I just received the review of the book Pushed written by Noah Berlatsky [“The Obstetric-Industrial Complex,” June 29] and I cannot agree more with Mr. Berlatsky.
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With my hospital births, with half of them, I was blessed to have a very understanding OB, who respected my desires and enabled me to have good hospital births. This is a rare occurrence though. With our fourth child, my OB even told the nurses what I wanted, what I didn’t want, and to let me eat and drink whatever I wanted during my labor. The nurse was rather taken aback. Her response indicated that this was not the norm and that she was surprised.
Finding a midwife here in Illinois was rather difficult. We did not have the choice we did in finding an OB. We did eventually choose one, who ended up being exactly who we needed in order to heal after a miscarriage at 18 weeks with our son Matthew. She will probably be our birth attendant for our baby due in February. I say birth attendant because she really did not do much. I am the one who gave birth, my husband waited on me and helped me get washed up. She attended me and helped catch the baby, who was delivered into my husband’s hands, which is what I desired. Birth is normal in most cases. When it is not then that is when there is a need for an obstetrician.
