The Birth Pages:  Introduction
 

Naturally Painless Births Really Do Happen!

These pages acknowledge and describe a phenomenon that many women, doctors and midwives believe is impossible:  naturally painless, drug-free childbirth.  Such births are not that common, but they do exist.  My goal in telling you about them is to help you see that, painful or not, birth in its natural, undrugged form need not be the huge, scary ordeal that our culture makes it out to be.

I think more women could have naturally painless births if they changed their perceptions of what the sensations of birth are.  Our culture teaches that birth equals pain, so women go into labor expecting pain, and most of the time, they tense up, body and soul, and get it.  But it need not be that way.  Here's one article (actually, two chapter excerpts from an old medical text) in which the author, a physician, contends that painless and even pleasurable unmedicated childbirth should be considered the standard, the norm.  He argues that other normal bodily functions, such as digestion, defecation, respiration, and so on are not painful, so why should normal birth be painful?  The many medically-documented accounts of painless births that he includes should certainly be eye-opening and encouraging for the expectant mother.

You may wonder at all the links I have to unassisted birth sites.  Unassisted (or as some call them, unhindered) births, judging by the mothers' accounts, are much more likely to be painless, even pleasurable, than are doctor- or midwife- attended births.  This has a lot to do with the inhibiting nature of assisted birth.  When a woman is attended by someone other than her mate, even if it's a gentle, respectful, hands-off midwife, she is not likely to feel as loose and free to "let go" as she would if she were birthing alone or with her mate only.  And for many a UC, there's no clock watching, no anxious measuring or "assessment", just the natural unfolding of labor in its own time and according to its own unique rhythm.

So I include links to UC sites to inspire you, my visitors.  And as you, pregnant mama, read of moms giving birth beautifully and peacefully in their own homes, I hope that you will grow less afraid about your own upcoming birth experience.  Though you yourself may never have an unassisted birth, I think you deserve to know What Birth Really Is, a truth to which our culture, including the medical establishment, is largely blind.
 

The "Miracle" of Modern Medicine: Transforming Normal Birth into an Ordeal

A key factor that makes otherwise painless births painful is medical intervention.  I like to say that those births are still, in and of themselves, painless, but having that painless flow interrupted by cervical checks, manual stretching of a "lip" of cervix, the insertion of a vacuum extractor, and so on, can be a shattering experience for mother and babe.

It is really difficult to have an easy, drug-free birth, let alone a painless one, when you are trussed up on a hospital bed, not allowed to move, and then made to push in a ridiculously anti-physiologic position (half-reclined, knees drawn way up, all your weight on your rump... that is, on the very passage baby needs to emerge from).  When you and baby are at the mercy of a doctor or nurse-midwife's convenience and hospital routine, you are not likely to have an idyllic birth.  You are likely to have one that is measured, mechanized, forced along, made to match some arbitrary dilation schedule, and ultimately, to include medication and even surgery - be that episiotomy or cesarean section.

Some of you may say, "How unrealistic of you to be set on some idealized birth experience.  What about the baby's safety? And mother's safety?"  To that I reply, in most cases -- which means across the wide spectrum of normal birth -- baby is as safe or safer in a homebirth situation as s/he would be in hospital.  There have been a number of large studies which back this up; go here for links to some research reports and abstracts.  As for the safety of unassisted birth, that must be determined, even predetermined, on a case-by-case basis.  I feel a planned UC should not be attempted without the parents being totally committed to it, and having a contingency plan beforehand.  It should also not be attempted without much prayerful preparation, discussion and consideration.  This is NOT because birth is inherently dangerous (in most cases, it isn't), but because there is so much cultural brainwashing for the parents to overcome before the Birth Day arrives.   Often what can make a birth "high risk" are the parents' (or the birth attendant's, in the case of an assisted birth) own fears, doubts, and inhibitions.

There are couples, or should I say families (for baby is very much included in this!) who really should not UC, but should birth attended, maybe even in hospital.  There are others who should birth at home and not in hospital for the safest outcome.   Each birth should be approached on an individual basis.  That is, whether the family is used to birthing in hospital, at home, and/or unassisted, they should be open to all options with each baby.  If your gut feelings are warning you against a hospital birth, then by all means, thoroughly investigate your alternatives.  On the other hand, if you feel deeply uncomfortable with the notion of birthing at home, even after learning more about it, then do not have a homebirth.  Maybe a birthing center would be better for you, or even the hospital.

Having said that, it is vital to know that the vast majority of births do not need nearly the degree of anxious, mechanized hovering that our culture accords them.  Such hovering destroys the beautiful flow of the birth process and can easily put mother and baby at risk for needless harm.  Most births could indeed take place just fine out of hospital, either with an experienced attendant (such as a family physician, nurse-midwife or lay midwife) or with confident, prepared parents, assisted only by God-given instinct.

If  you decide to go with a birth attendant, I feel you would be wise to carefully interview them, and especially, to check references (the attendant's previous clients).  Ideally, the attending doctor or midwife should be one who is truly respectful of women and babies, and who is not quick to turn to interventions without consultation with you, and then only in the case of actual need.
 

The Birthing Instinct

If you choose to read the unassisted birth stories at the sites I link to, then please take special note of those births, painless or not, having elements of surprise, where "somehow" the mothers knew "just what to do" - whether that be unwrapping the umbilical cord, or catching the baby "just so" and then holding him in one arm while catching his unexpected twin, or standing in a relaxed way to accomodate a breech baby's emergence.  The deliberate, relaxed, and successful outworking of these womens' birthing instinct disproves the commonly-held notion that no woman is capable of giving birth without the "expert" aid of a doctor or midwife.

How does the laboring mother tap into her innate birthing wisdom?  If she is unafraid, undrugged and unhindered, she is likely to enter a state in labor similar to what athletes call "The Zone" - an almost otherworldly place where she is very much in tune with her baby and totally immersed in her body's opening.   Having been there more than once, I can tell you that being in The Zone is AMAZING.  During that phase, which often starts as first stage labor intensifies, and carries through to transition,  pushing, and the moment of birth, it's like the mother has entered the very heart of Creation, somewhere deep within, yet at the same time beyond herself.   The words "peak experience" hardly begin to describe it, but I think you will get some inkling of it as you read the birth stories linked from this site.

Also take note of the glorious births that included some passing pain, but were still beautiful - unassisted or not.  You deserve to know that even if undrugged, natural birth involves some pain or discomfort, it can still be an awesome, exhilarating, mind-blowing, life-altering experience.

We women are so very privileged to bear and birth babies!  Childbearing need not be a burden or a trial, but is truly a joy, a high calling and an honor.  That is a truth that each of us, if we permit ourselves, can gladly make our own.  For beneath the typical American woman's culturally-applied, suffocating layers of fear, doctor-dependence, technology-worship, ignorance, impatience, and sometimes even laziness (yes, simple dislike of hard work!), is a woman of courage, grace, trust and incredible strength and determination.  This is the elemental woman, and she's in there somewhere, inside each of us -- whether we acknowledge her or not.  She is the beautiful, strong, instinctual woman each of us was created to be.

I wish you the birth of your dreams...