I know many women who have the privilege of living in modern countries with sophisticated medical systems either will read what I write as a justification for every type of medical care or some might even deny that birth could be fraught with so much complexity.
Over the past 45 years since The Pink Kit Method (now known as Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation) began to evolve then came together into available resources, the Natural Birth Movement has insisted ‘pregnancy and birth are normal life events that rarely require medical care’ and women instinctively know how to birth At the same time the medical model has taken a precautionary approach and considers birth to be very risky until it’s over and proven safe. The medical profession abides by the truth that ‘there’s no way to know what your birth will be like’ therefore, there’s nothing you can do to prepare for it.
This means the natural birth movement and the medical profession do not believe pregnant women should become skilled to birth their babies. Our societies have suffered from both these groups. Birth is always an activity each pregnant woman does with her baby and she can fill the time it takes to do that activity with brilliant birth skills. These are the skills in Birthing Better and developed by hundreds of moms and dads.
Let’s look more closely at birth
It’s funny how we think of things really. If you take a 24 hour period of your life, do you think you are likely to die, become sick or injured? If you are in labour during that same 24 hours, are you or the baby likely to die, become sick or injured? The answer to these questions are very curious. In reality, childbirth is obviously more risky for some women or babies. So, a woman in labour is more likely to have a problem during labour then if that same woman wasn’t in labour.
However, in the broader reality, any woman or baby is less likely to die, get sick or be injured than the general population. In other words, dying in birth is extremely rare compared to how much illness, injury, and death there is every day in the general population.
This means both the natural birth movement and the medical profession is right. Birth is both safe and unsafe but it’s often hard to determine who will experience problems in pregnancy and birth.
It does seem sensible childbirth has many risks. The purpose of both the medical model (obstetricians) and the natural birth model (midwife) is to reduce or try to prevent some of those risks. They just do this differently.
The medical model tries to prevent risks by taking birth away from women. It is profoundly easy to opt for a cesarean section rather than face any potential risks or even the naturally occurring pain in childbirth. It’s also easy to take medications for some pregnancy-related problems that could be dealt with very successfully through exercise and diet.
Birthing Better Childbirth skills neither resides in the medical or natural model of childbirth and is a natural fit in both because Birthing Better is all about what we do to birth our babies. Birthing Better certainly can’t prevent some potential problems (diabetes, toxemia, low birth weight etc) but the skills can be used in every birth. Regardless of all factors, women are still birthing their babies so they can use birth and birth-coaching skills. Pregnant women and her support can learn effective and simple skills to work with the baby’s efforts to be born.
Birth is real. Birth is one of Life’s ultimate activity. Every activity is best done with a great set of skills. Birth skills are universal and based on our shared human body. Men and women share the same body which means we share a common body language. This means birthing women and birth coaching men can always work together throughout the activity of birthing their baby.
Birthing Better skills were developed by moms and dads in the early 1970s in the US and used by many thousands globally in all types of birth. Birthing Better online birthing classes are housed in Common Knowledge Trust.