Will Women Forget How to Birth - Ya Think?

[usmile]

We are headed for more medical births - not that a "medical" birth (medical interventions, epidurals, monitoring, etc.) is bad, it has its place. Yet, medical technology is suppressing a woman's innate ability to birth simply by imposing medical technology into the birth process. As a result the Medical Model of birth has been become the standard of care for maternity care.

Birthing is a physical and emotional process that can only be mastered by the woman.  A woman's ability to create and give birth to a new life is part of her biology, part of her psychological and chemical make-up.  To disrupt this innate talent by depending more on medical technology is an invitation to repressed natural biological needs and suppressed emotional needs and desires - hence post partum depression?

Only since the late 1800's and early 1900's has the management of labor and birth become the domain of male OB/GYNs in hospitals. Before then, birth was done at home and called "women's work". When a wife went into labor, the husband would gather all the women in the family, even neighbors to assist with the birth. After baby was born, women would stay with the new mother "lying - in" to bond, rest for a time before going back to managing her home.  In that time "social births" were important because woman would have not one, but several children in her life time. Managing a newborn with a house full of kids was hard work (and still is).  Midwives delivered babies and were a central part of the birthing experience. Their craft and wisdom were handed down from Midwife to Midwife. Apprentices were chosen by the Midwives to carry-on their traditions and knowledge.

Medication for labor pains became the domain of the new obstetrician. Ether was one of the earliest medications used for labor in the 1900‘s.  Physicians became the expert in medical advances while Midwives were discouraged to practice. Yet in the new medical quest for alleviating labor pains -- pregnancy, labor and birth became a medical process. 

Around the same time, the connection between mind and body had not been explored. In fact "intuition" was looked on as an evil attribute.  Thousands of women were sent to their deaths in the infamous "Witch hunts" . Even the hypnotists of the 1900's were considered mystical yet mistrusted.  Birth and its associated labor pains were dealt with on a physical level unaware of the influence of the mind. At that time, the  mind was not part of the body.

As new medical technology advanced, so did science and research in the connection between mind and body.  When Candice Pert wrote her famous book "Molecules of Emotion" published in 1997 ( only 70 years later from the first medication used in labor)   it opened a new way of looking  at the human body, the workings of the mind, and its relationship to , illness, pain, and mindset.

 Since that book (and others) a flood of new science and research on the body/mind connection has developed over the recent years  in such a way that it's now used with patients with chronic pain and illness. Physicians and nurses are learning hypnosis, meditation, Yoga, Reiki, healing energies, and the importance of positive thinking in managing stress and physiological or psychological pain.  Today, as I write this in 2009, positive thinking, and how you think, thoughts are energy, the Law of Attraction, and so on, are common subjects and terms accepted in our culture. And it works.

This is the missing element for women who are pregnant and anticipating the birth of their baby.  Because of all the proven research on the physiological benefits of relaxation on the body and mind,  a woman's mindset for labor is the key to eliminating fear about the process, enhancing her innate skills and individual talent for birthing, and em brasses her innate desires and confidence to birth her way.

Along with the advances of medical technology in the birthing arena, a side effect is increasing daily: Fear of the birthing process and a woman's doubt in her ability to birth.

Both of which can be addressed through - mindset.

Lesly

http://www.smartbirth.ning.com/

http://www.leslynotes.com/

 

[RugersMommy06]

Mar. 11, 2010 at 8:43 AM

I think there is some fear and anxiety of the unknown but you should also be confident & trust in your body to do it's job. You have to educate yourself on the right techniques to help move baby down & things to help you relax....this usually isn't stay immobile in a bed. I think the drugs given also increase the chance of PPD because it blocks the flow of "love hormones" and that natural  high you have after birth. (Of course not every woman with PPD had narcotics or an epidural) Unless there is an actual emergency- myself, husband & midwife will work through it all for natural birth.

[usmile]

Mar. 17, 2010 at 9:34 AM

Ypu are right. Education is key to learn how to use all the skills you mention first, before using medication. Having a midwife is also a very good option because she is more inclined to work with "mother nature".  Thank you for posting!

(Original Poster)