06/03/2025
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Who gets to decide how you give birth?
Who gets to determine what position you are in, how “adequate” your contractions are, how much time you have?
Who will decide who is in the room, whether you’re “allowed” to move, what you can eat, wear, sound like, smell, listen to?
Who gets to determine when you hold your baby, what they are injected with, where they sleep, how long they gestate?
Will it be your insurance company?
A hospital CEO?
The staff surgeon?
Your in-laws?
A corporate lawyer?
Your doctor’s schedule?
Will it be the state government?
The L&D staffing coordinator?
Your mom?
An overworked or strictly controlled nurse?
The resident that happens to be on call?
Or will it be you, your husband, and God?
We are born into systems and cultures that may or may not be in our best interest, may or may not be serving our dignity, and may or may not be glorifying God. This is true for every human being from the beginning of time in every culture, era, country, religion. What we are raised with, taught, and absorb from these systems and cultures becomes our normal. For good or bad, we absorb it into us as what is expected and just “how we do things.”
But we are created with an intellect and will, given to us by God to inform our decisions, our lives, and even the culture around us. It is GOOD and RIGHT to question whether norms we were born into are actually good and right in and of themselves.
You can choose to just go with the flow, not question, do what you’ve been trained to believe is normal. You can let your birth be decided by who your insurance covers, who happens to be there at the hospital, what your state has dictated is “allowed”, the schedule of your doctor, or what will make the least waves in your social circles. You as mother can choose to do that.
But you can also choose to step outside the paradigm you were told is normal. You can ask if there’s a better way. You can embrace the authority God has given to you as mother of this baby and caretaker of your body. We can choose or we can let it be chosen for us.
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