To have a child in Croatia today is often hard, painful and humiliating for the woman. It is an attack on the physical integrity not only of the mother, but also of the child.
The woman does not have the right to choose or speak, she must submit to the strict hospital protocols and medicalization of child birth and many unnecessary interventions.
However, such birth, offered as a standard one all over Croatia, has impaired the physiological processes of the woman and the relationship between the mother and the child. Such approach to childbirth increases the possibility of complications. Research has proved that the first hour after birth is a critical period and that every intervention in that period influences the quality of the individual and his relation with the environment.
Interference of the medical model of birth with the natural one has deprived many midwives of their skills and they have become “obstetric nurses” who supervise the modern technological equipment and implement the physician’s orders.
The leading role of today’s midwife in Croatia is in implementation of the protocol of medicalized birth, probably being one of the factors that contributed to the “loss” of profession and inability of midwives to face the birth without intervention.
Another important reason is the inability of today’s midwife to educate herself in Croatia and in that way acquire independence and knowledge necessary for independent leading of the birth process.
However, to enable every woman to have a physiological birth is definitely the goal of every real midwife. The entire philosophy of obstetrics relies on the knowledge that birth is a woman’s normal function and that it requires a stimulating environment and an experienced cooperator who will notice possible problems. Natural childbirth, known as non- medicalized or non- interventional birth is exactly what its name spells out- childbirth without the use of medicines and obstetric interventions during birth.
In contemporary society it seems like a radical concept to many physicians, but it is still the undoubted truth.
It is really possible to have the experience of a natural birth. It should simply be known that it is possible. There is also need of a medical team that will support such concept of birth and we don’t have one.
What is also necessary is preparation and education in order to let the nature do its course. One must not be fooled- we cannot have the natural birth in contemporary society in Croatia if we do not take steps to make it happen. Together: women and midwives.
Midwives from Croatian Association of Midwives, Branch Rijeka have gone the furthest in their endeavors and attitude to enable the women to have the right to choose but in other hospitals there is no other way than one: high-interventional birth because doctors consider it the safest way. Imagine, women from Zagreb (capital of Croatia!) travel to Rijeka to have waterbirth and natural birth without interventions! Of course woman can have natural birth everywhere if she is capable of fighting with angry and hostile staff, but it is very difficult way for getting what she wanted for herself.
We think that every woman carries the possibility of a safe and nice birth. We are the ones that should celebrate her primordial talents- that is what midwifery really are, that’s their essence and that is what we need to achieve.
Iva Podhorsky Štorek, vms
Barbara Finderle, vms, primalja
To have a child in Croatia
Odgovori s citatom
kloklo prvotno napisa
) , što jako ovisi o njihovom iskustvu i samosvijesti, a o tome opet često ovisi i koliki je utjecaj na opstetričara.
