OK, so people use these terms in various ways. People can use "natural" to describe:
All vaginal births
All vaginal births without instruments
Spontaneous vaginal births
Spontaneous vaginal births without epidural
Spontaneous vaginal births without epidural or narcotics
Spontaneous vaginal birth with no medical pain relief
So at any one time when someone says "natural birth", how is anyone supposed to know what is meant?!
To my mind being in a hospital bed, hooked up to a monitor, catheter, spinal injection, IV, paralysed from the chest down and being told how to force the baby out, while a tray of scary looking instruments and resuscitair stand ready is about as far from natural as you can get!
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the use of epidurals. They can be a blessing when a woman has had a difficult and long labour and needs to get some rest before the second stage. I have a slight issue with women who don't even give any thought to the possibility that they may not NEED an epidural. But I cannot say that I agree with including epidurals in the "natural" category.
So, if "natural" is so meaningless these days what is the alternative?
There is a movement towards the term "normal". It is already in use in medical circles and its use is currently limited to spontaneous vaginal births without epidurals or instruments.
An article in The Sunday Times today, however, criticises the exclusion of epidurals from the "normal" category and NHS plans to try and limit the use of epidurals to those cases where it is strictly necessary. The plans are the result of extensive study and lobbying by the NCT, Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
If enough uproar over "normal" occurs then we could easily see the medical profession being beaten into including epidural births in their "normal" statistics and once again face the weakening of a useful term.
I'm a strong advocate of "Normalising Childbirth". I don't think that the attitude in our society that childbirth is a life-threatening medical procedure is healthy or the best attitude to throw at most women. I think we need to reclaim childbirth as a normal, natural function of our bodies and limit the intervention rate (currently around 50%). We need to reinstate trust in women's bodies to carry out this function.
It's not just about birth, it's part of a package attitude towards women and their capabilities.
All vaginal births
All vaginal births without instruments
Spontaneous vaginal births
Spontaneous vaginal births without epidural
Spontaneous vaginal births without epidural or narcotics
Spontaneous vaginal birth with no medical pain relief
So at any one time when someone says "natural birth", how is anyone supposed to know what is meant?!
To my mind being in a hospital bed, hooked up to a monitor, catheter, spinal injection, IV, paralysed from the chest down and being told how to force the baby out, while a tray of scary looking instruments and resuscitair stand ready is about as far from natural as you can get!
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the use of epidurals. They can be a blessing when a woman has had a difficult and long labour and needs to get some rest before the second stage. I have a slight issue with women who don't even give any thought to the possibility that they may not NEED an epidural. But I cannot say that I agree with including epidurals in the "natural" category.
So, if "natural" is so meaningless these days what is the alternative?
There is a movement towards the term "normal". It is already in use in medical circles and its use is currently limited to spontaneous vaginal births without epidurals or instruments.
An article in The Sunday Times today, however, criticises the exclusion of epidurals from the "normal" category and NHS plans to try and limit the use of epidurals to those cases where it is strictly necessary. The plans are the result of extensive study and lobbying by the NCT, Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
If enough uproar over "normal" occurs then we could easily see the medical profession being beaten into including epidural births in their "normal" statistics and once again face the weakening of a useful term.
I'm a strong advocate of "Normalising Childbirth". I don't think that the attitude in our society that childbirth is a life-threatening medical procedure is healthy or the best attitude to throw at most women. I think we need to reclaim childbirth as a normal, natural function of our bodies and limit the intervention rate (currently around 50%). We need to reinstate trust in women's bodies to carry out this function.
It's not just about birth, it's part of a package attitude towards women and their capabilities.
Posts
