I am using the term civilized birth simply to refer to the way our modern society (and medicine) views birth . This attempt at civilizing birth I believe has had a negative impact on women and God's design for them. First, our modern medicine views women as weak. Women are not expected to be able to give birth naturally. It is assumed they can't do it. I had a friend whose doctor told her that he has only every had 1 woman give birth naturally in all his years of practicing medicine. He did not tell her this to praise the 1 woman, but to give evidence to his belief that most women can't do it natrually. This view of women being weak as leaked into the minds of the women as well. Most women today are afraid of birth, and they too think they can't do it. Fear is contagious, and what most woman don't know is that fear can have a very negative impact on your abiltiy to give birth. If you don't believe you can do it, well you probably won't do it. Shall we call it self-fullfilling prophecy? God did not make women weak. In fact He gave them one of the hardest task in all of creation. That is to be able to have children! And not just 1 but mutiple! Being a mother is hard work, before, during ,and after a baby is born and God gave this job to women because He designed them to do it. Women are not created weak and we do them a great disservice when we discourage them from what they were made to do in the first place.
The second problem I see with our modren view of birth is that a birth is viewed as an illness instead of a natural process. Can you tell me of any other natural biological function that you have to go to the hospital for? Most see birth as a potential for disasster not a potential for blessing. Can things go wrong? Yes. But should we always expect them to go wrong? No. Do you go to the hospital every time you have a headache, or have to go to the bathroom, or even sneeze? They all have the potential to go wrong somehow, but we don't expect them to so we don't go to the hospital everytime a normal biological function occurs. AGain, this is what God made women to do! She is not sick, and birth is not some freak disaster waiting to happen! It is normal, and natural.
The final issue I have with our modern view of birth is that too often procedure and process become more important than mother and baby. When a woman is admited to the hopital she is hooked up to monitors, and possibly ivs (and sometimes even more things!) which instanly restrict her movement and abilty to labor in any position she chooses. She is limited and restrained because this is procedure. My sister-in-law had a slow labor with her first child. She went to the hospital on a Saturday. She was not far enough along so they did not admit her, but they told her to not eat or drink anything. She returned to the hospital a few more times, only to be sent home again each time with the reminder to not eat. This went on until Monday! 3 days!! A pregant mother about to give birth and she is told to fast for 3 days! Why? Because this is procedure. And you wonder why her labor was not progressing? I understand that some procedures and procceses are there for a reason, but too often the mother becomes a slave to the procedure rather than the procedure serving her.
Now I do not want people to misunderstand me. There are a number of things that modern medicine has given us that are incredible. I know there would be many mothers and babies who would not be here if it wasn't for our modern technologies. My main issue is not with the high risk births, but with our average healthy prenancy and birth. According to the CIA's website, the US is ranked 178 out of 224 countries for our infant mortality rate (1 being the highest rate, 224 the lowest). That means that there are 46 countries in this world with better infant mortality rates than us. Of course the way I have heard medical professions talk you'd think we would be the best in the world! But we are not. Our national c-section rate is around 30%!! We do not seem to be helping women, but hindering them. We have not helped women to grasp God's plan for them. Instead we have made them afraid of what is normal and natural, and they have become slaves to our modern ways. I want women to find freedom and joy in what God has in store for them. Women should not be chained to our societies views of birth, but to God's.
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