2011 - Talk Birth

is no choice. Tests become routine or practices become policy, and “information [is] given with no effort to
understand parental values (the ritual of informed consent).”
Is choice possible while in active labor?
De Vries also raises a really critical question with no clear answers—is choice really possible during active
labor? He also asks, “should a healthy pregnant woman be allowed to choose a surgical birth? But is it
safe? The problem with data…Interestingly, those who think it should be allowed find it safe, and those
who oppose it, find it to be unsafe.” When considering where this “choice” of surgical birth comes from, he
identifies the following factors:
The desires of women
• Preserve sexual function
• Preserve ideal body
• The need to fit birth into employment
• Options offered by health care system
The desires of physicians
• Manage an unpredictable process
• The limits of obstetric education
Why should we care, anyway?
Another popular phrase is, ”it’s not my birth.” I agree with the opinion of Desirre Andrews on this
one:
“I do not believe in the saying ‘Not my birth.’ Women are connected together through the fabric of
daily life including birth. What occurs in birth influences local culture, reshapes beliefs, weaves into how
we see ourselves as wives, mothers, sisters, & women in our community. Your birth is my birth. My birth is
your birth. This is why no matter my age or the age of my children it matters to me.”
Victims of circumstance?
While it may sound as if I am saying women are powerlessly buffeted about by circumstance and
environment, I’m not. Theoretically, we always have the power to choose for ourselves, but by ignoring,
denying, or minimizing the multiplicity of contexts in which women make “informed choices” about their
births and their lives, we oversimplify the issue and turn it into a hollow catchphrase rather than a
meaningful concept.
Women’s lives and their choices are deeply embedded in a complex, multifaceted, practically infinite
web of social, political, cultural, socioeconomic, religious, historical, and environmental relationships.
And, I maintain that a choice is not a choice if it is made in a context of fear.
But, what do we know?
I read an interesting article by anthropologist and birth activist, Robbie Davis-Floyd, in the summer
issue of [4]Pathways Magazine. It was an excerpt from a longer article that appeared in Anthropology News,
titled “Anthropology and Birth Activism: What Do We Know?” In the conclusion, Davis-Floyd states the
following:
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