on the history of birthing positions and the power of the first touch of motherhood
I'm currently reading a book on women in healing roles - particularly as midwives and "witches" (a name forced upon many of them whether they practiced witchcraft or not) - and within the book is a discussion on the decline of midwifery in the United States.
Currently, midwives attend about 10% of births in the U.S., and many of these are also accompanied by a doctor. This number isn't much higher in Canada, although from experience, I know the option is much more prevalent, particularly in more urban areas. In addition, having a midwife in Canada is covered under our universal healthcare (I am American and Canadian). As for me, I did not need to see a doctor at all during my pregnancies and births; the midwives I had took care of everything.
All my life, I'd grown up, like most of us, seeing birth portrayed on film as something horrendous, and, even in the more positive scripted births, women were always shown lying on their backs (pushing... from a prone position). The few births I saw in real life - or the labour, anyway - the same was the case, in hospital settings.
Without knowing anything about biology, studies, or, in fact, birth, if you think about it in your mind, does this make sense? Lying on your back to push? Do you, for example, lie on your back to use the bathroom? Of course not. Now, in the event of an emergency, this could very well be the best position for a doctor or midwife or surgeon to intervene. Barring that, in the case of a normal, event-free birth, the prone position is ludicrous at best and willfully harmful at worse.
So why is it a thing?
With the slow decline of midwives over time, someone had to take over attending births. This, of course, was men. Particularly male doctors.
For the record, the first female MD in the U.S. graduated in 1849 (when MDs were offered in 1770). Her name was Elizabeth Blackwell. Medicine as a degree has been around in various forms since 1000 (you read this correctly; one of the very first medical schools shockingly did allow women - this was in Italy, and an extremely rare exception to the rule, just before the "female healers as witches" allegations began).
Blackwell was, to reiterate, the first in the U.S., and it was not an easy downhill win from there for women to become medical doctors. It really wasn't until the mid to late 1900s that women began to have a presence in the medical field in the U.S.
By that time, women lying on their backs to give birth - for the benefit of male doctors - was standard. In fact, it became standard well before America was even a country, so it was an easy practice to usher in as men took over the medical world. The man "credited" with "inventing" the lying down position is François Mauriceau, a 17th century French OBGYN. Why? Because it was (according to him...) more comfortable for women and allowed doctors and midwives better access. Despite the fact that this doesn't make any logistical sense in terms of comfort, and that there is no need for "access" in the case of a non-emergency birth, his influence still dictates how many Westerners give birth today. This position was popularized by King Louis XIV, who enjoyed watching his wives and mistresses give birth and he couldn't see well when they were on a birthing stool or squatting. I don't think I need to add anything on how disgustingly asinine that is.
To summarize, women had been delivering babies since the dawn of time mostly aided by other women, and mostly while squatting, on their hands and knees, etc. But one man decided he knew what was best and he, alongside a king who was the head of the Catholic Church (we could dive deeper here...), changed the natural position for a woman to give birth for most of the Western world. This works against the laws of gravity, closes the pelvic opening of the mother, and halts movements that are extremely helpful in allowing the hormones needed to surge to flow for an event-free birth.
Women should be allowed to move however feels natural to them during birth. Oftentimes the ability of movement is restricted due to pain killers, but that's another post. And of course, all of this, again, is in the event of a healthy, normal labor without an emergency. This is where nuance is required of the reader: I am extremely grateful for the medical system. And I am extremely supportive of women's intuition and the old ways of healing and birthing.
Birth as Empowerment
For me personally, thank God, I did not have a horror-esque experience like I've seen birth portrayed as in TV or movies. During the labours themselves, I was in the comfort of my own home, able to be on my hands and knees when I felt it was necessary, able to sit on the toilet because that felt good, able to birth in the tub. With my first baby, labour was 24 hours, so I don't speak from an experience of what I would call "easy". However, I wouldn't trade it for anything, and there was ease, which is a different thing.
Squatting to give birth, holding my babies in my hands and arms as they were being born, surrounded by people who love me, and powerful midwives, is an experience of full empowerment. I believe part of the fracture we see in Western society comes from an aversion to discomfort of any kind - we could examine the rise of prescription pain medication to see how this has played out, as one small example - and so many women I've spoken to often fear a potential natural birth because of the "pain," but this is something that, if we choose, we were born to do, and we do it very well. "Pain" isn't even an accurate word I would use to describe the process of labour and birth. It's a full body feeling, a place where your mind is joining the highest realms of the heavens, a primal sensation that words cannot touch. It is the place I truly felt in tune with womanhood, motherhood, earth itself. It is nearly impossible to explain.
Any way that a woman gives birth is an honour to her as a mother and an accomplishment. This post is not to take away from that. But it's to open eyes up to the possibilities, the heartbeat and echoes of women long past, and the distortions we've come across in our systems as choice and empowerment were taken away from us.
This goes beyond birth. It is deep in the heart of medicine, of witchcraft, and of healing from a woman's soul.
Always learn. Always look back to look ahead. Always feel into your intuition. These are the highest of guiding lights.