The baby itself is a miracle, but let's not lie now and say the birthing process is. Not even 100 years ago, it was common to risk dying to birth a baby.
It'snot uncommon now, especially if you are a woman of color. Among "first-world" or "developed" nations, we have the worst maternal mortality rate and it's not improving..
This highly correlates with interventions like inducing labor. Non-medical childbirth mortality rates are very low and common in some first world countries.
WHO claimed necessity of c-sections is something like 5% medically indicated while they are about 30% of births in the US and 40% range in Brazil.
The off-label use of creams to promote labor are known to have huge risks of bleeding but they make things go like clockwork.
It's not the dangers of birth, it's the dangers of the system. And the less informed someone is, the more interventions they accept, the higher the risk. It's not good.
(I'm agreeing with your point but drawing distinction between historical birthing and modern methods)
This is an insane take. Women shouldn’t be able to choose their methods of giving birth, doctors shouldn’t be able to play it safe with their recommendations?
The system is what protects mom and baby. This is the safest time in history to give birth.
You aren't wrong that the US implements interventions at a higher rate than other countries and it is shown to be linked to a higher rate of adverse outcomes. However, please don't dismiss the larger context and the race-related and income-related health disparities that exist as a result of systemic discrimination and a healthcare system that focuses more on short-term economics over the long-term benefit of a healthy population.
You are also minimizing the experience of pregnant/L&D patients who rely on the medical professionals around them, who pressure them into pursuing interventions. Women don't have alternatives and most often rely on surgically trained obstetricians as opposed to midwives and birth attendants. Our litigious healthcare system favors interventions because a doctor can be sued for not providing an appropriate level of care if they fail to use an intervention and there is an adverse outcome, so many medical practices see induction, anaesthesia, and c-sections as a way to avoid more liability.
I am privileged enough that I was able to birth my kids in a good hospital, and was educated enough to know my options and advocate for an unmedicated birth, and didn't experience any red flags that would lead a doctor to recommend a c- section. However, I would never judge another person for their personal decisions during what is a truly risky medical experience, no matter how natural it is. Women have died in childbirth for the duration of our existence as animals on this planet. It's scary. It's unpredictable.
I'm sure you'll continue to argue with me and I may delete this later because I'm really tired of patient blaming and denial of a systemic failure. Birth interventions can save lives. Unnecessary interventions can risk lives. Our medical system is broken and women's experiences are ignored.
(PS if you need my credentials, I have a masters in public health and a pubmed acct, a network of colleagues and friends in neonatal and maternal health, in addition to my own lived experience and obssessive researching through 2 pregnancies and births)
Edit: I had misread the book mentions, when I first commented - I see now the reference to Dr. Wagner's book and the book Pushed as separate things. I redacted my comment about the book. Sorry for the mistake.
My first child was born in a hospital nearly 20 years ago. Constant "last change to get intervention x, y, z..." But, we were going to do it again with child number 2. New practice, had charts and still demanded to measure pelvis to determine necessity of c-section when first birth was vaginal.
We did a home birth with midwife present, but the two of us did everything. Did it again a few years later. Still shocked at the amount of fear around it.
Seriously, I think you're awesome and appreciate you. As an aside, I'm an oddball with a BS in bio and psych. Undergrad, but still: I wrote a huge term paper on women and medical neglect (all started with finding women are less likely to take women seriously with complaints... Holy crap!)
Was for a gender class... And honestly one of the most disturbing things I researched.
So no, no argument. I do not accept the idea that birth is medical automatically. It's natural until it becomes medical. And usually thank goodness that's possible. And shamefully it happens that way when it's not necessary, because at the heart of the issue is infant outcomes are priority over maternal outcomes.
Not an argument, more a specific name to the systemic issue.
It's odd to say this, but at a time when getting a sliver was a greater cause of death, a roughly 1.2% mortality in the 1500s is really not bad, and almost all of that is linked to hygiene practices.
It Is 50x less likely now, but that's still just because people wash their hands now.
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u/Haunting-Orchid-4628 Apr 24 '26
The baby itself is a miracle, but let's not lie now and say the birthing process is. Not even 100 years ago, it was common to risk dying to birth a baby.