15/06/2025
Puerperal fever may be gone, but the same point can be made today.
“Sometimes you’re the problem.”
Women giving birth on their backs, with bright lights, machines beeping, and random people coming in and out of the room, is not how humans (mammals) were designed to give birth. These things cause so many problems for the physiological birth process, and then medical intervention is needed to ‘fix’ the problems. Many of these problems could be completely avoided in the first place if physiology was truly supported.
We need to find a balance. Medical intervention saves lives. It absolutely does, and I’m so grateful for it. Yet, it shouldn’t be used unless it’s absolutely needed. If we ‘allow’ (argh) women to give birth physiologically (low lighting, low noise, calm and SAFE room, with birth support), birth really works, most of the time.
Medicalised birth should not be ‘the norm’. Ob/gyn should do home births as part of their training. Then they’d see how amazing birth is when it’s supported instead of forced and directed. They’d trust it more (I understand why they don’t - they only see the problems). Ob/gyn and midwives should train together so they understand each other better and work better together as a team. Plus women should be offered more education and choices.
The system is broken. Something needs to change.
The video is from a speech by Simon Sinek
