Jul 23

Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.

“There’s No Such Thing As Natural Childbirth.”

“There is no such thing as a natural childbirth.” – Certified Nurse Midwife to mother during prenatal visit.

99 people dislike these words.

There are 41 comments to this post.

Elizabeth had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 10:25 am (Quote)

So what would you call a birth where the mother did not use any pharmaceutical drugs or obstetric intervention tools?

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Mama Wrench Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 10:32 am Mama Wrench(Quote)

“Impossible.”

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Bonita Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 12:49 pm Bonita(Quote)

“irresponsible childbirth”
“annoying childbirth”
“irritating childbirth”
“dangerous childbirth”
“dead baby childbirth”
the list goes on….

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Kyonarai Reply:
July 25th, 2011 at 8:35 am Kyonarai(Quote)

It’s not 3rd world! Yeesh! There are plenty of American women who choose to have an unassisted childbirth, or even an unassisted pregnancy, and the vast majority of their babies turn out fine. In fact, most studies done on the subject show the same infant mortality rates for low risk pregnancies in the home or in the hospital, the only difference being that the hospital only group has way more C sections. It’s not “Irresponsible” if you have a hospital backup just in case, and are prepared to transfer if you feel that anything is wrong.

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Bonita Reply:
July 25th, 2011 at 1:44 pm Bonita(Quote)

Unfortunately most OBs don’t understand that. As a homebirther myself, I get where you are coming from. My list was just what the medical community usually thinks birth without intervention is.

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GranolaRN Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 1:04 pm GranolaRN(Quote)

Home birth.

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Lisa Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 4:32 pm Lisa(Quote)

Win!

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Louisa Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 4:11 pm Louisa(Quote)

3rd world?

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Kristin Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 9:06 pm Kristin(Quote)

“I’m sorry, we don’t support that type of risky birth here. Perhaps you’s like to give birth in a ditch?”

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Sephia Reply:
July 24th, 2011 at 4:03 pm Sephia(Quote)

LOL @ the responses. Sounds about right coming from an sOB.

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Alyson Miers had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 10:33 am (Quote)

Personally I dislike the term “natural childbirth” because it’s so easily abused. It ends up meaning anything from a totally non-medicalized, spontaneous process, to any vaginal birth without pain meds, to literally any vaginal delivery at all, up to and including induced labor with anesthesia and forceps extraction.

So, with that in mind, what would this midwife call it if Mama has spontaneous labor, no augmentation, no anesthesia, freedom of movement and self-directed pushing?

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Grace Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 11:31 am Grace(Quote)

I agree with your first point — I have heard lots of peopler refer to any vaginal delivery as “natural”.

I do wonder what the CNM in question would call the type of birth that you described in the second paragraph?

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Sephia Reply:
July 24th, 2011 at 4:08 pm Sephia(Quote)

For me –
Natural = letting nature take it’s course.
Vaginal = having any intervention or help in the birthing process.

I don’t always believe one can have a natural birth within a hospital, but it is possible.

Home births aren’t always “natural” either. There are many MW who play with nature.

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himom Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 1:19 pm himom(Quote)

My last birth!

(Of course, it was at home. Don’t see it happening in hospitals too frequently)

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Rachel Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 9:37 pm Rachel(Quote)

I’ve even heard people refer to their c-sections as “natural”.. very defensively and indignantly! I think part of the “logic” was that “its natural to do what was best for my baby” Sure, I’ll give ya that. It is VERY natural for mama bear to sacrifice herself to protect her baby. So yes, in an emergency situation, its “natural” to enthusiastically agree to a surgical birth to save a baby’s life. Doesn’t make the birth natural.

I guess this is what happens in a world where in food/health products, people can call anything and everything “natural” with no regulation of the term?

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Samantha had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 10:45 am (Quote)

I watched a Documentary of some women in Russia who traveled to the Black Sea (I think) and birthed in the water. Looked pretty natural to me.

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Heather Crandall had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 10:48 am (Quote)

So the baby that I birthed unassisted, and caught myself, in a birthpool in my dining room just a week ago doesn’t exsist. Huh, must’ve just made it all up.

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Katie R Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 1:02 pm Katie R(Quote)

Oh Heather, You and your zombie babies, you really shouldn’t keep making up these stories .

Hey Congrats! I was stalking the NBN list waiting for an update!

Katie

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Heather Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 2:43 pm Heather(Quote)

Congrats!!

And the baby exists, but your birth wasn’t natural, obviously. There’s no such thing! All birth is unnatural. It’s not like we were designed to do it or something!

Oh, wait…

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adrienne Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 5:22 pm adrienne(Quote)

you used a birth pool. where do you find those in nature? you would have had to find a pond somewhere.

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Chelsea Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 8:11 pm Chelsea(Quote)

Sorry, your birth wasn’t natural. You didn’t birth in a wild mountain spring unknown by humans. And even if you did, then you would know about it, so then it wouldn’t be natural. *giggle*

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Kat had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 11:11 am (Quote)

natural
nat·u·ral
–adjective
1. existing in or formed by nature (opposed to artificial): a natural bridge.

2. based on the state of things in nature; constituted by nature: Birth is a natural process.

3. of or pertaining to nature or the universe: natural beauty.

1. The process of giving birth and being born “exists in and is formed by” nature, which is an easily observable fact known by any biologist trained and experienced in observing mammalian species on this planet.

