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The Term 'Natural Birth' Shames Moms. It's Time to Lose It
Having a C-section or getting an epidural doesn't mean you're less of a mother.
I don’t often think about giving birth to my son anymore. Now that he's almost two it's hard to even remember what it was like to be pregnant. But I recently came across a blog post from a women’s clinic in London that reminded me of one of the worst parts of pregnancy for me—the constant emphasis on the idea of a "natural birth." The post encourages pregnant women to have a "feminist birth," and claims that "the goal is normal vaginal delivery for all women."
It reminded me of the messaging I was inundated with before I had my son. Strangers on the street, other pregnant women, and even overzealous Instagram influencers would extol the virtues of a "natural birth," by which they meant an unmedicated, home birth.
While all the books I'd read had language that seemed rooted in empowerment (Women are amazing! Women are powerful!) they always felt to me like they were destined to lead to feelings of shame. Whenever I made the mistake of telling people I planned on getting an epidural, I almost always had to endure a lecture on the virtues of unmedicated labour and how incredible a home birth could be. Forget about if it was physically possible for me, if that was something I wanted to experience or not.
In the end, I had to be induced and I had an epidural to manage the excruciating pain. Twelve hours after my first contraction I had a vaginal delivery and went through the exact same thing every person who gives birth does: exhaustion, delirium, and transformation. The process of getting there, how the baby came out, and what amount of pain I was willing to bear had little to do with the end result—I now had a human being to care for.
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/ne8wg8/the-term-natural-birth-shames-moms-its-time-to-lose-it
I don’t often think about giving birth to my son anymore. Now that he's almost two it's hard to even remember what it was like to be pregnant. But I recently came across a blog post from a women’s clinic in London that reminded me of one of the worst parts of pregnancy for me—the constant emphasis on the idea of a "natural birth." The post encourages pregnant women to have a "feminist birth," and claims that "the goal is normal vaginal delivery for all women."
It reminded me of the messaging I was inundated with before I had my son. Strangers on the street, other pregnant women, and even overzealous Instagram influencers would extol the virtues of a "natural birth," by which they meant an unmedicated, home birth.
While all the books I'd read had language that seemed rooted in empowerment (Women are amazing! Women are powerful!) they always felt to me like they were destined to lead to feelings of shame. Whenever I made the mistake of telling people I planned on getting an epidural, I almost always had to endure a lecture on the virtues of unmedicated labour and how incredible a home birth could be. Forget about if it was physically possible for me, if that was something I wanted to experience or not.
In the end, I had to be induced and I had an epidural to manage the excruciating pain. Twelve hours after my first contraction I had a vaginal delivery and went through the exact same thing every person who gives birth does: exhaustion, delirium, and transformation. The process of getting there, how the baby came out, and what amount of pain I was willing to bear had little to do with the end result—I now had a human being to care for.
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/ne8wg8/the-term-natural-birth-shames-moms-its-time-to-lose-it
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Who the hell is even suggesting that women who get a c-section or epidural are somehow "less" of a mother? Probably the same people who are anti-vaxxers.
This is ridiculous IMO. We lose elections in the Midwest because of this shit.
