2011 - Talk Birth

1.11 November
Birth Fear (2011-11-01 15:39)
“…if you want to know where a woman’s true power lies, look to those primal experiences we’ve been taught
to fear…the very same experiences the culture has taught us to distance ourselves from as much as possible,
often by medicalizing them so that we are barely conscious of them anymore. Labor and birth rank right up
there as experiences that put women in touch with their feminine power…” -Christiane Northrup
[1] Since it was just Halloween, I wanted to re-post some things about
fear and birth that I shared on another blog a couple of years ago. I encounter a lot of women who are very
scared of birth, particularly of the pain of birth. Grantly Dick-Read’s Fear-Tension-Pain cycle has influenced
the teachings of most natural birth educators and most people readily connect to the idea that fear leads to
elevated tension in body which leads to increased pain (more about fear-tension-pain in a linked post below).
One of my favorite birth books, Birthing from Within, has several sections about coping with fear. The
author’s idea is that by naming fears and looking them in the eye rather than denying they exist, you shift
your thinking from frozen, fear-based, thoughts to more fluid, adaptable coping-mechanisms. There is a
[2]useful handout based on her ideas available at the Transition to Parenthood site.
I also think of this quote from Jennifer Block:
Why is it that the very things that cause birth related morbidity rates to rise are seen as
the ‘safe’ way to go? Why aren’t women and their doctors terrified of the chemicals that are
dripped into their spines and veins—the same substances that have been shown to lead to more
c-sections? Why aren’t they worried about the harm these drugs might be doing to the future
health of their children, as some studies are indicating might be the case? Why aren’t they afraid
of picking up drug-resistant staphylococcus infections in the hospital? And why, of all things,
aren’t women terrified of being cut open?
I actually was afraid of these things, which is part of why I didn’t go to a hospital to have my babies!
I hope some day all women will be able to greet birth with confidence and joy, instead of fear and anxiety.
This does NOT mean denying the possibility of interventions or that cesareans can save lives. And, it
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