Pain, litigation and childbirth
Re “Midwives deliver,” Opinion, Dec. 24
Better health outcomes and reduced cost are not the only benefits that midwives deliver. Midwives respect the natural pace of the birthing process, trust in the ability of a laboring woman’s body and make the mom the protagonist in the birth.
Doctors have the knowledge and technology to perform life-saving miracles when emergencies occur, but the routine medicalization of childbirth negatively affects the health of mothers and infants, and undermines women’s confidence in their bodies and emotional bonds with their babies. Unfortunately, Americans are socialized to fear childbirth and regard it as inevitably dangerous and painful beyond limits.
I like Jennifer Block’s idea of an ad campaign to change the way women (and doctors) think about childbirth. Federal funding for birthing centers and the recruitment of midwives would be great, but we need a culture shift first if we want to improve maternal health outcomes, cut costs and cultivate more empowering, loving birth experiences.
Margaret Whitley
Ontario
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Block’s article misses the main cause for the increased cesarean rate in this country: litigation avoidance.
In the Middle Ages, the cesarean-section rate was zero, there were no lawsuits and mothers and babies commonly died in childbirth. In this century, any bad outcome often leads to a lawsuit and the threat of a multimillion-dollar settlement. So even the tiniest chance of an imperfect baby necessitates a cesarean section.
The fact is that most moms, if offered, would decline a home birth and prefer the annoying safety of a hospital setting. Most women prefer the option of medications that stop pain as compared to a hot tub.
Clearly, midwives are underutilized in our medical system, and their role should be expanded in any new healthcare reform. But the simplistic view that returning to the old days of home births, with all their associated disasters, would solve any of our healthcare challenges is absurd.
Patrick Sutton, MD
Pasadena
