Back in the German delivery room

I was looking forward to my shifts in the German delivery room. It was actually a feeling of 'coming home' to my familiar environment. Not much had changed and all the circumstances, the necessary computer work, and the higher documentation effort did not bother me.

But it was a different matter when I caught myself making comparisons.

In Tanzania, women come to the clinic with the desire to leave with a living child and even as a healthy woman. However, the expectations are relatively low. If the birth does not fulfill this wish, it is believed that it was God's will. It is a terrible thought, but unfortunately it is still the reality that I experienced there.

At the same time, there are no pain relief options for women in Tanzania, and they know that they have to 'go through it'. Many emotions are suppressed, which I would never endorse. But they approach their births with a sense of self-evidentness, accept the pain of contractions, and are grateful when someone is by their side.

The cesarean section rate in Tanzania is not much different from Germany, but often wrong decisions are made. Real emergencies are not recognized as such due to a lack of knowledge, and actually physiological findings are mistakenly considered indications for a cesarean section. For African women, the cesarean section is still something very frightening, as they know that surgery carries a higher risk for themselves, such as a higher risk of bleeding, infections, etc.

Now back to Germany.

Here, women have different expectations for childbirth. Most go to a hospital. Obstetricians, midwives, pediatricians, anesthesiologists, a lot of technology like CTG and ultrasound are prerequisites for a safe birth. Of course, we expect to hold a healthy baby in our arms. With good monitoring, nothing can go wrong.

Or can it?

Of course, we live in a society where there is often no room for 'mistakes or suffering'. In their jobs, most people are under high pressure, families consciously decide to have THAT one desired child at the age of 40 plus, and they demand from medical personnel to accompany the birth in a healthy way.

I do not want to judge, I just want to express my feeling.

And this feeling tells me that here we have a lot of trust in external people, technology, and medical parameters, instead of listening to our bodies as women and confidently embarking on the journey of birth together with the connection to our unborn child. Much is handed over and it feels like the knowledge gets lost that for a birth itself only two people are needed. The expectant mother and the unborn child. Loving and supportive men, midwives, and doctors are decorative accessories, but not necessarily essential for a natural birth.

It may be too harshly formulated, I hope you can understand my intention.

Are we really stronger than nature itself with medical technology?

I have been working in a German delivery room again for one week now and I have to observe how I find myself fighting for a natural birth as a midwife, while the woman herself has reached a point where, despite pain reduction through epidural anesthesia, a cesarean section is the only remaining mode of delivery for her.

Childbirth is exhausting and incredibly demanding, and I understand every woman who reaches a point where she is exhausted.

But what is the reason that in Germany we feel like we reach this point faster, feel less 'pain-resistant', and prefer to believe medical diagnoses rather than our own bodies?

It is interesting to see. I admire every woman who has given birth. But how would our society be in the year 2018 if suddenly there were also no painkillers available in German delivery rooms!? It is a hypothetical question, but I think we live in a time where there is an attitude that no one has to endure pain anymore.

Headache in the morning? I'll just take an aspirin (Attention, advertisement😉).

It is presented to us in the media and we are not willing to endure pain anymore.

Of course, I am not exempting myself from this. It is part of our life. And yet, sometimes I wish I could find a happy medium between the two worlds I have experienced, Europe and Africa.