Caroline Malatesta lives in Alabama and is a mother of four. Caroline wanted to deliver her fourth child natural. No epidurals or episiotomies. Malatesta wanted to avoid laying on her back which was unconventional by modern standards, so she chose to have the fourth baby at Brookwood Health Center, which explicitly stated that they would follow any birth plan.
The Brookwood facility in Alabama offered an “autonomy” and even had birthing beds on hand to grant the mothers’ wishes. The doctors at the Brookwood facility assured her that they would do everything possible to meet her needs.
Malatesta once wrote, “This all came at a time when more of my friends around the country were beginning to have babies, and I was beginning to realize just how differently birth was handled elsewhere. Before then, I didn’t know there were options. I was hearing of friends being allowed to move around during labor, use the restroom, drink water, avoid stirrups, and birth in different positions. I always had been confined to the bed with a bedpan or catheter, only allowed to eat ice chips, and on my back in stirrups for delivery.”
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