Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Home d Editor's note: This is a new feature in the GAMECOCK. "The Mother Earth News" basi cally will deal with the "how" substance of things. How to build things, how to cook things, how to live a more human life, etc. This first feature delves into the risks and rewards of the home delivery of babies. Of course, do not make this your final authority on the subject. Check with your doctor. This is intended only as a guide to explaining what some of the risks and rewards are. As recently as 1935, 65 per of babies born in the United States were delivered at home. At present, home delivery accounts for slightly less than 5 per cent of this country's births. But, look out! That trend is being reversed. A growing number of young couples, fed up with what they call, "the cold, dehumanized, antiseptic and unsatisfactory delivery increasingly offered by the medical profression," are turning back to one form or another of home delivery and so-called "natural" childbirth. As might be expected, many doctors and hospitals do not like this trend one bit. Some have even issued long reports which catalog-in frightening detail-all the dangers of a home delivery that presumably are eliminated when birth takes place in a hospital. A few doctors, however, take a much more tolerant view of home and natural deliveries and actually point out ways in which such births can be safer than childbirth in a hospital. John Starr, a pediatrician in Ohio, for example, notes that a mother delivering at home will usually be watched and attended far more faithfully than she would be taken care of in a hospital; she will be less anxious in many cases; she will be much less likely to receive drugs which Guess the next Gamecock football game score. Get it right or come closest and we'll come through with five bucks in free meal tickets. That's right, $5. Like in five fingers. (Details at Russell House Cafeteria) elivery o might poison the baby; her delivery will not be rushed to fit more neatly into the obstetrician's or the hospital's schedule; and the baby will not be exposed to the staphlococcus germs which breed in hospital nurseries. On the other hand, there's no denying that serious complica tions can develop during any birth and such complications can definitely represent a lar ger danger to both mother and child at home than when encountered in a medical deliv ery room. Past experience has shown that the odds are about one in 50 that something will happen during a home delivery to send mother and baby to a hospital. Once in every 200 home deliveries, that "something" will be potentially life-threatening. To take the other side again, however, there's also no deny ing that in some countries where home delivery is the usual procedure for normal births, the infant and maternal mortality rate is actually lower than it is in this country. That's right. It's safer to have a baby in England, Sweden, the Nether lands, and 10 other countries where normal deliveries at home are considered "stan dard" than it is to have a baby here in the United States where intricate and almost mechanized hospital deliveries have become the norm. Or, to put it another way, home deliv ery following adequate prenatal care and attended by experi enced people is apparently not as risky as our medical profes sion would have us believe. Now the key here seems to be that "adequate prenatal care" and "attendance by experi enced people." In those countries I've just mentioned, an expectant mother is care fully examined throughout pre ganancy and every possible effort is made to detect poten tial complications well before they develop. During the labor and delivery, a physician, mid wife or qualified nurse is required to be on hand in the home and-in some cases-a mobile maternity unit which contains all the equipment that The Copj 2701 Roi Private CIu Student Wed., S Free dance, C No Cover "Wildi Completely R babies: THE M4 EARTH ...it tel might be needed in an emer gency is parked outside at the curb. It would seem, then, that the birth of a baby is certainly nothing to fool around with or approach haphazardly. It would also seem that, handled prop erly, the home delivery of a child can be just as safe as deliv ery in a hospital. Here at THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS, we refuse to take either side of the argu ment. We feel that each coup le-and more especially, each MOTHER--should make this hospital-or-home-delivery deci sion individually after AND ONLY AFTER consulting the family doctor, contacting at least one of the natural child birth organizations and read ing one or more of the several excellent books on the subject. If you've been thinking of having your next baby at home ser Door sewood b For USC s Only ept. 27 pen house Charge Fi'e" B-organized risk or r )THER NEWS Is you how or by one of the "natural" chil dbirth methods, you can obtain more information by contacting The American Society For Psychoprophylaxis In Obstet rics, 36 West 96th St., New York, N. Y. 10025 and The Interna tional Childbirth Education Association, P.O. Box 5852, Mil waukee, Wisconsin. A few of the good books on the subject which you may want to buy or check out from the lib rary include: "Six Lessons For Easier Childbirth" by Elizabeth Bing (Grosset, $4.95); "Com monsense Childbirth" by Lester D. Hazzell (Tower Publications, $5.95);' Husband-Coached Chiki birth" by Robert Bradley (Harper and Row, $4.95); "Painless Childbirth" by Mar jorie Karmel (Dolphin Books); "Textbook For Mid-Wives" by Margaret F. Myles (Darien Press, Great Britain); "Emer gency Childbirth Manual" by Intern-6 Ho use Of ALL YOU MONDA Y ANI French Toas Choice of 5 syrup flavors TUESDA Y A] Buttermilk P~ Choice of 5 syrup flavors WEDNE Fried Chick< Salad, ff., roll, & butter Specials good betwee 1031 Asnembly Street award? Gregory J. White (Police Train ing Foundation, 3412 Ruby Street, Franklin Park, Illinois 60131). The above organizations and books should be able to answer almost any question you can possibly have about proper diet, exercise, examinations and other phases or prenatal care for both mother and baby. They'll also help you locate doc tors and hospitals that recog nize the Lamaze and other methods of "natural" childbirth and explain the various compli cations that can arise during both assisted and unassisted deliveries. Armed with such information, you'll be in a far better position to intelligently discuss home delivery and-or what has come to be called "natural" childbirth with your family doctor. Perhaps, once you've studied all the facts, you'll decide that modern medicine's automated "assembly line" methods are what you really want after all. Then again you may realize that only something like the Lamaze method of prepared childbirth leading to a delivery at home will do justice to your ideas of what childbirth should be. Or you could find that a com promise-say, a Lamaze deliv ery in hospital with doctors, nurses, and emergency equip ment standing by "just in case"-offers the best balance between safety and satisfaction in your particular case. The last option, by the way, is exactly the method that Sha ron Maehl used for the birth of her second child not too long ago Sharon started having pres sure contractions at five one evening (the day before she was due to deliver) while shopping with her husband. She signed in at the hospital at 9 p.m., deli vered a 7 lb. 10 oz., 24-inch-long boy shortly thereafter and was back home with both her hus band and baby in fine shape at 11:15 the same night. Sharon did leave the hospital staff a little bewildered that evening but, since she had plotted out and practiced the whole routine far in advance, she knew what she was doing every step of the way. tional Pancakes CAN EAT | T HURSDA Y t 99c VTD FRIDAY mncakes 89* 'SDAY 0 11 a.m. & 10 p.m. No Checks Accepted