The medicalization of childbirth is in most cases extremely necessary.
Since the medicalization of pregnancy in the early 1900's, the infant mortality rate has decreased 90%, and maternal mortality has decreased 99%. Cosmic Cat states that for thousands of years women have been giving birth safely "With the help of midwives, friends and relatives." Judging from infant and mother mortality statistics from the past few hundred years, this is patently false. A few hundred years ago, the leading cause of death of women were childbirth complications. This is why so many ancient societies, especially in Africa, practiced polygamy; so that if a woman died during childbirth,as often happened, there would be other wives to take care of the children.
I would really, really prefer not to have my friends deliver my baby. You know who you are.
In all seriousness, I wouldn't want to force my friends or family to be responsible for a potential death. Sometimes, shit happens, and you can't do anything about it; but I'd still feel responsible if a friend of mine died under my jurisdiction-- I'd kill myself with 'what ifs'.
In places like Somalia, one in seven women die in childbirth, where pregnant women do not go to hospitals, except in obviously life-threatening situations. Most of these deaths could be prevented in a hospital, as they stem from hemorrhage, sepsis, and obstructed labor.
You can really say all you want about the "bondage of women" and "taking the dignity of childbirth" but then I would tell you that I don't give a shit about the symbolism or semantics. Speaking as a woman, I just don't. Childbirth is not about making a statement. It's about having a baby.
The whole point is having a baby that is alive and healthy, and if involving a supposed reinforcing of a"patriarchal world" increases the chances of that the smallest bit, then bring it on. Despite what you may think, childbirth is not about the mother. It was never about the mother. It's about the baby. The mother might have a problem-free childbirth, but babies often have problems that a midwife is not equipped to handle. What would she do if it stopped breathing? If it had a weak heart? Needed emergency surgery?
A friend of mine was born with a heart defect, another friend needed a spinal tap.
It's relatively easy to tell if a woman will have complications during childbirth, but babies are unpredictable.
My mother had three Cesarean sections, because it was physically impossible to give birth to a normal sized (8.5 pound) baby with her bone structure. I'm going to need a c-section also; I just don't have childbearing hips, and I'm going to have to deal with that. It's just the way things work. My genes are really nice too-- it would be a shame not to pass them on.
I agree that low-risk mothers should be perfectly safe and healthy giving birth at home attended by a midwife. I don't care about the pain. I would go through any amount of pain if it meant a healthier child. But again, it's not about the mother. I'm not saying that the child ismore important than the mother, or vice versa. All I'm saying is that I, personally, value the sanctity of human life over some vacuous rhetoric about supposed women's dignity.
Don't be selfish. Go to a hospital.
If it saves the life of just one child, it's worth it.
As a woman and a feminist but first an individualist above all, I prefer not to express my freedom and liberation through my vagina. I believe that this attitude can only be detrimental to the dignity of women.
Narzos: Infant mortality (defined as death within the first year of life) for the US in 1998 was 7.2 in 1000. Two of a hundred is
ridiculously high, which would make home births seem very dangerous. Check your statistics.