Reviews for How to Survive Your Hospital Stay

The average rating for How to Survive Your Hospital Stay based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-31 00:00:00 Peter Jones This well-written, well-structured, thought-provoking short book written by a doctor reaffirmed my growing conviction that the best way to protect the baby I might one day have is to stay as far away from doctors and hospitals as possible during the birthing process -- unless there is cord prolapse, real placenta praevia, placenta abruption, brow presentation, shoulder presentation or maternal cardiac arrest…in which case I actually need an immediate c-section without delaying trying to force a natural childbirth. This book also totally fits my stereotype of what happens when a trained scientist ventures into the humanities (okay: real scientists probably don't consider medical doctors scientists). The book is really concerned with the evolutionary impacts in the long-term (human civilization) on the changing ways humans give birth. Will growing c-section rates alter human evolutionary make-up (and thus human culture) and cause the downfall of civilization as we know it? His first conjecture is that giving birth by c-section, especially planned c-section influences the human capacity to love. The idea is generally that the hormones naturally released during birth don't happen during planned c-section and sometimes emergency c-section (c-section intervention into in-process natural childbirth). Using evidence from other animal tests (monkeys, ewes, etc) he ponders: "If other mammals do not take care of their babies after a caesaraean, we must first wonder: What is the future of a civilization born by caesarean?" That is, while humans take care of their babies when born by c-section or with "twilight sleep" other mammals don't. Humans of course have different ways of communicating and knowing what is happening and why it is happening, etc leading them to take care of the infant. But is our rational thought getting us to take care of babies when our maternal instincts fail to kick in because the baby came out of a different place in our bodies? Odent's concern is that scientists think in the short-term. Very few studies examine the effect of c-sections on the emotional and mental well-being of the child in the future. He is concerned that c-sections lead mother and child not to bond properly and the right homormones not to be released. This leads (he conjectures) to increased autism (which he sees as an "an impaired capacity to love"), increased violence and aggressiveness among humans (he points to the high c-section rates of pitbulls), and increased plastic surgery as a marker of potential incapacity to love oneself. I certainly believe that we don't think through the long-term possibilities and consequences of modern medical interventions, especially unnecessary medical interventions. We know the story of various medicines used during child birth later found to cause cancer, etc. And I buy that c-section versus vaginal birth may delay infant-maternal bonding because the particular hormones are released. I buy that the synthetic hormones given to you in a hospital do not exactly match or work the same way as the ones given to you naturally. However, believing this, I am still bothered by the lack of analysis of material and cultural conditions leading to increased violence (are we really more violent?), plastic surgery, etc and I'm sure a whole lot of reasons for increased autism rates (like the pesticides we imbibe or the toxic chemicals we inhale). This gets even more problematic when Odent tries to make comparisons about national cultures (violent Brazil vs. peaceful Amsterdam) without considering the global economic inequalities that shape these apparently national differences. Leave it to a scientist to see culture as far more biologically shaped than I. So My Fav thing about the book: It broke indications for c-section into "absolute indications" and "debatable indications." Reading in an anti-c-section book what cases actually require a medical c-section was really important for me, and actually made me feel better informed about communicating with a doctor/midwife about the baby I might have years and years from now (when all the science has changed anyway). There are other facets of the book that were really good: how does the baby's gut get friendly versus hostile germs? C-section birth puts baby first into contact with the sterile hospital and the hospital staff. Vaginal birth exposes the baby to the mommy's digestive tract germs (a good thing for the kid's health). There was also a section on breastfeeding that tried to move from why breastfeeding is good to how the capacity for breastfeeding develops (and the influence of c-section rates on duration of breastfeeding). Again, he doesn't contrast c-section and vaginal labor straight up - but vaginal labor/c-section during labor and planned c-section. "When the time of birth has been planned, mother and baby have not been given the opportunity to release the hormones involved in both childbirth and lactation." It walks you through what to expect if you do need a c-section and his opinions of various antenatal tests.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-10-19 00:00:00 Laura Pesci Eu passei a conhecer as ideias do Michel Odent por causa da minha irmã. E quando ela falava coisas sobre parto natural/normal, eu pensava que ela estava ficando doida. Aí comecei a entender melhor do que se tratava e passei a demonizar a cesárea. Ou seja, estava totalmente errada outra vez. E essa mesma desinformação se deu com o trabalho do Michel Odent. Como não tinha lido nada do autor, tinha uma visão totalmente distorcida do que ele realmente acredita. Achava que ele era um xiita pregador de parto natural e ponto final. Mais uma vez, eu estava totalmente enganada. E por pura falta de informação! Este livro do Dr. Odent é excelente porque é balanceado e é bem explícito no que diz respeito ao pensamento do autor. Fala dos prós e contras das cesáreas (eletivas e de emergência) e também aborda o parto normal de forma bem direta. Não achei que força a barra empurrando o parto natural, pelo contrário. Fiquei até surpresa quando ele diz que "há uma necessidade urgente de desafiar ideias que traduzem e transmitem a profunda falta de entendimento das necessidades básicas da mulher em trabalho de parto. Algumas se originam de ambientes que pregam o parto natural." !!!!! Ou seja, independe da via de parto, o que importa é o empoderamento da mulher. Seus instintos, vontades, limites, devem ser ouvidos e respeitados. Para isso, precisamos nos informar. O empoderamento vem de dentro. Informe-se! Questione! Empodere-se! Conheça os riscos da cesárea e também do parto normal. Acredito que esta obra do Dr. Odent pode ser uma excelente fonte de informação para que mães de primeira viagem (ou segunda...) estejam em controle do que fomos programaras a fazer: parir.