Changing Bodies??

Women have been having babies for as long as women have existed. And thanks to a variety of factors (better nutrition, better screening tools, better hygiene, surgical techniques etc etc), more women and babies are surviving childbirth. There are of course international variations when it comes to fetal and maternal outcomes, but on the whole, survival rates are better than they were say, 100 or 300 or ‘however many’ years ago. There are also emotional and physical costs associated with the things women and babies often go through, to survive birth. Despite the advancements, childbirth today is not perfect.

For instance, in Canada, 1 in 4 women are giving birth by cesarean section, and in the USA, 1 in 3 women are. Natural birth advocates usually respond to these numbers with comments about how the human race has survived this long without cesarean surgery, there is no way that 25-30% of humans need to be entering the world via a surgical incision now. I hear things like “women’s bodies are the same as they have always been.”

Most of me agrees with those natural birth advocates. And the questions I ask are in no way intended to dismiss the hurt and pain of women who had cesarean births forced on them, or who felt traumatized by their birth experience, or who believe their birth experience was less than it should have been, because of the faulty birth system they gave birth under. It is not meant to "lay blame" at the feet of individual women. But a small piece of me wonders, if there is actually something different with women’s bodies today. (I’m talking North America here, not the world as a whole)

We hear all the time that people now are consuming more refined and processed food, and are consuming it in larger quantities. We’re physically moving less. We’re sitting more. We’re producing larger babies. We are less in touch with our bodies and what they are capable of. We don’t generally have to break a sweat, to keep bread on the table. We are not surrounded by a community of family and friends who have known us since our own births. Knowledge of natural birth, is no longer common knowledge. Is it possible, that all these things are coming together, with the result being higher cesarean rates? Cesareans for failure to progress? for cephalopelvic disproportion? for fetal macrosomnia? For fetal distress? For maternal illness?

And what about the environmental damage we’re learning more about? Is it possible, that the ever-increasing pollutants in the environment are impacting not only our ability to conceive and carry babies, but to birth them too?

I’m not trying to distract from the obvious legal and convenience issues which are often associated with an increased cesarean rate. But what if things really ARE changing? What do we need to do, to turn the tides?

Educating women about their options IN birth, is like putting a woman on a life raft before the ship goes down: It's better than nothing, and it might save that individual woman, but the ship will still go down. Maybe the education needs to go back a step - back to basics - back to eating well and moving often - back to knowing what our bodies can do - back to community.... maybe...
maybe... the ship needs to sink, so that a different boat can come on the scene? Maybe the sea needs to be filled with women on liferafts before a difference will be made? Maybe somebody back on the shore needs to build a different kind of vessel?
Maybe...