A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

pay much attention to me that night. Josh had to beg and plead for a
nurse to check on me. I felt alone. I felt like I was a burden. After it
was done, I wished I had had someone to advocate for me,
someone other than Josh, whose emotions were running on high like
mine.
I’ve since seen things happen in a labor room that appall me. My
own birth experience was a cakewalk in comparison. A common
belief during labor is that a baby’s needs supersede that of the
mother’s. Women don’t always know they have options. Or they
aren’t given a choice in their care. If they are, they aren’t allowed
ample time or information to come to a decision themselves. Choices
are made without their consent. Too many women don’t want to be a
burden and so they say nothing. The mistreatment is subtle, too, and
falls under the guise of medical care.
Doctors do things that verge on sexual assault to me. They stick
their hands inside a woman’s vagina without telling her first. They
disregard a woman’s pain. They use forced or invasive practices. In
the labor room, no doesn’t always mean no.
Most times labor ends with a happy ending. Women put aside
whatever negative feelings they experienced during birth because
they got what they wanted in the end: a healthy baby. That doesn’t
make it right. One of the reasons I do what I do is to advocate for
women during birth.
“Continuity of care is important. To have someone who is there for
you and only you during your labor.” I leave it at that.
We talk about a birth plan, what she wants out of this birth. “A
healthy baby, that’s all,” she says. She reaches down to set a hand
on her midsection. I ask questions. I learn that Shelby doesn’t want
to deliver at home. She wants to deliver in a hospital. “I don’t need
any of that new age crap,” she says. “I mean, I want the epidural. I
don’t want a C-section, unless I need it. Then I want it. But I won’t be
eating my placenta any time soon.”
That gets a laugh out of me. It feels like the first in days.
There isn’t any definitive research into the benefits of
placentophagia that I’ve been able to find. But if a client wanted to
eat her own placenta, I wouldn’t stop her.