What Models Know About Midwives

After some light blogging about swimsuit models and supermodel divorces, it’s time for something a little more serious (divorce is serious, but divorce gossip—not so much). Let’s talk childbirth. Specifically, how models are rejecting the standard medical approach and why this makes them smarter than the general public.

Gisele Bundchen had a water birth at home in Boston in December 2010. She made the decision to go this unconventional route after watching Abby Epstein’s documentary, The Business of Being Born. The film, executive produced by Ricki Lake, explores the history of midwives and OBs and highlights the risks (and absurdities) of the modern approach to childbirth.

Cindy Crawford had both of her children at home (Presley in 1999 and Kaia in 2001). She always thought she would go straight for the epidural until a prenatal yoga teacher opened her mind to the idea of natural childbirth.

Miranda Kerr had a drug-free childbirth last year. She admitted having her 9 lb. 12 oz. son was incredibly painful (Gisele, in contrast, said her labor “didn’t hurt in the slightest”). Kerr was determined, though, and is proud she got through it.

Two of my model friends had water births (one in England, at a birth center, and then at home; and another at a birth center in Upstate New York).

Based on their experiences and three months of research for a childbirth article I wrote while pregnant with my first baby (Happy Birth Days), I left my OB at Yale Medical Center and opted for no epidural with a midwife at a birth center in St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut. What I’d learned touring hospitals and birth centers, interviewing scores of doctors, mothers, and midwives, and reading stacks of books and articles, made it clear that I would be in better hands there and much less likely to end up having major surgery to deliver my baby. The 50-minute drive hardly mattered in a 17-hour labor.

While I have to side with Miranda re. labor pain—contractions are a 20 on the 1 to 10 pain scale—the actual birth, on a birthing stool, measured well within the bearable range.  (I found the birthing tub uncomfortable so I didn’t use it, but I had the option.)  I had no stitches and was walking around, euphoric, 30 minutes later. The baby never left our side, we had a one-on-one nurse all night, and the pediatrician fell into the relaxed pace of the mellow environment when he examined our new son right there on our family bed. Relatives enjoyed the homey kitchen and family room area. If there had been an emergency, the regular maternity ward was twenty feet away. (Unfortunately there are only a handful of birth centers within hospitals left in the U.S., and sometimes the term “birth center” is misleading and just refers to the maternity ward.)

After the birth of my twins by cesarean in ultra-medical Spain, I had an easy—if you can use that word in conjunction with childbirth—VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) with the same midwife. I am so thankful to the model friends who first alerted me to the scary direction the medical world is going with something that is a natural process. The cesarean rate in the U.S. has climbed from 5% in 1970 to over 30% now. A new site offers cesarean rates by hospital and state: cesareanrates.com  Some hospitals listed have cesarean rates as high as 72%!

On the flip side, taking the risks of having a baby lightly is just as foolish as going with an OB who is “quick to cut.” Pregnancy and childbirth without adequate medical support (or a sound backup plan should complications arise at home) is very risky. Women in Third World countries face this reality every day. Kudos to supermodel Christy Turlington, who is working to make motherhood a joyous, not potentially deadly, prospect for all women: