“The times have truly changed. According to the newly released 2009 Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation, women now make up half the work force for the first time in written history! This means that our voices and skills are impacting all areas of society more than ever before.
The Shriver Report also found that for both men and women, health is their number one priority! Since women make the vast majority of healthcare decisions in their families–and have the buying power to do it–we women are in a very powerful position to influence the future of healthcare in America. Nowhere is this more critical than in the area of pregnancy and birth…”
My comment posted on the site:
(I’m pleased that Huff Po published this comment cause when I dump on Socialized Medicine, most of the time they don’t print it.)
Thanks Dr. Northrup!
Great, timely article. As a promoter of Husband/Wife Homebirth – it is refreshing to read a factual report on the current state of birth from an OBGyn. I see things getting much worse before they get better in our society. There is absolutely no financial incentive for the current system to reform itself. The only answer long term is to add a health amendment to the constitution assuring parents of the right to give birth in whatever setting they feel is appropriate for their family.
SocializinÂg/NationalÂizing the whole mess is just going to ensure that more mothers and babies needlessly die during medical birth. For those of us who have zero desire to give birth in that fear based environment, claiming our sovereignty over our own bodies and giving birth in the sanctity of our homes will guarantee that natural mothering survives on planet earth. I predict an 80% worldwide c-section rate by the time our grandaughters are birthing – if they decide to become mothers at all.
Pathetic? Yes, but the trajectory we are on ensures that the status quo entrenched in not only the medical profession, but also the minds and hearts of birthing women will continue on until the evidence of permanent harm to mothers and babes is so obvious, so irrefutable, that we all shift back to normal and natural out of pure survival for the human race.
Jenny Hatch
Birth Activist and Mother of five
Jenny Hatch
The Natural Family BLOG
“Healthy Families Make A Healthy World!”
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Here are the responses to my comment at Huffington Post (not willing to edit them…sorry)
aliceautumn I’m a Fan of aliceautumn I’m a fan of this user 12 fans permalink Yeah, lets go back to the pioneer days! We can hope we live through the birth process while the men wait outside smoking. Have maternal deaths been reduced thanks to modern medicine and research? Ask the women of Africa, India, Afghanistan. People like you make it harder to raise money to fund child birth assistance and education for those women. If you say it is something they dont need help with they wont get it. Walking around with burning urine streaming down your leg from a fissure is a terrible way to live. Spending 3 days in labor with no pain medication and then delivering a stillborn infant is not right. 1 in 7 women in Ethiopia have complications from child birht including maternal and fetal death. Some natural things are not good.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 01:39 PM on 10/16/2009 – + Psyche78 I’m a Fan of Psyche78 I’m a fan of this user permalink Maternal deaths have been reduced thanks to better nutrition and proper handwashing – It’s hard to give birth through a pelvis that is distorted thanks to rickets, and if you look at history, maternal deaths increased when birth entered the hospital bc doctors did not wash their hands. And while I feel for women who are not receiving adequate health and prenatal care around the world, that doesn’t mean I should roll over and let a doctor perform unnecessary abdominal surgery on me or have a hospital force me to adhere to policies that cause childbirth to be more painful, slower, and dangerous than if I were allowed to labor naturally. Modern medicine is great when it’s necessary – unfortunately, in American obstetrics, a lot of the time, the interventions are unnecessary and cause more harm than good.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:04 PM on 10/16/2009 – + marianproletarian I’m a Fan of marianproletarian I’m a fan of this user 4 fans permalink Alice, unless you haven’t noticed, we are not in Africa. No one is saying that people shouldn’t have c-sections when needed. It’s people like you who help make it accepable for American women with low-risk pregnancies just schedule their deliveries by major abdominal surgury for no other reason than convenience. It is widely known that, although they are somtimes necessary, c-sections are much riskier than VBAC.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:54 PM on 10/16/2009 – + Moshka I’m a Fan of Moshka I’m a fan of this user 3 fans permalink It should be acceptable for a woman to decide when, how, with whom by her side, with what medication (if any), with or without surgery she can deliver her baby. Yes, women should be informed about both sides and pros and cons of both methods. After that, buzz off.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 06:19 PM on 10/16/2009
– + Lizzy3367 I’m a Fan of Lizzy3367 I’m a fan of this user permalink Are we all reading the same article here? I am sure this is for the US and NOT Africa. There is obviously NO comparison. You’re not really proving anything here if your only argument against this is that it is dangerous for women in Africa.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:58 PM on 10/16/2009 – + Moshka I’m a Fan of Moshka I’m a fan of this user 3 fans permalink Really, Alice, look who you are talking to. SInce pregnancy is always such a bliss, and the first year of having a newborn is such a bliss, heaven forbid we allow women to do anything just for convenience case. How dare they try to make a traumatic experience easier? If she is not at risk for dying in childbirth, what makes her think she can choose to make it comfortable and pleasurable for her, her partner, and her baby? WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS? Even if it’s their bellies are being cut, and their babies being born, we are not going to take it! Let them suffer! If they had sex, they should be prepared to suffer the consequences! Real women don’t need convenience! Real women are not afraid of pain and hard work! Gee, where have I heard the same arguments before?
