women: to a woman who has visited the Clinic on a regular basis and to one that has come to us during the active stage of labour. These general steps are applied to the women we know well, as well as to the women we have just met,” according to Patricia.

Our professional underlines that the pregnant woman must be treated as such, and not as a patient, since she is a woman that is living a normal process which will end with the birth of her child, avoiding that she remains lying down, facilitating walking about. Whilst the first stage in labour continues and contractions become more intense, the mother feels the need to go to a more quiet place, with softer lights. “The woman listening to her own body, needs to concentrate and may consider external distractions as intrusions. A sereen atmosphere may collaborate in an important way with the transition of a woman into her own internal world. Ideally, all stimuli from the senses will have to be reduced. In some cases soft music enhances the feeling of quiet and calmness.”

According to what has been expressed by Patricia Sánchez, it is very important that when the woman is in labour, that she trust in what she feels, to move as she wishes and to take any position in a spontaneous manner. She may walk, sit, get on her knees, support herself on someone or something or also lie down if that is what is comfortable. “When they are given this liberty, women seldom choose the lying ot semi-sitting position during large periods of time, simply because they are not comfortable. For the same reason it is to be avoided that they remain on their backs toward the end of pregnancy and to prefer that they remain on their sides. Instinctively, women during their early stage of labour opt to stand on their feet, leaning forward, leaning on a piece of furniture or simply on their hands and knees”.

In short, walking, kneeling, sitting, standing up, leaning on someone or something are the basic most common labour positions, but each woman has a great number of individual variations. “Midwives must be in charge of fundamental things, such as offering a labour room that ensures a warm, dark and quiet atmosphere in which the woman will feel free to adopt the positions which suit her best, of eating as she wants or tolerates.

But helping a woman in labour involves much more than these simple tasks. It includes empathy, intuition and inspiration, since it is an art”.