Birth is an Integral Process of Human Nature
Birth is an integral process of human nature. However, this process has become more medicalized during the last century. Only in the U.S. Caesarean rates are at 34 percent of all births (De la Torre, 2012). But why so many women decide to make Caesarean and not to parturiate naturally? Maybe, they just have no choice in making a decision? There are too much obstetric medical interventions in the child-bearing process in the modern developed countries. Sometimes obstetricians and gynaecologists make normal pregnancy more complicated than it is. Instead of observation and giving proper advices they interfere and convince future mothers to make a wrong choice and to choose Caesarean. At the same time, many women are afraid of pain and prefer to make an epidural anaesthesia, which is not very healthy to both mothers and babies.
So why should births be normal? Here the answer comes: from the remotest times the process of giving birth to the baby was natural. Women were not afraid, they worked actively and parturiated easily. Of course, they felt pain and cried, but they did not make an issue of it. Nowadays we live in the world with high technologies and well-developed medicine, but giving birth is regarded as a disease. Naturally born babies are more healthy and enduring because they are passing through their birth canal where they need to exert themselves. Thereafter, Caesarean babies do not have such a trial; they are weaker and less viable. Of course, when a mother or a baby is in danger, the Caesarean can save their lives. But when there is no physiological or medical need, women should deliver naturally.
What can be done to prevent the medicalisation of childbirth? First of all, future parents should be informed about the alternative they have. They should know everything about the negative consequences of Caesarean and must take a decision themselves. Medical institutions should support women with psychological help and show them that natural birth is the best labour for a baby and a woman. Partnership working will increase the number of natural births, and breast feeding will provide children with all important minerals and vitamins during the first months of their lives.
