How To Advocate For A Safer Birth When You Are TTC with Gina Mundy

We’re digging into safer childbirth and how to prepare for the birth of your baby.

Years ago, when I had my children, no one was talking about doulas, midwives or how to advocate for yourself during childbirth.

I remember taking a childbirth class and some Lamaze breathing with a coach, which was about it.

I didn’t know that if I wasn’t happy with my care in the hospital, I could speak up.

Fortunately for me, everything went well during the birth process for both my children (even though they were both born via c-section and labour was very long).

I know we’re in the era that tells us to trust doctors, but did you know that more than 250,000 people in the United States die every year due to medical mistakes?

What I know for sure is that we are in charge of our health, and we have to advocate for what we need.

This includes during our preconception period, pregnancy, labour and delivery, postpartum and ultimately for our child.

Let’s dig into how to advocate for ourselves when preparing for birth and avoid mistakes and complications during the birth process.

Today, I’m excited to welcome Gina Mundy to the podcast. Gina Mundy is an attorney who specializes in childbirth cases. For over two decades, she has analyzed the mistakes made during labour and delivery. Drawing on this knowledge, she has authored the book A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

1. The most common problems that occur during childbirth and how YOU can help prevent them
2. Labour and delivery lingo you NEED to know to communicate with your delivery team
3. The RIGHT way to pick your doctor and hospital for a less stressful delivery
4. Tips for when your delivery team is NOT at your bedside
5. The EASY way to determine how your baby is doing at any point during labour
6. How to create the ULTIMATE birth plan for keeping both you and your baby safe

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HIGHLIGHTS:

3:14 WELCOME GINA MUNDY

3:52 GINA’S JOURNEY AS A CHILDBIRTH ATTORNEY

6:52 LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS CASES

• Gina Mundy’s Book | A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth: Expecting the Best: Using the Power of Knowledge to Help You Deliver a Healthy Baby
• Read Chapter 1 for free: https://ginamundy.com/chapter-1-the-lessons
• Insights from years of analyzing childbirth cases
• When you prepare, you can make better decisions.
• Gina’s approach to creating a birth plan
• Childbirth is almost impossible to predict.
• Common issues in childbirth cases

12:20 PITOCIN RISKS

• Pitocin needs to be administered at a slow and steady pace
• PItocin can be a very dangerous drug if it’s not administered correctly.

15:13 HAVING A BABY ADVOCATE

• Having somebody else have eyes on the baby and you so you can focus on what you need to do mentally and physically to deliver baby is huge.
• A baby’s heart rate during labour is extremely important
• Doulas speak the language of the delivery team, so they make great advocates.

22:43 CONSIDERATIONS FOR HOME BIRTH

• The most important thing is finding a good midwife who knows when it’s time to go to a hospital to deal with complications

24:13 YOUR DELIVERY TEAM

• The delivery team’s care is the most analyzed aspect of most childbirth cases
• You need to make sure you have a great delivery team.
• How to assess your delivery team
• You can switch out your team if you need to.
• Knowing how to deal with a bad resident or nurse is critical.
• Be your own advocate.

31:28 PICKING A GOOD DOCTOR

• Key questions to ask when choosing a doctor
• Your doctor heads your delivery team, and they're ultimately responsible for bringing your baby into this world healthy.

36:46 MONITORING BABY’S HEART RATE

• Different types of monitors for monitoring the fetal heart rate
• In many cases where the wrong monitor was used, the baby passed away.
• If you have a basic understanding of the baby's heart rate, you’ll be able to make better decisions and work more effectively with your delivery team

41:11 FINAL THOUGHTS

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