Why the Pelvic Outlet?

Well, this page is meant to be an outlet for my views (and very likely some frustrations will spill out here too). I was trying to play with some part of the nomenclature for the reproductive anatomy, and I couldn't make anything sacred out of sacrum, and The Mucous Blog just didn't have that kind of ring to it, you know?

So the Pelvic Outlet it is. Herein please find one person's view, one person's opinion, of pregnancy, birth and the meaning of life in modern times. Herein I hope to educate, amuse, amaze and excite, and sometimes shock if the filter between my brain and my fingers occasionally fails.

At the pelvic inlet, the diameter of the pelvis is widest from right to left.  At the pelvic outlet, the diameter is widest from front to back.  So the baby must rotate from lying sideways to turning its face towards the mother's backbone.  When the rotation is complete, the back of the baby's head is against the front of the mother's pelvis.1

Is this a metphor for life?  We could say, "in order for things to come out well, we must look backward", or "when your first view of the world is someone's anus, it's GOT to get better from there".

I had an instructor once who posited that giving birth is kind of like airplanes taking off... from a common sense standpoint, it really shouldn't happen, but it DOES!  And this is the point.  When we think about it, sitting on an egg feels like a pretty attractive way to procreate (unless you are an Antarctic penguin) when you're in the middle of transition, and it feels astounding that it happens at all, BUT IT DOES!  Yet so few women have faith in themselves and their abilities to give birth.  "I'm coming to the Labor and Delivery floor back-first, so I can have my epidural right away", I hear women say.  We have so lost touch with ourselves and our bodies, with who we are as women, that we submit ourselves to the authority of others, put ourselves and our trust into the hands of caregivers who we hope have our best interests at heart (and not just the avoidance of a lawsuit), that we lose sight of our own power in our own lives.

I became a midwife because I know that women can have amazing births.  I had amazing births, and no, I did not have a midwife.  I was guided but not pushed by my nurse and my family doc, and felt staggeringly powerful in the whole birthing process.  Now I help others to do the same.  Join me here on my weblog as I proselytize and expound on pregnancy and birth in modern times.

1.  http://labspace.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=452287&section=1.6.4