The Medical Miracle of Modern Childbirth

Safe, sanitary, and something for the pain.

Between our massive built-for-big-brain noggins and narrow made-for-walking-upright hips, it’s a sad (and painful) fact of evolution that giving birth is a uniquely difficult experience for humans. 
Which is why at Sarasota Memorial, our Women & Children’s Services team of board-certified obstetricians, nurse midwives, neonatologists, pediatric specialists, the OB Nurse Navigators and more is dedicated to ensuring your delivery is safe, family-centered, and uniquely you.

This means:

• A custom-built mother-baby unit with a full range of amenities, safety and monitoring technology, and special services for the benefit and comfort of the whole family.
• State-of-the-art birthing suites for labor and delivery, softly lit and private, with hydrotherapy tubs, birthing balls, and squatting bars to ease labor pains naturally, as well as wireless fetal heart monitoring, so mom can move about freely.
• A Childbirth Education Program that includes parenting, childbirth, breastfeeding, and baby-care classes taught by certified childbirth educators and lactation counselors.
• A 24/7 Obstetrical Emergency Care Center staffed with board-certified OB hospitalists and specialty-trained OB nurses prepared to turn any emergency into a safe delivery, a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) providing critical care to premature births and newborns in distress, and a partnership with Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital providing 24/7 neonatologists and pediatric hospitalists that give parents and children access to the most advanced pediatric care in the nation.
• The freedom to craft your own Custom Childbirth Plan, so the special day looks like you always imagined it would.
• A 24/7 hotline to the SMH Pregnancy Care Team, available to assist with any pregnancy-related needs. Just call (941) 917-MOMS.

 

And support for mother and child continues after the delivery, including:

• Facilitating immediate skin-to-skin contact to promote bonding and breastfeeding success.
• Providing breastfeeding support and guidance from nurse specialists and lactation consultants, as well as a 24/7 lactation room for privacy.
• Offering newborn health checks and screening, such as for hearing, metabolic disorders, genetic conditions and more.
• Hosting weekly and monthly support groups and clinics for new and breastfeeding mothers.
• Assistance after you leave the hospital with the First 1,000 Days family navigators, who help the family with any needs they may have during their child’s first 1,000 days.

 

At Sarasota Memorial, we know childbirth is a journey and we’re with you every step of the way. For much of human history, however, that journey looked very different, fraught with danger for both mother and child. Understanding was poor, proper hygiene nonexistent, and every new life brought the possibility of a tragic death.

There’s a reason they called childbirth a miracle.

From Old Wives’ Tales to Obstetrics - Highlights from the History of Childbirth

As generations of mothers and daughters, husbands and fathers, priests, physicians and philosophers struggled to understand the miracle of childbirth, there were bound to be some wrong turns and strange ideas. Here are a few highlights of maternity before modern medicine.

• Old Wives’ Tales Were Wisdom: Before hospitals or doctors or the word “obstetrics” existed, the healing arts—treatments and cures and the secrets of a healthy pregnancy and midwifery—were passed down from person to person, typically among the women in the community. Many were superstitions, some hold true today.
• Labor Pains Were a Gift from God: In 1591, a Scottish woman named Euphame MacCalzean was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake, in part as punishment for her use of medicinal herbs to ease what was viewed as the God-ordained pain of giving birth.
• The Room Is a Womb: In Tudor England, pregnant aristocracy would be hidden away in a practice called “shutting in,” with the shades drawn and the room arranged to feel like the womb itself. With the exception of a priest, men would be banished from the room, leaving the midwives to pray and care for the expectant mother.
• Writing a Will Was Recommended: Prior to modern medicine, childbirth was so risky for the mother, that women of wealth and means were encouraged to finalize their Last Will and Testament early in the pregnancy.
• The Chainsaw Was Invented to Assist Childbirth: In 1785, when a c-section meant certain death for the mother, the first chainsaw was invented by Scottish obstetricians John Aitken and James Jeffray, as a hand-operated tool to cut through the mother’s pubic bone and save both mother and child during a difficult and/or obstructed birth.
• Queen Victoria Inhaled Chloroform for 53 Minutes: Queen Victoria helped destigmatize and popularize the use of modern anesthetic during childbirth when she used chloroform for the births of Prince Leopold in 1853 and Princess Beatrice in 1857. She described the effect as “delightful beyond measure.”
• Twilight Was Big in the Early 1900s Too: Briefly popular, a concoction of morphine and scopolamine dubbed “Twilight Sleep” was said to both relieve labor pains and make the mother forget they ever happened. It quickly fell out of favor as dangerous for the child, laborious to perform, and, quite frankly, ineffective against the pain.

 

Even if you don’t want to call modern obstetrics a miracle, at least it doesn’t involve a chainsaw.

To learn more about Maternity Services at SMH - Sarasota, click here.
To learn more about Maternity Services at SMH - Venice, click here.
To take a video tour of the state-of-the-art mother-baby unit spanning three floors of the SMH Courtyard Tower, click here.
To learn more about making your Custom Childbirth Plan at Sarasota Memorial, click here.

More Articles from the SMH Centennial Series

A Brief History of Anesthesiology
Celebrating Heroes In Medicine: Vivien Thomas
From Experiment to Essential: The History of Blood Donation
How A World at War Changed Medicine

Related Reading

The Importance of Screen-Free Activities for Children
Should Babies Binge-Watch Breaking Bad?
Saving Lives by Preventing Sleep Accidents
Dr. Dad’s Tips for First-Time Fathers
 

Written by Sarasota Memorial copywriter Philip Lederer, MA, who crafts a variety of external communications for the healthcare system. SMH’s in-house wordsmith, Lederer earned his Master’s degree in Public Administration and Political Philosophy from Morehead State University, KY, and collects rare novels, which keeps him fully booked.