“Normal pregnancy is not a disease. A pregnant woman should not be cured of anything. Childbirth is a physiological process of resolution of the pregnancy to obtain a healthy mother and baby”, explains Dr. José Enrique Martín, head of the Obstetrics Gynecology service at Quirónsalud Valencia.
In addition, the WHO warns that the increased use of labor interventions without clear indications continues to widen the health equity gap between resource-rich and resource-poor settings. Thus, Dr. Martín points out that "childbirth has become a high-tech medical process that almost always occurs in large hospital delivery rooms, with a multidisciplinary health team made up of an obstetrician, midwife, anesthetist, pediatrician..." .
This situation has caused the natural process of childbirth to be altered through unnecessary interventions that cause an increase in the number of deliveries by cesarean section -above the quality standard-, instrumented deliveries, episiotomies and a loss of the level of satisfaction of pregnant women and their partners, due to a sense of loss of control.
What is a respected birth?
A respected, or humanized, birth is understood to be one in which the woman chooses the way in which it takes place. In this way, an attempt is made to create a warm and familiar space, in which the woman and the baby are the protagonists.
Respected delivery service starts already during pregnancy.ED
“A birth is respected when the pregnant woman feels that she has been able to choose the way the birth takes place. This gives them a sense of security and the confidence that everything will turn out well, as well as more strength to overcome any type of difficulty later on”, points out Dr. Martín. Thus, the doctor emphasizes that there must be a high degree of complicity with the professionals who attend the delivery, being these respectful of the physiology of the pregnant woman.
The ultimate goal, therefore, is to avoid unnecessary interventions that put the natural development of birth at risk. “It is not easy to allow childbirth to pass by its physiological paths, but it is perfectly possible to achieve that, during the birth process, the number of medical interventions be reduced to those that are truly necessary to maintain the safety of the mother and the fetus in the field of care”, confesses the head of the Obstetrics Gynecology service at Quirónsalud Valencia.
“The concepts of natural or minimally intervened childbirth, respect for delivery times and the wishes of the woman or allowing delivery to occur in a natural and non-medicalized environment are not archaic or retrograde, quite the contrary. They are concepts of modern obstetrics based on scientific evidence and that are successfully applied in the most developed countries”, explains Dr. José Enrique Martín.
How to guarantee a natural and respectful delivery
The respectful delivery service begins during pregnancy. During this process, the obstetrician must perform a continuous assessment of the pregnancy in order to assign an appropriate level of risk at all times. In this way, the mother and her family can decide - together with the advice of the professional - where to conduct the delivery and the level of supervision necessary.
“Regardless of the point of access of the pregnant woman to health care, pregnancy monitoring based on scientific evidence and delivery care based on respect for the decisions of the woman in this physiological process, are essential conditions says Dr. Martin.
In this way, a respected and minimally intervened birth program should provide the right conditions at every moment of birth for it to develop physiologically and spontaneously. At the same time, "professionals must be able to detect if there is a problem or complication to inform and intervene in the best way," says the doctor.
In this sense, the Family Unit of Hospital Quirónsalud Valencia offers specialized care in respected deliveries, with the aim of offering a wide diversity of deliveries so that the woman decides the way to give birth that best suits her needs. your preferences.
The purpose of the Childbirth Care Unit is to naturalize and humanize the moment of giving birth, as well as early neonatal care, trying to involve both the mother and the couple and avoid any unnecessary intervention within the adequate security measures.
All the actions of its professionals are aimed at the well-being of the mother and the newborn. To this end, the professionals discuss with the mother the way in which she wishes to carry out her delivery in order to act according to her wishes and decisions throughout the process, as long as there are no medical contraindications.
Time of childbirth
During childbirth, the woman will be accompanied by the person of her choice, she can use her own clothes or play soft music. In addition, if the safety of the birth allows it, she will also be able to eat and move around the room, adopting the position that is most comfortable for her. For this, there are specific multiposition beds for labor and delivery.
To relieve pain, the mother can choose between various options, such as epidural, intravenous or inhaled analgesia, as well as other non-pharmacological alternatives (bath, balloons, showers...). Similarly, enemas will not be administered, the perineum will not be shaved, and the bag of waters will not be broken on a routine basis.
“Spontaneous urination should be encouraged, avoiding bladder catheterization, if possible,” says Dr. Martín. Thus, the control of fetal well-being will be carried out by detecting the fetal heartbeat, either continuously or intermittently depending on the level of risk. Bidding should be spontaneous, if the birth conditions allow it.
