Risk tolerance in hospitals. Don't forget… YOU HAVE AGENCY

Birthing people and hospitals don't always define “safe” in the same way. What makes you feel safe, might make a hospital employee feel very unsafe. Hospitals are trained to avoid risk, liability, and anything that might interrupt the status quo of their facilities. 

This could look like:

• Giving birth in water

• Taking a shower while you're in labor

• Pushing your due date rather than elective induction 

• Asking for fewer cervical checks

• Keeping your baby on you during the first hour after birth

• Minimal interruptions during postpartum

• Your partner or support person to be in the room if/when you get an epidural

• Delayed cord clamping

• No med students in the room

• An all-women/AFAB birth team

You have a right to all of these preferences and so much more!

This is where advocacy matters, (and why I started Orion Doula Care.) Having a birthing doula can help give you the space to really consider what you need. We can slow things down, ask important questions, and translate trivial medical jargon. Birthing doulas are there to support you and help you advocate for yourself in a system that doesn't always consider your own desires. Birth is beautiful. It can often be slow, quiet even, and it’s not always an emergency. 

Remember: You have the right to take up space in your own birthing story. 

✨✨✨Orion Doula Care✨✨✨