We think they belong to hospitals for the delivery room, but we are wrong. Whether it is a birth or a water birth, the pregnant woman is in the center of the room.
The birth room belongs to pregnant women.
Yes, the birth room and water birth room in hospitals are organized by the management of the room. There are some rules set for security. And almost all of these rules have been developed for the benefit of the mother and the baby.
But now, in many private hospitals, births and water births have started to take place in the rooms where pregnant women sleep. With more mobile systems, these needs began to be met safely.
At this stage, a new question came to the fore. Who can enter the birth room? Who is taken? Who should not enter?
I think the real subject of this question is the pregnant woman who gives birth. In fact, he chooses who he gets for the delivery room. First, he decides on his doctor. It determines who will accompany the birth and who has permission to intervene if a problem arises. She also rents a room from the hospital they decided on together – to receive safe support and treatment during the birth.
Then, she chooses the midwives from whom she will receive support throughout the birth. If it didn't occur to him to choose anyone, the hospital automatically chose its midwives without questioning. In other words, she automatically gives permission to the hospital's legally employed midwives to enter her room. If he has chosen a private midwife, he is also included in this permission.
Then he continues to choose. Sometimes she gives permission to a doula, sometimes to a birth psychologist, to enter her room.
Then it is the turn of the relatives. Sometimes he allows his wife, sometimes he doesn't. He needs to make a serious elimination of his mother, sister, brother, friend, cousin and aunt. If he does not make this organization and decide who can and cannot enter the room, he will find that everyone comes to him thinking that they have the right to enter the room on their own. Suddenly, she witnesses her privacy being violated in her own birthing room. Even though she neither planned nor wanted it.
However, the birth room is her most private room. Just like home births in Anatolia once upon a time. While no one should be deprived of the right to transfer births to hospitals, privacy and autonomy in birth decisions, we now know that this is not the case in today's practice. Who will be in the birth room? Managements, doctors and midwives are now making decisions.
Active participation in birth decisions and the right to autonomy are among the practices that most increase satisfaction with birth. And although this right should be one of the indispensable options of every pregnant woman, it has been increasingly pushed into the background due to both the unpreparedness of the families and the circumstances.
Going back to the initial question, in my opinion, the pregnant woman has the right to decide who will enter the birth room. Of course, pregnant women do not have requests that would cause negligence in basic health conditions and safety. But they should know and protect their right to take with them the people they want and who comfort them during birth. This may sometimes be a spouse, sometimes a private professional midwife, doula, birth psychologist, and sometimes a very close friend.
In our own teams, this issue is discussed in detail and decided in the last month of birth. In this way, unwanted persons who would endanger the privacy of the pregnant woman during birth are prevented from coming to the room or even to the hospital. In this way, usually only 3 people come to the birth. Mother-Father-Baby. In this way, hospital staff will also feel comfortable.
Think about it, too. Who do you want with you at birth? Have you made an organization to prevent unwanted ones from coming?
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