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It's easy to get lost in today's world of catch phrases and popular terminology, and what could possibly have more confusing terms associated with it than childbirth? After all, there are so many choices to make when it comes to pregnancy, labor, and birth.
One option that is just starting to gain both popularity and respect is Unassisted Childbirth. Simply put, Unassisted Childbirth is birthing without medical intervention or assistance. At first, this idea may seem a bit radical, and many people question its legality. However, it is just as real (and legal) an option as a midwife assisted home birth or OB/GYN assisted hospital birth.
Women who choose to birth unassisted come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Women who are at high risk and low risk, those who are having their first baby and those who are on their second, third or more are choosing to take the power of childbirth back into their own hands and out of the hands of obstetricians and midwives. Women are starting to realize that birth is one of the safest, most natural events that will ever happen to them in their lifetime when it's allowed to proceed without interference! Birth is an event that does not need to be treated or monitored like a medical condition.
Advocates of Unassisted Childbirth feel that the main benefit lies in the innate ability of a pregnant or laboring mother to tune in to her own body and make the best choices for herself and her child. When a pregnant or laboring mother places herself in the care of a medical professional her ability to make her own choices is often compromised. Instead of listening to the forces that are driving her, she is suddenly part of a system of averages. Hence, she is expected to perform according to someone else's standards instead of her own. She is subjected to a litany if unnecessary tests and procedures, placed in unfamiliar surroundings (during a hospital birth), and ordered to comply with many unnecessary procedures. Women are generally expected to go into labor by at least 41 weeks gestation, 42 weeks at the latest or labor is induced with drugs. Women in labor are expected to dilate at least a centimeter and hour, or labor is termed dysfunctional. These guidelines (along with many, many others) have been set up by the medical community without any real evidence to back them up. In the United States the c-section rate is reaching nearly 1 in 4. The rates of induced labors are increasingly climbing higher. We have one of the highest rates of infant mortality among technically advanced nations. There's a growing belief that all the medical "assistance" involved in childbirth that was supposed to make it safer and easier on the mom and baby is in fact having the opposite effect.
Unassisted Childbirth advocates leaving unnecessary medical interventions behind mainly by leaving medical care providers behind. Women go through pregnancy with little or no medically provided prenatal care. Instead, they take responsibility for their own health and spend a great deal of time listening to the needs of their own body. Women generally choose to give birth in their own homes without pain medication, electronic fetal monitors, checks for cervical dilation, or any of the common restrictions placed on them by hospitals or midwifes. The process of birth is allowed to unfold at its own pace and in its own way. Babies are allowed to be born gently, with the understanding that nature does know best.
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