I’m against the medicalisation of birth, not against necessary medical interventions

Medicalisation [noun]

‘The act of considering something to be a medical problem, or representing it as a medical problem’

In labour and birth there are rare but real dangers. And for these, necessary medical intervention is a blessing. But for most of us, birth is a low-risk activity, beautifully evolved across our history to unfold in a well-known pattern of hormonal surges. It’s a healthy process that, when supported appropriately with experienced human care and in an environment where we feel safe and relaxed, is unlikely to present a medical problem.

Ideally, we want both: the right setting for the healthy process of physiological birth to unfold smoothly, and access to medical intervention for those rare times it doesn’t. Instead, the ‘medicalisation’ of birth, means we have essentially lost the first: We’ve lost the homelike, cozy, relaxed environment (replaced with the ‘surveillance room’ vibe of the modern hospital), we’ve lost the experienced, continuous known support (replaced by the time-strapped, shift-based midwife and the epidural). The irony is that, in losing the appropriate environment and support, our birthing hormones are interrupted. Adrenaline replaces oxytocin. And the medical intervention that should be such a miracle on those rare occasions it is needed, becomes instead a more and more common end to our birth stories.

This is what I mean when I talk about medicalisation. I am not saying we do not need medical intervention ever. I am saying that we need to support physiological birth by recognising it is most often a healthy life event.

In my books, I explain what the expected hormonal unfolding and associated physical sensations will feel like and how they will look from the outside. Physiological birth has become so rare that this feels like disappearing knowledge. But it is so important for anyone who wants a physiological labour and birth.

We need to support those hormonal surges, we need to know what they do, and how to protect them. We need to respect the birth process both by acknowledging that there are rare dangers, but also by knowing what helps labour to unfold smoothly and making choices that support it.