Doctors used posters such as this one to demonize midwives, and spread messages of terror about competing alternatives. Some things never change.
In the early part of the twentieth century, a campaign against midwifery began, which was led by the allopathic establishment. At that time, 95% of deliveries happened in the home with midwives present. The young medical industry was campaigning that midwives were unclean, and that midwives were the last option, reserved for those who could not afford real medicine. The industry jealously spied birthing as a potentially profitable option, so it began a massive marketing blitz. Hospitals were presented as the cleaner and safer option, with supposedly better-trained professionals. Every one of these statements was untrue. What made these assertions most disturbing is the fact that doctors in those days received no hands-on training in birthing at all. The attacks against midwives continued for 30 years, despite the statistical proof that midwife-assisted births were categorically safer than those conducted in hospitals. Home birthing is still safer, over a century later.
The slander against midwives was successful. By 1955, only 1% of U.S. births took place in the home. Only 8% of the births in the United States are now attended by midwives, while 70% of the European and Japanese births are attended by midwives. As a result, the United States has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world. Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 births, has a higher infant mortality rate than the United States. The U.S. also has the highest maternal mortality rates. The safest country to give birth in is Sweden, which has a midwife (or two) at almost every birth, and these same birthing professionals actively involve themselves in prenatal care too. The Swedish do not treat pregnancy as a disease that needs pharmaceuticals, intensive hospital care, and intervention by doctors. Their babies are the better for it.
When preparing for a birth in the United States, doctors present a wide range of choices for the mother, but these options do not materialize on the day of labor. In fact, the great majority of doctors in the United States have never witnessed a completely natural birth. Hospital policies encourage American doctors to always intervene in the birthing process, for the sake of making it as fast and profitable as possible. Thus, American doctors typically seek excuses to intervene, and unnecessary interventions are always dangerous.
During a natural birth, the mother's brain releases a hormone called oxytocin. It is nicknamed "the love hormone", because it fosters a loving emotional bond. It may equally affect the child as much as the soon-to-be mother, but this is impossible to know. This hormone is also believed to induce the contractions that are necessary for vaginal birth.
The chemical marketed as petocin is the drug industry's closest equivalent to oxytocin, but as is usual with synthetic imitations, the body does not react to it in the same way. The pharmaceutical version causes more pain, and as is usual for chemical therapies; it comes with an array of side effects. Petocin is used to induce deliveries prematurely, and such premature births have been made the norm in the United States.
The Hospital Birthing Procedure in the U.S.
- Petocin is used to induce the delivery prematurely (for doctor's convenience and golf schedule).
- The petocin causes exaggerated and unnatural pain.
- An epidural is needed to reduce the agonizing pain caused by the unnecessary pharmaceutical that was previously administered.
- The epidural then impairs the delivery, so even more petocin is given.
- The double dose of petocin causes contractions to be much more severe, and last for longer periods of time.
- This combination begins compromising the oxygen and blood flow to the baby.
- Women are placed on their backs, in the legs-in-stirrups position, making labor even more difficult for both mothers and babies, but it is more convenient for the doctors.
- As the baby is increasingly harmed by all of these things, sometimes an emergency C-section becomes necessary.
- When it is finally over, the doctors then applaud themselves concerning how great their interventions were at saving a child who would have never been in danger in the first place without their 'help'.
At some American hospitals, up to 70% of infants are delivered by way of cesarean section. These unnecessary interventions are the reason why so many American newborns die at birth, or within the first months of life.
"The United States has more neonatologists and neonatal intensive care beds per person than Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, but its newborn [death] rate is higher than any of those countries."
-- 2006 State of the World's Mothers Report
C-sections continue to rise in popularity for several reasons. The first reason is that the natural birthing process has been demonized and mocked by the entertainment industry. It has driven terror into expectant mothers. Modern women often expect, and even hope for a C-section well before they enter the delivery room. Whenever a woman demonstrates discomfort with the prospect of having a C-section, or with other interventions, she is told that such interventions are in the best interest of the baby. These are lies in most cases, but doctors know that mothers will always stop questioning once implied threats and guilting about their child's safety are issued.
Statistically, vaginal births are much less dangerous than cesarean sections. C-sections are a major surgery, which often cause infections that do not respond to antibiotics. Despite this, it is the most common surgery performed on women, because it helps doctors to avoid lawsuits. In the event of a lawsuit, the use of a C-section supposedly proves to juries that the doctor "did everything he could" to assist the baby and mother. More often than not, juries believe it.
The cost of giving birth in the United States is at least twice as high as any other country in the world, yet the results are the worst in virtually every category. Here are the current average prices for different births in America:
- C-section: $15,800
- Vaginal delivery: $9,600
- Home birth with a midwife (all expenses): $2,000 - $4,000
After a C-section, women are told that they must continue getting C-sections for every birth thereafter. Each subsequent birth is more dangerous for both the mother and child.
Insurance companies often refuse to cover home births, because supporting the alternatives would eventually eliminate our need for health insurance. In other words, the American medical system's prices are kept artificially high, so that customers are forced to buy insurance, which has policies ensuring that medical prices continue being high for the sake of perpetuating its own wealth-generating existence. Insurance companies have an incestuous relationship with the medical establishment, and neither would support anything that might decrease our dependence upon them, or decrease cost. Insurance agents have a tendency to seek only advice from in-system doctors, who predictably claim that home births are dangerous. The statistical evidence overwhelmingly proves the opposite. For example, America has the most births performed in hospitals, but it has the highest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world. Statistics prove that the more medical care a child receives, the more likely he is to die.
Designer Births
"Designer Birth" is a new term that refers to a caesarian-section that is scheduled for a certain day and time, and then a tummy tuck is done immediately afterward. The only part missing is a drive-through. These have become more popular, due to their use by celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Britney Spears. Such unnecessary interventions are madness, and they decrease the chance of a healthy mother and child. Regardless, this irresponsible practice is being adopted by a new generation of rich women, who favor glamor over the welfare of their own children.
Allopathic Birthing History In All Its Shining Glory
- In the 1930's, x-rays were used on pregnant women. It was later discovered that these gave the unborn children cancers, so the practice was stopped.
- In the 1940's through the 1960's, morphine and scopolamine were administered successively to induce "twilight sleep". It was believed that this would change the experience of labor forever, by eradicating pain. It merely produced amnesia afterward, so that mothers had no recollection of the traumatic events, and the drug furthermore caused women to lose self-control. Women were routinely placed in straight jackets and strapped down to beds, in order to stop them from hurting themselves. It was common for doctors to leave the new mothers strapped to beds during the drug-induced psychoses, screaming in terror for hours at a time -- sometimes laying in their own feces and urine.
- In the 1960's, the drug thalidomide was given to pregnant women, which resulted in infants who were born without arms and legs, and others with more random deformities. Thus, it too was eventually stopped.
- In the early 1990's, Cytotec (misoprostol) was used to induce labor in women who previously had C-sections. This resulted in thousands of women with ruptured uteruses. This practice was abandoned in 1999, and the drug is now used for abortions.
The track record for Big Medica's interventions with the birthing process is miserable. The doctors still treat pregnancy as a disease, and the unborn children are treated like tumors needing extraction. Perhaps they will eventually stop experimenting on human beings and tampering with God's handiwork. Such a day is unlikely to come until parents start refusing to allow their children to be the test subjects for the industry's current fad, or whatever it finds most profitable.
Sources
U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says, CNN
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