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 06:16 PM on 10/16/2009 – + JennyHatch I’m a fan of this user permalink It’s funny how those who diss unassisted childbirth assume it is a jump back, when in fact it is a quantum leap forward! Fathers delivering children at home as a normal and natural part of family life is in fact what I propose for the vast majority of mothers as they give birth.
Because birth is a sexual experience – http://www.orgasmicbirth.com/
the very hormones of labor indicate the ideal setting for childbirth; In the home where the child was conceived, surrounded by the same loving hormonal ecstasy that created the baby in the first place….NOT in a hospital.
Please, break out of the Matrix, our sisters in those countries you cited need clean water, plenty of nutritious food, and a peaceful political landscape in which to birth their babes, not fetal monitors, epidurals, and obstetric surgical theatres. Ninety percent of the birth machine in America could shrivel up and go away and we would all be healthier for it.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:55 PM on 10/16/2009 – + sheila I’m a Fan of sheila I’m a fan of this user 41 fans permalink What a totally bizarre link you try to create between having accessible affordable healthcare for all Americans and our maternal death rates, since the “socialized” countries noted in the article actually have much better results, more home births and lower C-section rates.
C-sections are far more expensive, so are LESS likely to occur in a non-profit atmosphere, as compared to the “winner take all” system here in the US. And national health is no more likely to dictate your treatment options than for-profit insurance. It’s not like we are on some “cutting edge” here – the ENTIRE DEVELOPED WORLD HAS NATIONAL HEALTHCARE.
You should leave your tiny corner of the US some time and go see how others live. It will really open your eyes to how free, innovative, successful and creative people can be when there is a social safety net that ensures they will not die on the streets, broke and alone. We operate out of FEAR now because just our basic survival is so incredibly at risk. Imagine what we could do if we felt secure and could operate out of INSPIRATION.
That is the world I would want for my 5 kids.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 01:56 PM on 10/16/2009 – + JennyHatch I’m a fan of this user permalink “That is the world I would want for my 5 kids.”
Given the status of the health care debate in congress, that is what you are about to get. Do you honestly think that the 80 billion donated to the cause of nationalized health care by Big Pharma was just a “present” with no strings attached?
What we are about to get in America is a particularly noxious form of Facism – government controlled by corporations – at the expense of patient safety and wellness. You think medicine has been awful in America these past fifty years? Just wait until any and all doctor accountability is tossed out the window in so called “tort reform” and unfettered assembly line birth truly gets going these next few years. The only option for mothers who desire “normal and natural” will be homebirth.
I would like for that particular option to be available to my daughers and grandaughters should they choose to forego the drugs and surgery.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:04 PM on 10/16/2009 – + clemenj98 I’m a Fan of clemenj98 I’m a fan of this user permalink Fear-based environment? Is that what you’re calling hospitals? Come on, if you want to educate women about their choices, you can surely do so without the heated rhetoric. Yes, there are lots of women who can have a natural childbirth, but for some of us, a fear based environment would be trying to have the baby and then losing it and our own life due to lack of medical assistance!
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:13 PM on 10/16/2009 – + JennyHatch I’m a fan of this user permalink Yes, the hospital runs on fear. Every moment of a mothers pregnancy is surrounded by fear – fear of toxemia, fear of gestational diabestes, fear of pain, fear of abruption, fear of a prolapsed cord, fear of death, fear of the mother/baby dying. Just about every decision that is made during medical pregnancy and childbirth has fear tied to it in some form or fashion.
When women are truly educated, the fear starts to dissipate, and can be almost completely relieved by starting with the premise that birth is normal, natural, and to be embraced, not avoided with interventions, drugs, surgery, and a modern hospital.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.NaturalFamilyBLOG.com
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christiane-northrup/c-section-or-natural-birt_b_323422.html
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