Chickens
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www.birthchoices.co.uk
Don't know about you, but at Birth Choices we love a good analogy. Choices for where and how to give birth in the UK in 2008 can appear to be pretty limited, so we've come up with the ‘chicken analogy' to try to highlight a few issues and areas of concern that you need to think about when you come to consider where you'd like to give birth (or lay your egg – see, we've started already).
Just for a moment we want you to imagine you're a chicken - we know you would rather be a swan, but just stick with us for a little while. The big question is: would you prefer to be: Battery Farmed; ‘Free Range'; or an Organically Free-Range chicken?
But before we delve further into this foul analogy, let's remind ourselves of what conditions chickens need to produce lots of lovely nutritious eggs – in other words, what makes a chicken happy?
• The ability to roam free and decide for themselves what they are going to do next ( in human birth that equates to the freedom of choice and movement )
• The room to spread & flap their wings ( or adopt any position you like )
• The freedom to dust bathe ( have a bath or shower in a clean environment / take a dip in a birth pool )
• Facilities to perch ( cushions, birth balls, pillows - anything that helps you get some rest )
• A comfy, safe nest to lay eggs in ( the need for privacy )
Battery Farmed Chickens
Put yourself into the stinking boots of a battery farmer. Your priorities are simple: pack ‘em in & get ‘em laying. You need to ensure you can get as many chickens as possible laying huge quantities of eggs as quickly as possible & so to do this you have to invent lots of rules. You need to construct an environment where you can ram them in in order to process as many as possible, force them to lay & then pack them off when they've finished serving their purpose.
So how do we best go about this in the most controlled way? Well, firstly, you'll need to construct a very large barn ( or hospital ) and then some box-like pens ( or labour rooms ). This helps the farmer to rigidly control the hens' movements and performance.
You'll need to restrict the little bleeders' movements or else they'll be chaos! You need to know exactly who's doing what at any one time. If there are any chickens that are ‘failing to perform' then off for the chop they go.
You won't need many staff for this as your stock are all in their pens – your chicken attendants can go about checking the hens and collecting the eggs for any number of chickens at any one time.
Comfort shouldn't be much of a consideration – let's face it, they won't be staying with you for too long – so no need for a perch or nest, just somewhere that is functional and easy to clean. And you haven't got much time for worrying about their feelings - they are fed and alive aren't they? What more can they want? You'll be too busy packing the eggs & shipping them off to worry about being humane.
All the chickens need to be treated in exactly the same way, or they might start to ‘feel jealous' of better cared-for hens; in other words poor care for one, poor care for all - at least be consistent!
Repeat the mantra:
IN – LAY – OUT
So what if a few of them get a bit upset & start pulling their feathers out or scratching at their neighbours? It's an efficient system & it works! Besides, why try & fix something that's not broken? (to the farmer at least).
The life of the chicken is not important before or after the ‘egg laying'.
‘Free Range' Chickens
So you don't like the idea of becoming a battery-farmed chicken & you'd prefer a better egg-laying experience? Well, for some women choosing to birth with a Community Midwife or in a birth centre is a bit like opting to buy free-range eggs, but then finding out somewhere down the line that the chickens who produced them may have had the option to roam about, but it was in a darkened barn with the doors shut.
Yes, we all know there are some brilliant midwives out there who do an amazing job, however, although Community Midwives may have slightly more freedom to roam, unfortunately they're still bound by the same policies and protocols set by the ‘battery farmers'.
Unless your Community Midwife operates a case-loading system (where she works on a one-to-one basis with each mother & is on-call for & present at her birth – such as The Albany Practice in London) you may find that you get very different advice and care from different people. So although you have more ‘freedom' than the battery hens, your egg-laying experience is still managed and controlled by others.
There may well be very similar restrictions put on you, even if the barn is a bit more ‘comfy' and you can move around a little more - but only as far as the farmer ‘lets' you of course!
You're also unlikely to have formed a strong, trusting relationship with these particular barn attendants, seeing as you may not have even met the ones who actually catch your fresh egg on the night. But if you are lucky and you don't mind who comes along, provided they don't try to battery farm you, then this at least is an improvement.
But it's still incredibly difficult to ask the farmer & his staff if they wouldn't mind you opening the barn door so you can take a stroll in the sunshine outside – their rules don't allow it & frankly, most of them don't speak ‘chicken'.
Organic Free-Range Chickens
This option is the one for you if you want to take true control of your egg-laying experience. You'll have your own nest, your own bathing facilities & you'll be in the expert attentive hands of a cross between Dr Doolittle & an Organic Farmer who has your best interests at heart – not the interests of a system that needs to ‘process' you.
These farmers are around - you just have to find one! Sometimes they are hiding in the corners of the battery farm or darkened barn, just waiting for the opportunity to practice their organic beliefs. Or some of them are ‘free lance and organic' but of course may not be provided by the farm.
Most importantly, they all speak fluent ‘chicken'!
No time limits, no pressure & options are plentiful – all of them fully explained so you can make the decisions for yourself – your birth, your way. You may wander about wherever you please and pop that little egg out whenever takes your fancy.
These Organic Free-Range Farmers really understand their flock & what they need to make them happy; freedom of movement, the respect for your privacy and all the support you need to lay your best egg. And even if things don't go according to plan, the fact that they stay with you throughout your laying experience means you'll have all the one-to-one care you truly deserve when you're giving birth.
Why is it so difficult to get the Organic Free-Range experience?
To put it simply – it's because of the way the system is managed. The Albany Practice are sub-contracted by the NHS, so they get to run their practice how they see fit. They're paid for by the NHS & the women on their books get free NHS care, but because they manage themselves, they are able to form close bonds with the women they care for by providing one-to-one care.
Every other NHS Primary Care Trust or Health Board in the UK has the option & ability to create their own Albany Practices – but they choose not to. Why? Who knows? Why not write & ask them?
We know there is a shortage of midwives in the UK, but if this really is the case, why is it so difficult for midwives to get jobs? It is because in reality there is a lack of money spent on maternity services? Would there would be fewer midwife shortages if Trusts spent more money on employing more of them?
But if you're wondering if it's all about money, the Organic Free Range system (or one-to-one midwifery-led continuity-of-care) actually costs less than the current system operated by the NHS.
In Scotland 2007 for example (figures taken from ISD Scotland):
An NHS Hospital Caesarean Birth costs: £5,500 per woman (inc. all antenatal care, the birth & postnatal care)
An NHS Hospital Vaginal Birth costs: £3,800 per woman (inc. all antenatal care, the birth & postnatal care)
An NHS Home Birth costs: £3,300 per woman (inc. all antenatal care, the birth & postnatal care)
An Independent Midwife Home Birth costs: £2,500 per woman (inc. all antenatal care, the birth & postnatal care)
Food / chicken feed for thought.......