Informed Choice and Asserting Your Rights

 

Hey there, sister! Welcome back! I’m excited to see you here again for another topic! 

Today I want to talk a bit about Informed Choice versus Informed Consent. Did you know there’s a difference? Not every medical professional or even midwife wants you to know that there’s a difference or that there’s always more than one choice! 

So let’s talk about it! 

Most care providers only operate out of “Informed Consent”, if they care about your consent at all. Consent simply means: yes or no to a choice but it certainly does not mean you’ve been given the full list of options available to you! 

Informed Choice means that every aspect of your care is your CHOICE! That you have been provided the full spectrum of options. Your care provider should care enough to take you through your options, one by one, and educate you on every option, negative and positive. 

This is the way of the autonomous woman when you’re presented with a choice. Let’s use prenatal testing like Gestational Diabetes or the GBS Swab, for example. You should fully understand exactly what they’re looking for, how they’re looking for it, what the risks are physically, emotionally, spiritually. You should understand what all the potential results might mean and the accuracy of them. You should also understand any and all treatment options. 

Once you understand the full spectrum of your decision, you can decide if it is something you want to do and you will have a plan in place for what your next steps are for however the results come back. 

Ask yourself: What will you do with the information you gain? 

There’s a really great tool out there that’s been around for a very long time. I remember being trained on it in 2016 when I first entered the birth worker community. 

It’s called “the BRAIN.” BRAIN stands for Benefits, Risks, Alternatives, Intuition, Need Time. 

Benefits. 

How will this help my pregnancy?

How will this help my baby?

How will this help my birth?

How will this help me? 

Risks.

How will this affect my pregnancy?

How will this affect my baby?

How will this affect my birth?

How will this affect me? 

Alternatives.

What other options do I have?
(Because, there are ALWAYS other options.)

Intuition.

I love this one the most… because it feels like we live in a disconnected society that needs to return to their instincts and intuition. Return to the roots.
So, ask yourself, what does my gut say? What does God say?

And lastly.

Need Time. 

“I need more time to think this decision through.”

“I need a private moment to talk to my family.”

“I would like to wait for now.”

“I do not consent.”

There’s also the Wise Woman/Hearthmother way of healing, living and making choices. This is a really new concept for me but it’s one I align with the most. Listening to this was an “AHA” moment, truthfully! I was introduced to this way of life by a midwife friend, Lauren Hall. She did a podcast explaining this way of life on Holy Wild Birth with Brooke Collier. 

There’s many steps to this way of healing and making choices. Staying in alignment with the Lord’s Will. 

Because I love this so much and I align with this so much, I’m going to go over it just a bit. This is a very watered down recap! If you’d like to dig in deeper, check out the podcasts I’ll link below to study more independently!

Holy Wild Birth: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-way-of-the-hearthmother/id1632340260?i=1000580790602

Indie Birth:

https://indiebirth.org/a-close-look-at-the-wise-woman-tradition/
https://indiebirth.org/the-six-steps-of-healing-for-birth/

Step 1: Pray & Worship

Making sure our eyes are on the foundation of Christ. Prayer is always the first thing worth doing. 

Step 2: Rest/Sabbath/Wait Upon the Lord

Build upon step 1 with rest/sabbath. The Lord healed on the Sabbath. He heals in our waiting. Be in nature. Listen, wait. Not do. This is inner work. 

Step 3: Ask Questions 

Ask for guidance. What is happening? Research out your options. Get really curious. About yourself, about your emotions, what you’re feeling in your spirit. What could be going on here? Is there something deeper here? 

Step 4: Engage the Body of Christ

(Elders, Community Prayer & Support, Story Healing)

Go seek your wise counsel. Repent: Change your mind; to stop believing lies. Speak truth, know truth and then you can know how to move from that truth. Inform your intuition, action, choices. We are not meant to do life alone. 

Step 5: Support/Nourish/Align

(Nourishing Foods, Herbs, Movement, Alignment Body Work, Emotional & Spiritual Support, Homeopathy)

Live as we were designed to. Nourishing movement. What nourishes you? Are you supporting the physiological design of your body? Your body is designed to heal itself. Come into alignment by supporting your body with what it’s already trying to do; heal itself. 

Step 6: Gentle Intervention

(Balancing Herbal Medicine, Manual Stimulation, Intuitive Intervention, Pushing Back to Path of Normal)

Intuitive intervention. Very gentle. Listen to your body. 

Step 7: Forceful Intervention

(Man-Made Supplements, Pharmaceuticals, Manual-Trained Intervention)

Push a little back a little harder to get back to a path of normal. Leaning on “man wisdom.” Forcefully saying we’re going to “shift and change” something. 

Step 8: Invasive Intervention

(Surgery, Invasive Diagnostics & Treatments that “break & enter”) 

Invading the design. Invading the body. Super invasive. 

There’s no harm with steps 1-5. You layer these steps. It’s not one or the other. These build on each other. 

This is the way God designed our bodies to heal, sister! 

I hope you enjoyed learning more about Informed Choice and the multi-layered design of making choices consciously. Most doctors and midwives may make it seem choices are very black and white and I want to encourage you, sister, to dig a little bit deeper!