Childbirth

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Revision as of 04:51, 30 September 2009

Natural childbirth is a euphemism for vaginal delivery (or, in simple terms, pushing a baby out of one's hoo-hoo), specifically sans drugs. Of course, this is the way that nature intended for babies to be born, but that does not automatically mean that medically-assisted childbirth is "bad." The pain women typically experience during vaginal childbirth is simply a byproduct of the fact that the size of the human pelvis has not quite caught up to the recent evolutionary explosion in the size of the fetal cranium.[1]

Nonetheless, proponents of nature woo and Eve's Curse insist that long, painful labour is a kind of rite of passage into motherhood, arguing that any technology designed to alleviate that pain (e.g., epidurals) wrongly deprives women of an essential life experience. Although both maternal and infant mortality have declined significantly since the advent of surgical interventions like forceps, caesarean section, and ventouse, mothers who are forced by high-risk pregnancies to undergo these procedures (or who, God forbid, choose to do so) are still made to feel as if they have in some way failed.

Discussion of this topic tends to focus on the means of birth rather than on the infinitely more important ends (a healthy mother and baby). It also tends to neglect the fact that a few minutes, hours, or days spent in labour is only a very small component of the entire lifetime experience of parenthood.

From a feminist point of view, it also reinforces the whole "woman as animal," "woman as nature," "woman as mother" stereotype suggesting that if a woman says, "Fricking hell, no way am I going to hurt for this brat that will then suck me dry for 6 months," she is both ungrateful and does not understand the needs of the child and her role as "woman" (or, alternatively, that she is just a horrible person).[2] The stereotype is also supposed to reinforce the "motherhood is all there is in life" idea by saying that the "experience" is more than the sum of its parts.[3]

It has been suggested that kidney stones are a "natural" part of life, and that we should encourage all people with stones to "experience all aspects of life" and pass the stone without pain killers.

Home Birth

A home birth refers to when a woman consciously chooses to give birth in her own home (usually under the supervision of a midwife), as opposed to in a hospital, clinic, birthing center, or other medical setting.

Although home birth may certainly be part of a full spectrum of women's healthcare options, much of its popularity outside of developing nations can probably be attributed to the fear spread by some proponents of natural childbirth, who characterize hospital birth as an impersonal or even traumatic experience.

Anyone feeling intrepid enough to watch Ricki Lake giving birth in a bathtub might be interested in The Business of Being Born, a pro-home birth documentary, which received limited release in early 2008.[4]

Footnotes

  1. Sagan, Carl. (1977). The Dragons of Eden, Chapter IV.
  2. Indeed, those who defend a woman who, ante partum, refers to her child as a "brat" would probably whistle a different tune if she had been their mother...
  3. Because, as we all know, everything can be reduced to the sum of its parts, including ducks. [1]
  4. O'Hehir, Andrew. (January 10, 2008). "Beyond the Multiplex." Salon.com

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