Childbirth Risks Debate

Pregnancy can turn bad (10% of first-time pregnancy, might be higher in country with high obesity rates). In that case, the faster you are with the anaesthetic and the C-section, the better. Also, hygiene. Also, ombilical cords around the newborn necks. Also, the maternities in my country are great (the one we have left at least).

I'm gonna guess that you're not someone who can personally get pregnant, or else you might be signing a different tune on this one, lol.Childbirth is remarkably dangerous, even under current medical standards. Even a successful natural birth tends to bring a whole host of complications afterwards, and it's not unreasonable to want to avoid that.Let me be uncharitable here: do you really think a mom would love her baby any less just because she rip open her entire perineum in

Yep, women body is able to give birth.I agree, mortality was most likely higher because when complications happen, modern intervention is much better, cleaner, we know about bacteria and other stuff exists and stuff like that.. but that's only like 10% of the cases(anecdote).About your wife: if you take a woman in labour from home to an unknown place where strangers stare at her vagina and put stuff in guess what happens? Labour stops. Now you need artificial stuff to make it happen r

I think it's not the birth itself, it's the post-birth services.

Sure, it's totally natural. What is also totally natural is things going seriously wrong during childbirth, with disastrous consequences for the mother and/or child. Historically, a huge number of women and children died during childbirth, or lived in pretty terrible suffering afterwards (see here for an example: http

I'm sorry for your friend, this is a terrible situation to be in.And it's exactly why many people think pregnancies and births are over medicalized, especially in the US.Women have given birth for a long time without medical intervention, using competent mid-wives, and now were at a point where every pregnant woman wants an epidural, a scheduled C-section (!!), inducing labor via medicine, etc. It's pretty insane..The movie "Business of being born" (<a h

Bwaha. I take it you’ve never assisted in a birth?It’s far from safe.With good medical care and a competent team of specialists nearby, it’s rare for a mother to die during it now.Those two are not the same thing, at all.

This sounds exactly like the process my wife and I are going through in the US right now.I’ve never heard of pregnancy being treated like an “illness” (??).Midwives are also extremely common here.Granted I live in Arizona, and I know much of HN lives in SF. So maybe this is unique to Arizona in some way?

Childbirth isn't done in hospitals because it's a sickness, it's done in hospitals in case an emergency happens. I couldn't have been born at home--my mother would have to have been whisked away to a hospital for a c-section anyway. The fact that she was already in the hospital and attended to by an obstetrician made that process considerably safer and more reliable.

Weird that there is no mention of reduction in mortality in childbirth.