Top 8 Quotes & Sayings by Henci Goer

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American author Henci Goer.
Last updated on December 22, 2024.
Henci Goer

Henci Goer is an American author who writes about pregnancy and childbirth. She is the author of The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. Her previous book, Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities is a resource for childbirth professionals. Goer has written consumer education pamphlets and articles for magazines such as Reader's Digest and the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing. Previously appearing on ParentsPlace.com as the “Birth Guru,” she is currently a resident expert for the Lamaze Institute for Normal Birth Forum. Now concentrating on writing and speaking, Goer was a doula for over 20 years and a Lamaze, educator for ten.

Excellent outcomes with much lower intervention rates are achieved at home births. This may be because the overuse of interventions in hospital births introduces risks or the home environment promotes problem-free labors.
A study of interactions between women and obstetricians offers an explanation. It described three levels of increasing power imbalance: In the first, you fight and lose; in the second you don't fight because you know you can't win. However, in the highest level of power differential, your preferences are so manipulated that you act against your own interests, but you are content. Elective [meaning requested for no medical reason, not to be confused with needed surgery planned in advance] repeat cesarean exemplifies that highest level.
In a branch of medicine rife with paradoxes, contradictions, inconsistencies, and illogic, episiotomy crowns them all. The major argument for episiotomy is that it protects the perineum from injury, a protection accomplished by slicing through perineal skin, connective, tissue, and muscle.
Of course, if 40% of women need oxytocin to progress normally, then something is wrong with the definition of normal. — © Henci Goer
Of course, if 40% of women need oxytocin to progress normally, then something is wrong with the definition of normal.
Reluctant doctors like to believe that they haven't much influence over their patients, but that is clearly not the case. Several studies have found that when doctors genuinely encouraged women to have VBACs, most of them did, and when they said nothing or acted neutral, most women didn't. Finally, when obstetricians discouraged VBAC in women who wanted to try it, none of them did.
When intervening becomes routine, meaning there is no reason for it, only risks remain.
Labor will hurt. Probably a lot. But whether this is negative is another matter... A laboring woman can be in a great deal of pain, yet feel loved and supported and exhilarated by the creative forces flowing through her body and her ability to meet labor's challenges.
You can't be said to make a choice when you only have one option.
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