I have recently returned from a conference called The Mid-Atlantic Conference on Birth and Primal Health Research. http://www.wombecology.com/index.html
Inspired and renewed, I reconnected to my strong convictions about birth and parenting, my long dormant period of disillusionment is over. I hope to help get the word out. I found out that I am not alone out here. There are many amazing people working hard to help us re-claim our human right to choose how, when, where, and most especially, with whom we will give birth.
We are on the edge, walking the most enlightened horizon of our time. We can and will survive all the well intended but failed assurances to save womankind from her own body. If we re-claim what is ours, birth and all that surrounds it, we take back what is ours: the evolution of the human being. From now on, human beings; unique two-legged creatures that can feel love even though they think, can and will be birthed by love, not by technology.
Never again we will take this lying down.
By putting us on our backs, we are vulnerable and at the mercy of the white lab coats, (this is not only a finger pointing at doctors, but at nurses and midwives alike), anyone in a position of power who dictates through ignorance that our births must be actively managed by their technology. They know not what they do; the white lab coats never experienced nor witnessed a normal physiological birth. Having never seen women give birth in an upright position without drugs and manipulations, they have become fearful; afraid, not only of nature, but of the lawsuits that often follow. We have created a birthing culture that has replaced Mother Nature herself. In her place we encounter a masculine world view, one of dominance and power. She is very mad and so are we!
Medicalized high-tech births have significant sequela. We have scientific evidence that proves that induction of labor, drugging mothers, and removing newborns through instrumentation such as forceps and Ceasarean section causes long tern effects on babies and subsequently the children and adults they become.
Dr. Michel Odent poignantly asks, “Can humanity survive obstetrics?”.
Up to now, we have only known instinctively, a gut feeling, our womb vibes, what Dr. Odent defines as, "the primal period - the time which includes fetal life, the perinatal period and early infancy, the adaptive systems involved in what we commonly call health reach maturity. It is the time of close dependence on the mother. One can anticipate that any kind of event happening during this period can have irreversible effects." http://www.wombecology.com/suicide.html
Now we have scientific evidence to back our womb vibes through a database compiled by Dr. Michel Odent and his research collaborators. http://www.primalhealthresearch.com/
This primal health period, from conception through infancy, is not only crucial to each human being but to our society as a whole. The mother bear, the matriarch no longer exists. As wounded mothers we are subject to feelings of shame and humility. The matriarch has become no more than the sum of her worth, broken and fixed again. This is now a vicious cycle with a host of psychological implications attached.
Childbirth has always been surrounded by myths and old wives tales, awe, mysticism and power. After all, we women carry on the human race, it is that simple and that significant. But instead of owning this power, the matriarch of the 20th and 21st century, over a relatively short period of time, has slowly relinquished her right to give birth. We are “delivered”. Never before have we been more manipulated, constrained, and poked and prodded then in our present post-modern era.
It is the nature of the opposite sex to coerced and dominate, but most especially during the delicate period surrounding childbirth. It is not hard to find reference to the many techniques and devices that have keep us in our place; or rather in their place.
I have watched women give birth in the privacy of their homes with only their loved ones supporting them, no one to dictate how and when they must “deliver”. Almost without failure, these women push their babies out like animals do, upright and fully alert. Each powerful contraction guides the mother and baby in unison, a dance of nature, timeless and beautiful, miraculous and commonplace.
In contrast, women in institutions find themselves in strange rooms in strange places with strangers around them, offering strange things like; clear liquids, anesthetics, and IVs for nourishment. Beds are narrow and come apart in strategic places to expose the vulva and perineum. Options for delivery are based on Dr. Friedman and his curve of averages. If one falls off the curve the alternatives are interventions and ultimately surgical removal of the newborn. Scary and painful sums up the experience, no wonder many of us have opt for oblivion. Put us out and don't wake us up until it is all over.
Today, upon entering the typical hospital birthing suite, laced with frilly curtains and pink and blue decor, we almost always encounter a narrow bed with side rails and clever buttons and levers. This bed generally costs upwards of $30,000. The bed has one main objective; it forces us to remain in one place, contained like an animal in a cage. Literally, we get strapped in by fetal monitors, IVs and blood pressure machines. In this position we are expected to labor and birth our babies without nourishment and in a timely manner.
When we fail to meet the white lab coats expectations, exhausted and drained, they rescue us in the form of the Ceasarean section. Leaving everything behind, including our dignity, we succumb.
Anyone who has birthed at home and knows the freedom of her own private space would agree; this is not humane!
We have had our babies un-medicated at home and safely. We have fought for this right “against medical advise” and we are well informed through the latest evidence-based research. We have seen and maneuvered through the hurdles and obstacles that present themselves through out pregnancy and birth, and how environments and preparedness make or break the spiraling events that drive what should be a normal process into a medical emergency.
In the final analysis, it will not be up to the doctors, nurses, midwives or lawyers to change the culture we find ourselves in and it’s inhumane outcomes but, it will be up to us, women and mothers will ultimately decide how this will play out. Will we decide to continue down this path of destruction and inevitable surgical removal of babies or will the pendulum reverse itself, will we take back what is ours, the power and right to give birth awake, aware, and consciously? At what point will it be too late? These times calls for great urgency. Take the initiative now by saying, "This is my womb, not yours"?