2. When a birth takes place without outside intervention and use of artificial substances such as narcotic drugs and labor-inducing substances, that birth is based on the state of things in nature.

3. Many women feel a profound sense that their birth pertains to nature or the universe when they experience childbirth without artificial interference, and the natural beauty of the moment is not lost on them.

Natural childbirth exists, you putting your fingers in your ears and closing your eyes and saying “la-la-la-la I don’t believe in that” doesn’t change the facts. It does change one fact though, the fact that I will no longer be your patient!

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Ethel Reply:
July 24th, 2011 at 7:03 am Ethel(Quote)

But this is my take on it, “nature” presupposes that humans are unnatural which means by definition all that we do is unnatural (including deliver). On the other hand if we consider ourselves natural animals including our technology/culture being part of our natural selves, then any assistance to childbirth, from having emotional support to invasive surgery is actually natural.

It is a stupid dumbass term that discounts that we are animals, that all that we do even if it is self destructive is natural to us.

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Dana had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 11:24 am (Quote)

My OB said this to me when I was explaining to him my desire for an unmedicated VBAC. He then went on to ask me…”do you know how painful childbirth is?” Uh…yeah, I do doc but tell me , how many babies have you had?
I walked out of his office and never looked back.
And I got my unmedicated VBAC (actually completely intervention free except for the required monitors which were rarely plugged in so I could moved around while laboring).

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Jane had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 12:54 pm (Quote)

“Then what do you call the normal state of affairs when a woman delivers without a ton of interventions? Tell me what you call it, and that’s what I want.”

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Wendy Reply:
July 24th, 2011 at 6:47 am Wendy(Quote)

Oh….win, win, win!

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Heather Crandall had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 1:38 pm (Quote)

Katie, I must have a really active imagination. I will try to post an update to the group next week. And tell a bit about the birth.

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Kimberly had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 4:50 pm (Quote)

Had one at the hospital…completely intervention free with no medication at all. With an OB for that matter. Win.

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adrienne had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 5:20 pm (Quote)

I’ve heard this argument before. basically this lady was trying to say if you have any prenatal care (even blood pressure screenings) then your birth isn’t really natural because you can be risked out of an intervention-free birth and therefore aren’t taking on all the risks of a true natural birth, where the mother goes into it without any kind of medical history. also, electric lights. I kid you not, if you use electric lights during your birth, it’s not natural! (according to this lady I came across, that is). so apparently none of my intervention-free home births were natural because I had blood pressure screenings beforehand, listened to the heart beat with a fetoscope, and two of them were with the lights turned on.

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Dreamy Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 5:55 pm Dreamy(Quote)

Right, because there are no *degrees* of anything. It’s all or nothing, so if you’re not willing to go out alone into the forest and squat over a gopher hole, you might as well be hooked up to 27 machines and pumped full of drugs.

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Melissa Reply:
July 23rd, 2011 at 10:33 pm Melissa(Quote)

Yes. Sure. And all our food is unnatural because we eat it with forks. And forks aren’t found in nature. So therefore, our eating, our food: unnatural.

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Robyn Reply:
July 24th, 2011 at 5:30 am Robyn(Quote)

Silverware is not what makes our food unnatural. We are not the only species that uses tools to eat. Apes will shove a stick into a termite mound and then eat the termites off the stick. Nope there’s a host of other things that makes our foods unnatural. All you need to do is read an ingredients list; if you can’t pronounce it, then it probably isn’t natural.

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Laura had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 5:59 pm (Quote)

You’re no such thing as a “midwife”.

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Kristin had this to say, Jul 23, 2011 @ 9:10 pm (Quote)

To me, a “natural” childbirth is one where the baby comes out of the woman via the vagina. An “emergency” childbirth is where the baby is removed via c-section.

Now, midwife, would you like to reevaluate your statement? Or were you simply referring to a birth without medications or interventions? Because that’s actually called a non-medicated, intervention-free birth, which some people term “natural.” And in actuality, this is what the term “natural” birth generally implies.

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Details Reply:
July 24th, 2011 at 12:25 pm Details(Quote)

I don’t agree with your entire first paragraph. Maybe you were being sarcastic? There are plenty of “unnatural” vaginal births, top on the list being those induced from the start, those with so much pain medication that the mother can’t push and those that include the use of forceps or vacuum. Plus I’ve had 3 “non-emergency” c-sections, in other words none of us (me or my children) were about to die. They weren’t cutting into me as the gas was going over my face in some big emergency OMG get that baby out now emergency. They were each decisions that were made to do what was best for the baby given the state of things at the time, but each time it took about 1 hour of prep time to get me and the OR ready. That is not an emergency and my kids apgar scores prove it.
But addressing the midwive, if you don’t think what I’m looking for exist then you aren’t the right care provider for me AND you should NOT be using the term midwife because you are an embrassament to the calling.

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Dee had this to say, Jul 24, 2011 @ 10:35 am (Quote)

I prefer the term ‘unmedicated’ or for a birth in which the mother receives no meds (none, includuing Pitocin).

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Lindsey had this to say, Jul 24, 2011 @ 10:37 am (Quote)

I’ve had 2 intervention free, unmedicated hospital births (I had vaginal checks each time but did them myself) and one intervention free, unmedicated homebirth.
I call them natural births, but I understand the PP’s point about people calling any vaginal delivery natural.

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