and another thing

another thing about the doula / natural childbirth people -- they are as guilty of generalizing about women and labor as they criticize the medical establishment of being. My first baby was big -- 8 lbs. 12 oz. Not huge, but big for a first baby. I'm pretty tall though with . . . uhm. . . .fairly wide hips, so maybe he wasn't big for me, but maybe he was. Anyway, whenever I mention to a doula/natural childbirth person about perhaps Daniel was too big and maybe this baby will be bigger and I'll end up with another c-section, they are immediately dismissive. "Pshaw, I've seen women who are 4 feet tall give birth to 12 pound babies, etc." OK, I'm exaggerating again. But my point is that if everybody is different, then perhaps some women do actually have pelvis' that are too small for their babies to pass through. Again, I point to the fact that childbirth was the leading cause of death. Why not say something more tempered like, "Hmmm, you may have a pelvic structure that is too small or oddly-shaped that might prevent your babies from being able to go through, but you are a big person and others in your family have been able to birth babies OK, so it's definitely worth giving it a shot and doing as much as possible to get your pelvis stretched out during labor and ahead of time." Hmmm, see that would sound reasonable.