Or, what if it’s not all black and white?

A week ago, an acquaintance told me about the Free Birthing Show on the Discovery Channel. I’d never seen this show, but read and heard about it. It chronicles women who espouse a current trend of giving birth without any assistance whatsoever—no medications, no midwife or doctor, no support other than maybe a spouse or partner.

I don’t fundamentally agree with this practice. I truly believe it is a risky and dangerous course of action that places the lives of both the mother and baby in a precarious position. By sheer vantage point alone, it’s utterly impossible to become aware of (or respond to) a developing complication.  A trained, knowledgeable person should always be present. Always. That means, a Certified Licensed Midwife or Doctor should not only be present during labor and childbirth, but should also administer prenatal visits monitoring the health of mom and baby along the way.

But, due to the increasing practice of American Doctors to use unnecessary medical induction and artificial labor management techniques, some women are simply choosing to take matters into their own hands. And—with the current statistics of mismanaged births, medically caused complications and emergency Cesarean sections—who could really blame them?

Free Birthing is clearly a response to the astonishing increase in the medical community to intentionally leave the woman out of birthing. The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) most recent release of birth statistics reveals that the rate of cesarean surgery, for example, is on the rise to 31.1% of all births—50% greater than data from 1996.** Likewise, national induction rates (i.e.: the use of pitocin) are up to 98% while epidural rates hover around 76%. And, I have to ask, are women in our society so incapable of birthing our children that a majority of them are born through artificial means? What if we aren’t?? What if…?

I return to the Free Birthing Show during which a laboring mother exclaims that she’s having an orgasm as she experiences her last minutes of labor and birth. My acquaintance says, “That’s disgusting! It just makes me sick! An orgasm during birth?!? How disgraceful!” Now this may seem like a stretch, but bear with me. What is an orgasm? Well, most commonly of course, orgasm refers to the apex of sexual experience. However, when you look at the origins of the word, it is only during this century that it became synonymous with sexual climax. Prior to that—if you take a look at the word’s etymology from the Greek orgasmos—it means simply “to swell; to be excited.” And I would wager that, among myriad overwhelming emotions, somewhere in the heart and soul of every woman who gives birth is the intense feeling of being swelled up with excitement in that moment. But, it’s all in how you look at it.

And, that’s where my Pleasantville Theory of childbirth comes into play. What if? What if it’s all in the perspective—the common zeitgeist, if you will? What if the potentialities during childbirth weren’t based on black and white assumptions, black and white medical malpractice outcomes, and black and white opinions about what is and what is not “possible?”

What if we chose only to visualize the beauty of the mother and the new life emerging?  What if a mother’s only thoughts going into labor were “YES I CAN?” What if the images of laboring women in the media were of positive, strong, loving mothers who display a calm and peace in the face of her experience? What if, as a society, we chose educate our daughters in a completely different way?

What if we shifted our cultural perception of childbirth          even      just       a       little      bit?

What if we encouraged women to be motivated by only positive, empowering images? Would women still fear birth, still dread the contractions so much that they request narcotics before the first one starts? Generations from now, would the majority of mothers confidently use the healthier choices like cleansing breaths and soothing visualizations taught by trusted institutions such as Lamaze and Bradley?

What if all the side effects and after-effects of inductions, narcotics and spinal epidurals were more widely discussed and less socially acceptable? Would women more often use the historical method of labor support: a trusted certified midwife accompanied by a companion, partner or trained doula who provide constant compassionate care, encouragement and focus?

What if all the known postpartum dangers of c-section recovery incited such a global phobia that women would avoid one at all costs rather than choose them electively? Would this major surgery still be performed for a third of our national births? Or, would surgeons be more prudent with their choices to use such critical means?

What if the health and well being of the woman and her child were placed as the highest priority? What if there was a pervasive undercurrent of pride and accomplishment in the process? What practices would emerge as the common standard? And, which current practices would be acknowledged as harmful and thus fall by the wayside?

What if we just trusted ourselves a little more, questioned the medical system a little more, and valued the natural process a little more? What if we chose not to cling to the extremes of modern convenience and artificial technologies? What if we chose not to accept the black and white of the status quo but rather to embrace all the colors on the spectrum of human experience?

What if..?

**Statistics taken from Evidenced-Based Maternity Care: What it is and what it can achieve; Published 2008; Sakala, Carol and Corry, Maureen P.

Feed on comments to this Post