Childbirth Philosophy and Method

The knowledge and wisdom associated with natural childbirth is not owned or copywrited, although you may find it branded and packaged, it belongs to the people; the women, care providers and midwives who practice it in all settings.  It has been handed down from many sources; traditional attendants, shamans, lay and granny midwives, folk medicine and faith healers.  Often traditional birth practices have been passed down from our mothers and grandmothers.  Here is a picture of my great grandmother that attended births in her town.  My mother was born in her home with a nurse that lived in the community.  For some of us it is an empirical knowledge traveling through the generations, which we long to reclaim in a modern age.

 The term natural birth means; physiologic, vaginal birth without the use of drugs or surgery.  Certainly our sense of normal birth today could include the routine use of many interventions and procedures.  However the non-pharmacological method, as rare as it is, deserves careful reconsideration as our technologies advance and replaces our human rituals with policy. It can revive our humanity at its most fundamental level. The woman and her partner must be educated and supported in their choice of natural childbirth by both their care givers and their families.

It is generally considered that reproduction and birth are safe natural processes, 

The benefits to mother and baby with non-pharmacological birth are many.       The pain and stress of normal labor have added value for both mother and infant by sending signals to receptors and the pituitary responds sending more and more oxytocin into the blood stream, intensifying labor and dilation of the cervix and the progress of labor.  Adrenalin and endorphins are also released at very high amounts helping to prepare the babies lungs to breathe and helping the mother cope with pain.  She may seem sleepy and inward in response to the intense hormonal flow.     

The major advantage to this process is that any non drug  pain management method you use helps promote and facilitate the natural process.  Any undesired effect can be instantly reversed by stopping the treatment, unlike medications that can have side effects and even life threatening complications caused by the cascade of interventions.  The WHO recommends 5-15% c-section rates, most American hospitals are over 30% and climbing. At this point the population suffers harm from the otherwise lifesaving procedure.  Maternal mortality rates are at an all-time high and our neonatal rates are not getting better even with the incredible amount of expenditures and resources our county has.

Breastfeeding success is greater among women and their babies that have natural birth.  The mother has instant and continuous contact with her infant.  Again support and education is so essential.  Breastfeeding is the single most important health advantage that parents can provide for their children.

References

https://www.birthplacelab.org/how-does-your-state-rank/

http://transform.childbirthconnection.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DataBriefs-all.pdf

Henci Goer, The thinking women guide to a better Birth, 1999 and Obstetric Myth vs. Research Realities ,1995

Born in the USA, How a Broken Maternity Care System Must be fixed to put Women and Children First, 2008 and Pursuing the Birth Machine, 1994  by Dr. Marsden Wagner

https://growingslower.com/surprising-birth-statistics/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847344/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3508512/

https://spinningbabies.com/cesarean-rates-call-for-beyond-border-solutions/

It is estimated that 95-98 percent of healthy women could give birth naturally.  Around 25 percent want to give birth naturally but only about 2 percent achieve it.  About half of those (1% in the US) are community birth or home births.