Everyday wonders on the maternity ward

Everyday Miracles in the Maternity Ward

A midwife's stories of healing with homeopathy

by midwife Susan Vaughen

© melti / PIXELIO

During my more than forty years as a midwife I have attended many thousands of births. Each one has deepened my appreciation of the boundless miracle of natural birth and strengthened my commitment to affirming the self-healing capacity of my patients. I discovered homeopathy relatively late in my career, but today I rely on it completely, because it can perform both everyday miracles and extraordinary, astonishing things.

As a midwife in a medical practice I have many medical resources at my disposal, yet there are situations in which only a homeopathic remedy can help. The right remedy can change the entire dynamic in the delivery room. Countless times homeopathy has helped women avoid a caesarean section by advancing labour or calming the woman so she could gather herself and actively participate in the meaningful experience of birth; it has ensured the baby's wellbeing by supporting the progress of labour. The nurses on the ward tease me because they panic — and not me — when a labouring mother develops problems and the baby's heart rate weakens: "Susan says: ‘Relax and let the homeopathy work!’"

Everyday Miracles

Aconite has eased many a birth and calmed numerous anxious expectant mothers so that labour could proceed naturally.

Bellis perennis was often particularly helpful after birth when a woman had been pushing for a long time and her hips and back ached and her tailbone hurt so much that she could hardly sit.

Sudden Rage

Twenty-eight-year-old Charlotte has fair skin, dark hair and deep blue eyes. She dresses in bright colours and favours a flamboyant style. Her partner often accompanied her to antenatal appointments, and she expressed her needs to him decisively but cheerfully.

When Charlotte arrived at the start of active labour at the clinic, she coped well with the contractions, walked about and chatted excitedly. On examination I found her cervix was four centimetres dilated and her contractions were coming every four to ten minutes. As routine I advised her to drink plenty, keep walking, and take a whirlpool bath if the contractions became stronger. Then I left the room to attend another birth.

A few hours later I was doing paperwork on the ward and overheard two nurses talking about a woman who was behaving terribly — when she had arrived she had seemed fine, and now she had suddenly turned into a devil! I realised they were talking about Charlotte, so I went in to check on her. She lay in bed with a flushed face and glazed eyes. A nurse had just taken her temperature and found it to be 37.8°C. Charlotte was furious and ordered the nurse not to touch her. She said she had pounding headaches from all the noise and bustle around her. She turned to me and shouted: "This birth is taking too long! You must do something!" She complained about the pain and wanted to "push this baby out of me".

After much soothing talk and the promise to proceed very gently and carefully, I examined her to see whether labour had progressed. Her contractions had increased in frequency and intensity, but the cervix showed no change from the 4 centimetres recorded three hours earlier. My examination was very uncomfortable for her — she screamed in rage and pain when I touched her cervix.

Without homeopathy I would now have had to give Charlotte intravenous oxytocin (Pitocin) to advance labour. That would have tethered her to monitors and the bed and made active participation more difficult; it might even have necessitated an epidural anaesthetic. The fever could also have indicated the need for antibiotics. If all these measures had failed to advance labour, a caesarean might have been necessary. I had seen this scenario countless times and hoped to avoid it in Charlotte with the right homeopathic remedy.

Like the nurses, I wondered how this change had come on so suddenly and how drastically Charlotte's mood had shifted from eagerness and anticipation to violent outbursts and irritability. She barked orders and demanded water and juice. She was extremely thirsty. At first I thought of Aconite, which often helps with a sudden and overwhelming change in labour. Aconite also fitted her hypersensitivity, pain sensitivity and strong thirst. However, I did not feel the fear that usually accompanies a need for Aconite — instead her rage and agony worsened with each contraction.

I realised I had a perfect picture of Belladonna before me. The violent outbursts, the rage and intense agony, the sudden fever, the throbbing headaches, the red face and bright eyes, the pain at every touch and her screaming — all pointed to Belladonna. We often associate Belladonna with lack of thirst; in fact Belladonna also appears in many thirst rubrics in the homeopathic repertory, including "thirst; extreme" and "unquenchable thirst." I gave Charlotte a dose of Belladonna C200 and waited.

Rescue from the Brink

Christine was a 30-year-old woman with a placenta praevia. She believed the placenta was obstructing the cervix and that she would need a caesarean. We had told her that she needed immediate care if she began to bleed because it could be life-threatening. At 37 weeks' gestation (pregnancy usually lasts 40 weeks) she arrived at the emergency department with bright red bleeding. She said she had bled a little at home. We began to prepare her for theatre but did not rush because the bleeding was only trickling and did not indicate immediate danger for her or the baby.

