Several childbirth autonomy advocates yesterday urged the government to draw up clinical childbirth guidelines to end unnecessary procedures and medical interventions that have left many mothers traumatized by what they called an otherwise beautiful experience.
“Mother’s Day is just around the corner, but the journey to motherhood is particularly excruciating for Taiwanese mothers, most of whom have been forced to undergo a ‘childbirth routine package,’ regardless of their individual conditions, that can include an enema, shaving, fasting, artificial rupture of membranes, inducement of labor and the surgical incision of the perineum,” Birth Reform Alliance at Taiwan member Chen Mei-yi (陳玫儀) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday morning.
Chen said the routine package has been in place for years, despite several international studies having advised against some of the procedures.
Obstetricians have forced the package on pregnant women without much explanation or giving them a say in the process, Chen added.
Many nations, including the UK and Australia, have drawn up clinical guidelines for childbirth in a bid to provide a safer, more “mother-friendly” birth experience, but Taiwan has remained inactive, despite the alliance’s repeated requests for similar guidelines, Chen said.
National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science professor emeritus Kuo Su-chen (郭素珍) said many of the procedures have been excluded from the WHO’s birth guidelines since 1996, making Taiwan’s insistence on upholding them bewildering.
“One of the procedures in the package is compressing the mother’s abdominal cavity to help her push during labor, but doing so could lead to uterine rupture or placental abruption in some cases,” Kuo said. “There are also mothers who encountered difficulty breastfeeding their newborns, due to pain from their bruised abdomens.”
Placental abruption refers to an early separation of the placenta from the uterus.
Awakening Foundation official Lin Shiou-yi (林秀怡) said the foundation has received complaints from pregnant women who went to their gynecologists with a mother-friendly birth plan they had drawn up themselves after thorough research and consideration of their personal needs.
“Instead of catering to their needs, most gynecologists either told them to find another doctor or to give birth to their babies at home,” Lin said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said certain medical interventions were redundant, particularly in cases where the women could have gone into labor and given birth in a more natural manner.
“A few gynecologists have advocated changes, but the fear of medical disputes that could follow in the absence of clinical guidelines formulated by the government has deterred them from translating ideas into actions and forced them to adhere to customary practices,” Yu said.
Citing a survey conducted between January 2011 and May last year by National Taiwan University Hospital obstetrician Lee Chien-nan (李建南), Yu said 60 to 90 percent of the 273 obstetricians polled support an end to inappropriate birthing procedures and the required use of pain-relief drugs for labor.
“However, only 30 to 50 percent of the respondents were willing to actually abandon the procedures they believed should be removed from the routine protocols,” she said.
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