My point was not that birthing women in developed countries are "lucky" to
have high tech interventions, nor was it to ignore the potentially fatal
risks still experienced by poor women all over the world. My point is that
there is a tendency to romanticize the "natural" status of birth and
breastfeeding.  Birth and breastfeeding are natural.  So is death.  I
wouldn't want to pass through any of these events without skilled helpers
who know when to jump in and even more importantly, when to just watch and
comfort.

 I also think it is unwise to discount the experiences of women when they
share that, for them, a natural event did not go easily or well.  Sometimes
there are complications. I see mothers all the time who tell me stories that
leave me imagining with some horror what their fate might have been 100
years ago or 4 thousand miles away.  Some of them are in this situation
because stupidly imposed interventions have gone awry, but others are just
unlucky.  None the less, they all often have what looks a lot like
post-traumatic stress syndrome, and need very gentle validation that yes,
what happened to them was very, very frightening.  I spend a lot of time
just listening to my clients tell their stories.  I sometimes get sad when I
hear the tone on Lactnet that implies that people who don't have good births
or bfg experiences just didn't try hard enough, or were too lazy to educate
themselves, etc.  I see a lot of women who did everything "right" and still
have had problems.

We have a lot of work to do to try to help re-frame birth as an exciting
experience.  I'm all for that effort.  I'm also all for the effort to hold
feet to the fire in terms of insisting on evidence based practice in terms
of risks/benefits of interventions. What we want to provide for everyone, as
a human right, is ethical and intelligent support during big life
experiences.  I want my daughters to be able to have fulfilling births, like
I had, and I hope they can give birth at home or in a birth center, because
I feel midwifery care best provides the promise of a transformative birth
experience.


Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com
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