What’s Natural?
So we went to a childbirth prep class, & the doula (when did that become a word in English?) asked the class how many were planning a “natural” childbirth, & no-one raised her/his hand. The doula said that that would make her cry, & went on to “encourage” childbirth sans epidermal anesthesia by showing disturbing videos of it, including the birth of a premie covered in monkey fur. A few thoughts on so-called natural childbirth:
- What’s Going on in There? says that, while plenty of American women give birth without epidermals, so few have completely drug-free births that there’re no reliable statistics.
- People are unnatural. Our stomachs, for example, are designed to digest meat processed with heating technology. Our heads are freakishly large and blunt-shaped. I haven’t researched this, but it seems likely that since other mammals have smaller and more streamlined heads, their baby vs birth canal ratio is smaller, & thus their childbirth pain is less. From that point of view, lessening human childbirth pain with drugs returns humans to the natural world’s norm.
- Epidermals today are a lot “lighter” than a few decades ago. Moms can now feel the contractions, just not the pain.
- Alot of the childbirth exercises involved squatting. Do cultures that use hole-in-floor squat toilets, no chairs, etc. have less painful pregnancies?
The doula said that women in many other countries don’t experience childbirth as painful, since they aren’t as afraid of it, due to cultural differences; for example women in poor countries haven’t watched movies that portray childbirth as being painful. But women in most rich countries do use painkillers during birth, & childbirth in poor countries is much more dangerous. Why would women where childbirth is safe be afraid of it, while women where it’s not be unafraid? And as for pregnancy pain being a modern phenomenon, what about pre-modern (to say the least) Eve and, “in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children”?
Essentially, what the doula did was un-empower the couples in the class & encouraged us to feel that we need — surprise! — a doula. I’m not saying that this was the doula’s overt aim, just that self-interest is powerful — that’s why judges recuse themselves, and why we shouldn’t elect a military industry CEO to a position where he can start wars.
