Pregnancy Delivery: Reasons Why You Should Go for a Natural Birth

Birth professionals and others interested in birth seem to be divided into two camps-those who promote medical intervention as a matter of course, and those who promote avoiding intervention if at all possible. Neither camp really serves women well, however. Both positions tell women how to conduct their births. The medical camp often says "trust your doctor. He knows best" and "Better safe than sorry". Obstetricians have been known to lie directly to women about the risks of intervention, to ask ultrasonographers to find certain problems that will require intervention, and to exaggerate risk in order to bully women into intervention, a tactic known as playing the "dead baby" card. Even the most honest and respectful of OBs will quite often present risks and benefits of a procedure in a way that encourages the choice he or she prefers. Popular pregnancy books advise against low intervention choices without evidence to support the advice. Most of society treats birth as a medical event, so women are also hounded by family and friends, and even accosted by perfect strangers, with advice in this vein.

Advocates of more natural birth, however, have fallen into the same trap. Risks of anesthesia and other intervention are exaggerated if the real risks don't convince. Implications are made about one's fitness for parenthood if one is willing to consider intervention. Some even suggest that major complications are self induced or imagined. Elective induction or c/s are presented as the height of irresponsibility and selfishness. Research does support the belief that minimizing intervention minimizes complications, so maybe some of these advocates feel that the end justifies the means. That line of thinking, however, is as demeaning and paternalistic as its medical counterpart.

Instead, we should be advocating for informed choice. Give women accurate information about birth interventions and allow them to choose. Instead of hearing, alternately, that she should never have an epidural because it will turn her baby into a drug addict and ruin breastfeeding, and that she should just get the epidural because her doctor says it's safe and after all, you wouldn't have dental work without anesthesia, would you?, a woman would hear the risks of epidural anesthesia, outlined clearly and without bias or emotional appeal. And then she could choose under what conditions she is prepared to risk developing those complications, and take responsibility for that choice. Otherwise, we exchange one type of tyranny for another.