The title says it all
This paper is a perfect example of what is wrong with "natural" childbirth advocacy.Women's evaluation of their childbirth performance:
FINDINGS. Women evaluated their childbirth performance as managing well (45%), having difficulty (35%), and managing poorly (20%). The following helped them to manage well: short, fast labors; minimal pain; Lamaze; husband's encouragement; being informed; feeling strong; medication; and nurses' and physicians' encouragement, help with Lamaze, and information. Women who had managed well before and who were confident about managing well again tended to evaluate their childbirth performance positively. A significant difference was seen in mean labor length: Women who managed well had the shortest labors and women who managed poorly had the longest. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING. The women confirmed the notion that they had important work to do; they identified their own performance as one of the most important or the most important component of the childbirth experience.There is something very wrong about identifying a woman's performance as one of the most important or the most important component of the childbirth experience. As feminist author Susan Maushart has written, the relentless focus on the woman’s "performance" during the "birth experience," rather than the child it produces, has created "the greatest shift of all in our social construction of childbirth: that the object of the enterprise is no longer seen to be the end product (the baby) but the process itself."
Labels: "natural" childbirth, feeling superior
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