Then it was as if someone had suddenly turned on a tap. The blood gushed out. Christine began to complain of nausea, a clear sign her blood pressure was dropping. I remembered something I had learned at a seminar at the National Centre for Homeopathy; it was as if the teacher, Mr. Hanafin, whispered in my ear: "In bleeding placenta praevia, Cinnamomum slows the bleeding and buys you time to get to theatre." I took the remedy from my homeopathic emergency kit in front of the whole ward team, told Christine I was giving her a homeopathic remedy, dropped the pellets into a medicine cup and put them into her mouth while the team prepared for an emergency caesarean.

Within two minutes the bleeding diminished and three minutes later there was not even the earlier trickle. Christine began to feel better; she was still weak but no longer in danger. My colleagues stared at each other in surprise and looked rather puzzled at me. Now we had time to prepare Christine comfortably for theatre and to give a local anaesthetic instead of the quicker but riskier general anaesthetic. The caesarean went well, and although Christine's haemoglobin was a little low she did not need a blood transfusion. Her baby was lively and cried strongly; he was a little pale, but after receiving intravenous fluids he did very well.

Later the consultant asked me: "What did you slip under her tongue?" I replied: "A homeopathic remedy called Cinnamomum." He was astonished, because in situations like this one expects mother and usually the baby to be on the verge of death. Christine's sudden turnaround was the focus of attention that day!

Painful Back Labour

Wendy was a healthy 26-year-old second-time mother. At 38 weeks she called me at midnight to say labour had started with a nagging pain in her lower back that worsened with each contraction. When I arrived at the hospital she was leaning against the wall and her husband was pressing firmly on her back. The stronger the contractions, the more she wanted him to press on her back.

During Wendy's first hours in the clinic her cervix dilated from three to six centimetres, but the pain was unbearable. The baby's head was high; this meant a posterior position, and the head was pressing on Wendy's tailbone, causing her back pain. This position makes delivery more difficult and often leads to a caesarean birth. Wendy walked about and used the whirlpool and tried hands-and-knees positions to relieve the pain, but without success. In addition, a further examination two hours later showed no change in the cervix and the baby's position remained unchanged.

Wendy became tired and began to cry and moan; she still wanted us to press hard on her back. I knew the most important thing was progress of labour, more important than merely relieving her pain, and I knew a homeopathic remedy that could do that. The site of the pain, her desire for very hard pressure and her demanding mood indicated the remedy Kali carbonicum.

Feeling Unable to Cope

Twenty-nine-year-old Tracy, pregnant with her fourth child, wanted a different kind of birth from her previous ones. Previously she had always been given an epidural, her labours had been induced with drugs, and she had been generally disappointed by her birth experiences. At antenatal consultations Tracy expressed the wish to retain control of this birth and avoid unnecessary interventions.

Tracy's pregnancy progressed without complications, but as the time approached she became increasingly anxious about the birth. Around 40 weeks she and the baby were healthy, but Tracy showed signs of general exhaustion and nervousness. She was very tired and moved only slowly. She had had occasional contractions during the previous week, but her cervix had barely dilated. When I asked how she felt about the impending birth she admitted she was not sure she could do what she had set out to do. She said she felt too tired and too weak to carry through what she had begun.

She read her children a bedtime story, and at 10:30 pm her waters broke and she went into labour. By about 11:30 pm the contractions were regular and strong. Tracy arrived at the clinic around midnight, and her healthy baby was already born by 12 noon!

At the three-day postnatal check-up Tracy could not say enough about her wonderful and satisfying birth experience. Gelsemium had helped her over the "stage-fright" and enabled her to shape the birth of her child according to her wishes.

The Benefits of Homeopathic Treatment

Homeopathy changes the way I approach midwifery, even when I do not give a remedy. One of the most important lessons I took from the Academy of Classical Homeopathy in Florida was the patient history, which is much more comprehensive than anything I had learned in midwifery school. To select an appropriate homeopathic remedy the homeopath needs information that conventional medicine regards as secondary but which in reality lie at the core of personality. My homeopathy training has increased my ability as a midwife to understand my patients and to give them the best possible care.

I also like to talk with my patients about what homeopathy can do and encourage them to try it. I give them a bibliography on pregnancy and baby care as well as a list of homeopathic literature and resources for homeopathic treatment of babies. This creates an opportunity to discuss how my patients can keep themselves healthy and to make clear that maintaining health is ultimately their responsibility, not mine or the doctor's. The birth of a baby is the right moment to take care of one's health and to set things on the right course for the new family.

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Excerpt from Homeopathy Today, link to the original article