Industrial Childbirth (new article!)

Posted on | November 7, 2008 |

Industrial Childbirth
This article, by Shonagh Strachan, is the article I wish I had written (but am so happy she did). And I just stumbled across it by accident, in Adbusters magazine, an issue that I had sitting in my house for weeks before I finally picked it up and in a hurry, flipped through. Imagine my excitement when I found an article about childbirth, in a magazine that never ever really talks about childbirth (except remember when they published my letter about my unassisted birth in their Big Ideas of 2005 issue. that was cool.) And that they decided to print this one, that so eloquently says what I think you’ll agree so many of us want to say. Is just, well, great.

Here’s some enticements to click through…
how about this metaphor:

“Our collective idea of childbirth is pretty nasty – blood and fluid, panting and screaming, stretched anatomy, the emergent gooey greyish-purple alien… horrible! Remember when you first heard about sex? Remember how horrible that seemed? But sex isn’t horrible, is it? What’s missing – and indescribable to a virgin child – is the emotional element. Sex is a natural and beautiful process, all entangled with love and passion. So too, and a million times more, is birth. In essence, our modern patriarchal institutionalized world has a childish view of childbirth. It can’t imagine that something that looks so gruesome could be anything but a horrendous experience and one that should be shortened and medicated. But childbirth is not a medical procedure any more than sex is.”

and her sum up (but don’t read it yet, seriously go read the article!):

It is my belief that at some deep level, we all feel that we have been robbed. We pass through our childbirth initiation to become disempowered, disconnected, long-suffering, patriarchal mothers. We tell our horror stories as just that, or we say nothing at all. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If I ever have another child, it will not be in the same way. And it doesn’t stop there. I will never again blindly place my trust in authoritarian professionals and institutions. I will recognize all capitalist patriarchy for what it is and I will do my best to speak out against it.

Every day, in every way, my son is a wonderful gift. I would go through ten more hospital births just to keep him. I am sorry for his shabby entrance into this world but I am thankful to this little person for helping me to see something: the bald, blatant, oppressive, damaging, misogynistic forces at play in the most vital aspects of women’s lives. Revisiting his birth has made me angry, but that has made so much else clear: how blinded we can be by the guise of protection, how crippled we can be made by fear.

I wish that we talked about it. That we could stop reveling in horror stories and better place our fingers on the reason for our traumatic births – not the curse of Eve medicated to by our benevolent system – but the systematic violence that delivers our babies for fear that we might give birth to them ourselves. For in the process we might begin to understand our own strength and find words for our anger. We might begin to disobey.

and finally, the comments section is being ruled by some idiots that think that being born gives them the right to weigh in on this issue. How about we add some of our voices?

Love,
Heather

ps. Shonagh writes for this group’s magazine: Revolutionary Anarchafeminist Group and can be reached through her facebook page Shonagh Strachan

Category: talk talk talk

Comments

15 Responses to “Industrial Childbirth (new article!)”

Morgan McFarland
November 7th, 2008 @ 10:47 pm

What a fantastic article! I’ve passed the link around to all my birth communities.
Miriam
November 8th, 2008 @ 4:00 am

I’m pondering links here, because a couple of weeks ago you posted about Ireland having the lowest rate of maternal death (1 in 48000), and yet they have one of the highest rates of C-section (1 in 4), according to the article. Do you know of any study that looks at the relationship between the two?
Lauren F
November 8th, 2008 @ 4:27 am

That article brought me to tears. I am sorrowful about the horrible hospital birth I had, and ANGRY as hell too!!!!!!!!! Things have to change!
Jennifer Gowan
November 8th, 2008 @ 8:12 am

The worst part of each of my midwife assisted hospital births was the presence of my (now EX) husband. I imagine having a home birth (assisted or otherwise) with him would have been an absolute nightmare.

I had a 10-page birthplan that got me kicked out of 3 OB/GYN practices before I found the midwives at my local hospital (who kept copies of my birth-plan for reference). They had only recently (OK, 15+ years ago LOL) gotten permission to take on “private” patients - they were originally brought on by the health department as a low-cost alternative to the high rate of “welfare babies” in our county. I was one of the first “private” patients, and (except for the afore-mentioned partner) I was quite satisfied with my “hospital” experience.
Lori
November 8th, 2008 @ 9:30 am

I changed from an OB and one of the most industrial hospitals in the country. (I think they are 3rd in the US for # babies delivered per year!) at 30 weeks. I used midwives at a birth center.
I didn’t realize how much those MEDwives abused me until the women forced into c/s were appaled by how much worse my birthstory was.

Its sad how many of us have to repeat each others mistakes. I did drag my bestfriend kicking and screaming into a homebirth - and now she can’t imagine why anyone would have anything else.
Heather
November 8th, 2008 @ 10:24 am

Hi Miriam,
I was wondering about the relationship between the two Irish statistics (their low rate of maternal death and their high rate of c-section) too. I’m hoping someone with a head for statistics will spend some time looking at it…anyone know Henci Goers direct line?
xox,
Heather
Morgan McFarland
November 8th, 2008 @ 10:37 am

You could always try emailing Henci through her website at goersitemail@aol.com
wiffersnapper
November 8th, 2008 @ 11:23 am

After my first “industrial” birth, I wrote a letter to the hospital as part of my healing process. I basically asked them, “How can you claim to have “saved” my baby when you people were the ones who put her life in danger in the first place?!” Interestingly enough, I never got a reply. They must get too many letters to reply personally!
aelial
November 8th, 2008 @ 11:34 am

my favourite comments are the ones that start with “i haven’t seen any statistics, but i think that childbirth is dangerous…”. must be nice to be omniscient like that
Gemini
November 8th, 2008 @ 6:49 pm

that pretty much described the labor of my son exactly - it makes me livid that this is one more thing that has gone the route of “modern medicine”!
Julinda
November 10th, 2008 @ 9:18 am

I don’t like to talk about my birth experiences. My pregnancies were so great - I was healthier than I normally am due and a painful chronic condition went into remission - but giving birth was horrible and painful. (I gave birth in a hospital and was induced both times.)
Amy
November 10th, 2008 @ 1:46 pm

Ok the pee comic is scary. I was never treated that rudely. Wow. I can’t imagine.
Natalie
November 11th, 2008 @ 2:26 pm

The article is excellent. But please, just ignore the comments section, they’re not worth your time!
Eva
November 12th, 2008 @ 9:39 pm

EVERYONE!! If you have given birth in the last 3 years, go and take The Birth Survey!

http://www.thebirthsurvey.com/

It is a survey that takes a 30 minutes or so and you can get your voices heard about everything from prenatal care to postpartum stuff. It is available nationwide. It is also supported by CIMS (Coalition for the Improvement of Maternity Services).

Whether you had an orgasmic experience or a traumatic episode or something in between, go and take the survey!
Kati
November 19th, 2008 @ 11:55 am

These latest comics are scaring me, woman! lol!

I’m not pregnant and don’t plan to be for a long time (just had a baby less than 3 months ago, at home) but unfortunately a MW in this state can no longer legally assist me (2 SD cases, 2 PPH) so I have to either UC (bad idea for me, with my history, I lost my UC baby) or have a hospital birth, and I’m realizing that no matter what I do I need to be prepared for some kind of struggle!