Don't Trust Your Body to Give Birth
Isn't that the message we hear from our culture? Birth is a disaster waiting to happen. At any moment your baby could need to be saved from your body. We are defective. We must be saved from ourselves.
This message is a common theme in any fictional story about birth. Worse than that we hear horror stories during pregnancy. Everyone has a tale to tell those soon to be in labor, as if our own anxieties aren't enough.
Even worse, those who care for us during pregnancy and in the labor room remind us how often things do not go as planned. Birth plans are scoffed at. Natural birth is given a wink. Our own doctors, midwives, and nurses have horror stories and close calls to scare us with.
How are we to become confident parents when our confidence is stolen from us in the womb of parenting? There is no trust in birth. There is no trust in our bodies. There is no trust in the decisions parents make.
And there is no conversation.
We are expected to blindly trust the doctor and do as they say. Leave behind your instincts and knowledge. Stop being "selfish" and remember that "as long as the baby is healthy" everything is fine.
Forget you are giving birth.
You have no business being involved in the birth of your child.
Birth is dangerous. Leave it to the professionals.
Stay out of it.
It is up to you to surround yourself with people who care. Invite in people who want to put you at the center of birth. There is no space for anyone who believes you must be saved from your own body.
