The Newer Bubs

 Bubs II arrived to us a couple days ago. He entered this world in an east coast hospital, unlike his brother who was born on the west coast. Their deliveries were as different as night and day. Bubs ll's brother, the first Bubs, arrived inside a dimly lit hospital birthing room with soothing music, a midwife and nurses waiting and coaching his mom patiently. I remember a comfortable environment inside the birthing room. There were no meds, no IV, no doctors and thankfully no pain present for the Bub's mom. Using Hypnobirthing techniques, mom was able to "breathe" him down the birth canal. She played an active role in the first Bub's birth.

By contrast, the Bubs ll was a breech baby and our new east coast hospital didn't/doesn't naturally deliver breech babies. Mom was scheduled for an "elected" surgery. Comparatively, the Bubs ll arrived in a very bright room with sounds of vacuums and suction echoing throughout. Mom said she felt like she was on a lift inside a auto mechanic's garage. There were no tranquil sounds waving through this room. Instead of coaching mom, the dr's and nurses held their own conversations. From an observational position, I couldn't identify who the main character of this room was, but I knew it was supposed to be mom. Only the anesthesiologist spoke with mom and he basically was telling her what the dr's were going to do next. An almost scripted process and opposite from anything natural.

 Mom, a.k.a. "the patient" was essentially removed from this birth and the recovery time is tripled. This delivery, i.e. surgery, made me realize how authentic and meaningful the first bub's delivery was.

Why is all this important? I think it's easy to miss, because the mainstream process of childbirth has been successfully relocated inside the medical industry. Don't get me wrong, I understand that there are higher levels of risk that accompany a natural breech birth and medical intervention can help dramatically reduce that risk. However, the medical industry does bring its own risks too. I now understand the anti-medical establishment side in the ongoing debate between the natural birth proponents' wishes to return power back to the mom's as they fight the medical establishment from claiming a non-medical procedure as their domain.

Bubs ll is safely with us today and his big brother loves him. The first bubs identifies the recently erected crib, inside our house, as "(bubs ll's) crib." He knows his new little brother is going to live at our house, which the first bubs refers to as the "blue house." In fact, while getting ready to leave a visit at the hospital to see Bubs ll, the first bubs says, "Come on (bubs ll), let's go to the blue house."

He said it as if they've been brothers for many years rather than just a couple days.