THE PLOWBOY INTERVIEW

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In addition, the mother-to-be will probably be wearing an electronic fetal monitor, a device that registers and records the baby's vital signs during labor. The implements were designed to be helpful in high-risk situations, but now seem to be used almost routinely — and often during the entire labor period — simply because a hospital doesn't usually have enough staff to keep close tabs on a mother's progress. In such a case, the mother is truly laboring alone, and she's uncomfortable, to boot. That, of course, makes her more apprehensive . . . her tension has a negative effect on the baby . . . and that produces an altered graph reading. So the fetal monitor can, in itself, cause some distress in the unborn infant. Then, when the doctor sees the machine's reading, he doesn't want to put himself in the position — in case something really is wrong — -of having a graph printout that indicates he should have intervened in the natural birth process.

These factors and others — such as administering painkilling drugs and not letting the mother walk around or labor in a comfortable position — promote intervention. As a result, women who could — under supportive conditions — have wonderful, healthy deliveries are too often delivered surgically, by caesarean section.

PLOWBOY: Does that happen a lot?

TOMPSON: Yes, and it's getting worse! According to Dr. William Matviuw, a founder and board member of ABCC, C-sections have increased 300% to 400% in the last ten years. Most hospitals now admit to performing the operation on 18% to 20% of their new mothers, and the true figures may well be higher. The dean of nursing at a prominent medical school in Chicago, for instance, told me that the caesarean rate in her hospital is 50%!

PLOWBOY: Has there been a corresponding reduction in fetal or maternal death?

TOMPSON: Indeed not. Dr. Matviuw tells me — and he got these figures from an obstetrical/gynecological newsletter — that caesarean section surgery is now our nation's leading cause of maternal death! One woman dies out of every 1,000 who go through such an operation, compared to one of 400,000 mothers in non-interventive deliveries.

It shouldn't be that way! Why, even the dean of nursing I just mentioned admitted that her hospital's C-section rate would be lower if nurses were simply allowed to sit at the bedside of the laboring woman. Somebody should be there with the mother to comfort her, support her, help her work with her body, and be able to anticipate any problems that do come up.

PLOWBOY: So you feel that a lot of the caesarean sections being performed today are results of the way childbirth is managed in most hospitals.

TOMPSON: I do, and many doctors don't realize what having a C-section can do to a mother. It's often seen as a way of saying, "You're not the woman you should be. You're lacking something." I used to see the same reaction with breastfeeding mothers when doctors would — incorrectly — tell them they couldn't breastfeed because they didn't have enough milk or because it wasn't "good" enough. The implication that she's not built the way she should be can deliver a real blow to any woman's self-image.

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