Childbirth and the Car Analogy

So you want to know how safe childbirth is really?

Let's look at the cultural conditioning of what childbirth is believed to be.

Most births take place in hospitals today and many people say that they had birth complications and that 'things had to be done' to assist in birthing. They take this to mean childbirth is inherently risky, and to give birth is safe if you do it in hospital with medical assistance at the ready.

That however, is not indicative of real physiological childbirth. Birth in the medical model, especially in hospital, is anything BUT natural or as Nature intended.

Birth works but the interference has already begun long before the interventions of birth occur.

Interference in the form of our belief structures, the accepted 'facts and norms' of society simply because it is that way for many, many people, the mass media, our cultures, our upbringing, our fears and even our less than optimal lifestyles.

If you want birth to be safe, there are many factors to consider, the most important being the trust and guidance of your instincts.

Just like gaining confidence to drive a car safely through learning, education (both external and self), instinct, reflexes, experience etc, you can also gain confidence that you can birth safely.

It is all within your reach if you so desire it.

If you want to keep going along the track of thought in comparing birthing with driving a car; consider this:

Birthing is a natural physiological process, designed by millions of years of evolution.

Driving a car is not. Technically, it could be considered an unnatural form of transport that came about with advances in civilisation. As for modern childbirth as opposed to physiological childbirth, the more our civilisation has advanced medically, the further it has gone off track from what childbirth really is.

Birthing as we were designed to birth, is safe. True risks, deaths or unresolvable complications ARE rare. Eg. Extremely short cords preventing baby from descending, complete true placenta previa, etc are rare.

Placenta previa and accreta are becoming less rare due to scars in the uterus from increased c-sections today. We are hearing about more and more complications of childbirth that have nothing to do with the risks of physiological childbirth and everything to do with the risks of hindering physiological childbirth.

Driving a car, as it was meant to be driven, is not as safe as giving birth as birth was meant to be given.

True risks, deaths or unresolvable complications ARE NOT rare in driving a car. Why? Because you can't control what other people do in their own cars. You could be the world's safest driver, yet be hit and killed by some speeding idiot.

Likewise, giving birth in an environment where you are subject to unnatural hindrances and influences on your birth is a car accident waiting to happen, especially if you opt to give birth as you were NOT meant to - under the influence of drugs, with instruments, observation, sterility and stress.

Medical technology and assistance has its place in emergencies and in rare complications of physiological childbirth, but does little to safeguard childbirth itself from complications.