Once the birth occurs, the newborn will remain in skin-to-skin contact with the mother. In addition, basic resuscitation and identification of the baby take place in the room itself, with the mother present. "In all newborns it is recommended to prevent hemorrhagic disease and ocular infection, with the consent of the mother." On the other hand, the section of the umbilical cord will be carried out late, making sure that the cord has stopped beating.
The newborn is kept skin-to-skin with the mother after birth.ED
Finally, the head of the Quirónsalud Valencia Obstetric Gynecology service stresses that "breastfeeding must be supported, providing the necessary support to achieve effective breastfeeding, as well as information and advice on the most frequent problems the puerperium and the reasons for alarm”.
In this sense, Hospital Quirónsalud Valencia is the only Spanish center distinguished by the prestigious International Association of Lactation Consultants and IBCLCE for its excellence in the care and dissemination of breastfeeding.
This unit offers its services during pregnancy to assess and provide information on how to properly initiate breastfeeding. In addition, she is in charge of assisting the family after the birth to help them achieve correct breastfeeding, providing accurate information and continuing until the baby finishes lactating.
Benefits of respectful childbirth for mother and baby
Respectful, or humanized, childbirth is characterized by respecting the wishes of the woman during the course of it. However, this way of proceeding has different benefits for the mother, the baby and the family:
- The staff creates an environment of respect and tranquility that allows the woman to feel “empowered” as a protagonist and encourages her to trust her body and her natural ability to give birth.
- By reducing the level of intervention, fewer cesarean sections are performed, fewer instrumented deliveries with forceps and vacuum cups.
- It also reduces the number of postpartum bleeding and perineal damage, including tears and/or episiotomies.
- The recovery period is much faster.
- The baby has better general and cerebral oxygenation.
- There is a stimulation of the baby's senses during its passage through the birth canal.
The best hospital for giving birth in Valencia
The Hospital Quirónsalud Valencia has all the necessary services for women with a desire for a pregnancy and for pregnant women themselves. For this reason, different units are dedicated to this very special time: the Assisted Reproduction Unit, for those women who require a fertility study and/or treatment; the Prenatal Diagnosis Unit, for monitoring the pregnancy with high-resolution ultrasound, gynecologists, pediatricians and midwives work as a team to offer a respected, natural and humanized delivery. All these services are coordinated by the Family Unit, whose objective is to care not only for the health of the mother and her baby, but also for the entire family environment.
The Quirónsalud Valencia Childbirth Care Unit is made up of a group of prestigious professionals who work in a coordinated manner, under homogeneous criteria, for the health and well-being of the woman, the family and her baby. This unit, which also has an open-door neonatal and pediatric ICU to encourage parents to become involved in their care from the outset, practices humanized childbirth above all else and offers the possibility of a personalized delivery with the conviction of all the staff.
In addition, the hospital also has other specialties to treat patients with underlying diseases or complications that require a multidisciplinary team, such as anestheology, internal medicine, adult ICU or hematology, among others.
The most complete facilities, at the service of the future mother
The Quirónsalud Valencia Hospital has a modern Delivery Unit with all the necessary elements to humanize the moment of giving birth, including a bathtub to the dilation. In this sense, it has been shown that dilation in hot water is a good natural method to reduce labor pain.
Interior of the delivery room at Hospital Quirónsalud Valencia.ED
In this unit, the mother can carry out the entire dilation and delivery process accompanied by her partner or the person she chooses without separating from the baby, in order to promote skin-to-skin contact with the baby. newborn with the mother, as well as breastfeeding.
For this, the hospital has first-class facilities: 8 Gynecology/Obstetrics offices, a labor and recovery unit, a Premium labor unit with a bathtub, a cesarean section operating room, active obstetric emergencies every day of the year, 24 hours a day, 4 neonatal intensive care beds, 4 pediatric intensive care beds, 9 adult intensive care beds, a Fertility and Assisted Reproduction Unit and a Prenatal Diagnosis Unit.
Get to know the Quirónsalud Valencia facilities.
Consult the answers of Doctor José Enrique Martín. in the digital meeting that he held with our readers
On December 10, 2021, Doctor José Enrique Martín, Head of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Quirónsalud Hospital in Valencia participated in a digital meeting with the readers of Levante -EMV to solve all your doubts about respected delivery.
