Why Do So Many Births End up Like This? What is Contributing to Our Fear?

Apart from preconceived notions about pain in childbirth, the birthing environment also affects the laboring woman’s psyche.

Many women who give birth in hospitals may subconsciously be wondering what they are doing in a hospital if hospitals are really meant for sick people.

When a laboring woman changes into a hospital gown and is wheeled into a hospital room, she takes on the role of ‘sick patient’.

Her mental state is that of needing medical help to birth her baby.

The multitude of high-tech machinery and equipment in hospitals also send the message to her that birth needs much help, and that her body is inadequate.

The attitudes of many care-providers who dramatize birth also can have a damaging effect on the pregnant woman’s confidence about her body’s ability to birth her baby.

When tests are done and drugs prescribed for every single slight chance of a complication, the pregnant woman gets more and more anxious and insecure about her ability to birth naturally.

The pregnant woman is in a vulnerable state and highly suggestible to offers of medical intervention, especially if it is followed by insinuations that she is an irresponsible mother if she does not accept it.

What Can We Do?

An increasing number of women are recognizing the importance of educating themselves about birth.

With knowledge about the physiology of birth, we are able to understand how our hormones help us and how our bodies are perfectly designed for birth.

Attending independent antenatal classes such as HypnoBirthing, Lamaze or Bradley classes are certainly useful in this aspect.

With adequate information, mothers and fathers will be able to make informed decisions about their baby’s birth – in areas such as choosing the right care provider and right place of birth.

In many countries, home births and center births are a viable and even the preferred option for low-risk moms.

Educating oneself and exercising our rights as consumers can certainly bring us closer to a gentle, more satisfying birth experience for not only the mother, but for the baby and the rest of the family.

First published: February 2014