"It could be said that the obsession to control characterizes the discipline of obstetrics. It has been like this ever since the medical man entered the birthing room in the seventeenth century and created the basis of modern obstetrics. It was medical man who introduced the position of lying on the back; and it was medical man who founded midwifery schools. Midwives were no longer mothers helping other mothers, thanks to their personal experience and specifically feminine sensitivity. Instead, they became professionals who were taught how to control the birth process. Doctors were in competition with each other to control the training of midwives... This tendency to consider control as the priority became more pronounced as time went on. Now, in the era of electronics and ultrasound, the medicalization of childbirth is complete...
All over the world people are worried about the rise in the number of Caesarians and other obstetrical interventions. In the USA the Caesarian rate has multiplied almost four times in the last fifteen years. More and more babies are born impregnated with drugs which have been given to the mother during childbirth. The number of babies who are separated from their mother at birth and transferred to pediatric units has reached unbelievable proportions. Such practices should become a major concern for public health bodies.
In the search for answers it is easy to find explanations for the rise in the rate of Caesarians. Foetal distress is now more easily and more frequently diagnosed than in the past; breech presentations more often lead to a Caesarian; a Caesarian is preferred to difficult forceps delivery; when a woman has had a previous Caesarian, a subsequent delivery by the vaginal route is rarely attempted. For the doctor, there are legal advantages in doing a Caesarian; there are also financial advantages in some countries; recently there is the additional justification of genital herpes. Each of these explanations has some merit, but perhaps they hide what is essential.
What is essential to realize is that difficulties in childbirth come under the heading of diseases of civilization. In countries where they are reaching the third generation of medicalized birth, women are less and less able to give birth by themselves using their own hormones. Some of them lost this ability at the time of their own birth. By observing thousands of women and listening to what they had to say, I am convinced that there is a correlation between the way a baby girl is born and the way she will give birth to her own children. But, of course, things are not so simple, and we must not comfuse correlation with similarity. One can never be certain whether a delivery will be easy or difficult. Nevertheless, when a woman knows that her mother brought her into the world herself, without drugs and without medical intervention, she has the best prognosis. These factors are more important than age, the state of her pelvis and so on."
του γνωστού γυναικολόγου