Yes! Our system can be totally dehumanizing to laboring women, but childbirth can also be naturally tricky. Tbh, I am glad to be done with that part of my life.
My mom had me and my older sibling sans epidural and my younger sibling with (c section so necessary) and she's not really hippie dippie but she hated the epidural. I think one thing "natural birth" rhetoric stole from us was actual language to talk about preferences
I've talked to her about why she hated it so much and it's not for public consumption but she likes morphine and oxy (used responsibly) post other surgeries so she's not coming from a natural fallacy perspective
My mom hated her epidural experience too. She did not have one with me did with my brother. She said she felt pressured to get it and it made her feel disconnected from the birthing process.
I understand the antipathy, however, I think it's important to remember the history, too. My first birth was with an obstetrician who: shaved my pubis, gave me an enema, ordered pitocin just to speed things up, yelled at me when I questioned this decision (while I was in labor)... 1/2
threatened to quit mid-labor, and performed an unnecessary episiotomy. All of this was _routine_ before women began taking control of their own birthing experiences by re-learning natural birth. Women have choices now, because of the natural birth movement.
Me disliking the dishonesty in how natural birth is characterized by influencers is not meant to lionize the alternatives in any way. I just want medical decisions to be presented without getting packaged like products
Of course. But you have the freedom to decide which medical interventions you want, because the women of the 1970s chose to have natural births instead of submitting to the routines established by a male-dominated medical establishment. Before that, any decisions about birth were not made by women.
I think we’re just talking about different things at this point. The freedom is something pregnant people have while taking in information that’s nudging them towards paths for reasons that doesn’t prioritize someone’s wellbeing
I thankfully have two healthy kids. In between them my wife has a miscarriage that required a D and C. It wasn't all that big a deal at the time, but I was keenly aware that a century or two ago I'd be a single father (and neither rich nor brooding enough to be the love interest in a period novel).
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