pregnancy and the medical industry
One thing about pregnancy and childbirth especially is that it's over medicated and over monitored. Pregnancy and childbirth is a natural state for a woman, and, the most important thing about being pregnant is shopping around for where to give birth.
For my first two pregnancies, I avoided hospitals.
I probably will do this for this current pregnancy too. Instead, I opted into giving birth in a birthing center.
Midwives are much more knowledgable about pregnancy and childbirth than doctors or nurses are. They don't just learn about medicine, they learn about techniques to give birth painlessly or with less pain, important positions, and natural remedies to many issues pregnant women face. Birthing centers usually feel like a home, and when giving birth, you're in a natural setting, not a cold, over lit hospital room with people coming in and out constantly.
Midwives are less rushed, they are less likely to rush you, and they know who you are because birthing centers focus on knowing the patient over the course of their pregnancy.
The point here is there is less medical intervention. Of course, you will get sent to a hospital if things get serious, or go horribly wrong during labor. but this is not necessary for most pregnancies.
I don't trust doctors, I think treating me like another tool on a conveyor belt means that I'm the one that's going to suffer, and the doctor is going to chalk it up to my body not working correctly if something ends up going wrong. But my body does know how to work, or we would have never existed as a population.
Midwifery was the only method of birth back then, you had these really knowledgeable women that knew what they were doing and knew what a mother was going through. The modern medical industry did its best at discrediting these women and the wonderful work they did by claiming that more deaths happened under their care.
But the real increase in childbirth and maternal death occurred when the switch was forcibly made to doctors in hospitals who didn't know to wash their own hands after handling cadavers and other patients before tending a woman giving birth.
Do you think midwives handled cadavers prior to helping mom give birth? No.
Let me summarize, modern hospital systems in America work by intervening... in everything. Even when it's not totally necessary. Everything to accommodate the doctor and nurses, not the patients.
They'll hook you up to an IV for fluids and hydration, they'll tell you which position you're allowed to birth in, and whether you can get up from your bed or not.
Then, they may repeatedly ask you if you want an epidural, and fear monger you into taking it by telling you birth is painful. They'll routinely tell you to stay on your back, the worst position to give birth in, but the easiest for them.
This is all unnecessary controlling behavior that makes the outcomes worse for women, you can tell when you say No to these things that they get visibly annoyed at your choice, as if you know nothing about your own body, and they know everything and must guide you entirely.
I HATE being touched by strangers, I HATE being told what to do by strangers. And in such a vulnerable state that is pregnancy and childbirth, I know that this means that I'll most likely end up stressed and overwhelmed and against my supposed helpers.
I like the midwifery approach, let the mom do the work. Intervene only with necessary.