Great - Thanks Julie. A friend of mine has worked as a midwife in Africa and she said the women over there laugh at the prospect of us trying to push a baby out whilst lying on our back. To not utilise the force of gravity is absurd to them! Even more mad is the fact that the US has the highest infant mortality rate in the world with regards to birthing - above Africa, which is full of 'third world' countries, where surprise surprise, women are not put on an arbitrary timetable set by a peice of scanning equipment and are typically left alone to listen to their bodies and labour when mother nature deems baby and body are ready.
I feel great relief when I read that, JellyBean. I live in dread that midwife-led, cultural birthing in other countries will be destroyed by the western obstetric juggernaut. This has occured in parts of Asia. China and Viet Nam have very high c/s rates now. Nations of women with a heritage of squatting - ON BEDS! It makes me weep. This is classic, I love it:
the women over there laugh at the prospect of us trying to push a baby out whilst lying on our back. To not utilise the force of gravity is absurd to them!
I saw a doco of a woman birthing in Africa once, she walked miles in labour and I thought 'good, good' - but when she reached the clinic, they lay her down on a narrow trolley-style bed and I was so sad to see that.