Birth Companions:

Are there differences between working with first-time and experienced moms?

Jerri compares a woman who was a first time mom and a woman who was giving birth to her fifth child. The first time mom really had no idea what was going on with labor and birth. She did not understand labor pains, and was frustrated and thought she must be doing something wrong for it to hurt so much. She wanted a natural childbirth, but didn’t fully understand what that meant. Jerri had to spend a lot of time explaining that what the mom was experiencing was normal in a natural childbirth.

In contrast, working with a mother who has experience is much easier because the mom is ready and knows what to expect. Jerri doesn’t have to go to the hospital until right before the baby is born. Jerri is still needed in those situations in part because Deaf moms sometimes have bad experiences in medical settings because of the medical staff and their medical perspective about Deaf people. Jerri sometimes feels she has to defend the mom from comments about whether or not she should even be pregnant, from being thought of as Deaf and dumb and ignorant or being patronized by the staff. So even moms with birth experience need Jerri’s support to run interference with the medical staff. Not that she is harsh with them, she knows it wouldn’t help to order them all out of the room. Instead she tries to either speak to what the mom wants or to encourage the mom to speak up for herself and just encourage dialogue. It doesn’t always work, sometimes the mother’s wishes get overridden in favor of what the medical staff says, but that can’t be helped.

So that’s a comparison of working with a first time vs. an experienced mom.

Back to more video from Jerri