The Over-Medicalisation of Birth – What’s the Problem?

May 13th, 2021

By Nickita Starck

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

Birth. The mind conjures images of women screaming in agony, the sound of dramatic midwives shouting at women to ‘PUSH’, beepy machines, white coats, stirrups, women pushing ‘uphill’ on their backs, episiotomies and tears. We are told during pregnancy not to smoke, not to drink, not to dye our hair, most pain killers are out of bounds, no sushi or unpasteurised milk. However, the second we go into labour we are pumped full of drugs, told to give birth in hospital as our bodies are no longer trusted to do their job unsupervised. We are connected to machines and experience uncomfortable vaginal exams. We are put on a time scale acceptable for the hospital, experience trauma as a standard and we have become conditioned to think it’s normal?

So why on earth has a physiological process been handed over to a medical team? Is birth inherently dangerous? As an experienced birth worker, I would say a profound no!

It saddens me to see countless women handing over their births to the medical profession. Hospital births have become standard and we have lost trust in our bodies. We have lost touch with our instinctive wisdom. Why do we fear childbirth so much? When did this happen and how? I must stress, we are very lucky to have medical intervention when we need it. For the most part midwives are doing an exceptional job. I am not discussing the hard working birth workers here, only the ‘system’ in which they work. I have the utmost respect for birth workers, be it independent or NHS. They are mostly wonderful, caring individuals who just want to help. This article is not about these individuals, but the failing maternity system.

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