For the first time ever, a live birth was observed with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine as part of a study of how the mother’s pelvis interacts with the fetus during birth; and although this birth took place in 2010, the video was recently made public. Berlin researchers recorded “the active second stage of labor, when the mother starts performing expulsive efforts with the valsalva maneuver.”
I found the video to be educational; however, I’ve decided that this “valsalva maneuver” looks much too easy when displayed in radio-waved, magnetic mode. You can see two visible pushes, first at the 4-second mark and then the final, victorious push at the 22-second mark.
I would give my left boob for a two-push childbirth experience. I was in active labor for over 24 hours with my daughter, 3 of which were spent valsalva-maneuvered style.
There is a grand possibility that the woman in this study spent many additional hours in childbirth and only the final seconds were released to the public. I’m just amazed this study documented the final “downward gliding of the fetal head,” which only happened at the very last second.
Childbirth, from this perspective, looks simple, natural, and painless. You don’t know if she tore, you don’t know if she is screaming in pain, and her body doesn’t look like it’s withering with the get-it-out-of-me-now-or-I-will-turn-into-a-purple-people-eater syndrome.
The human body is capable of amazing feats – this video proves it. Here’s to conception, nine months of incubation and creation, childbirth, and everything else we women are capable of.
Simple. Natural. Painless. Bring it on.
What did you think of the video?