The New Normal - Ottawa Citizen

The Ottawa Citizen reported yesterday on how medicalized birth has become the 'new normal' and natural birth is becoming rare in today's society in Canada. The statistics prove this out with an extremely high epidural rate across the nation, a 26% cesarean surgery rate and only 5% of women choosing homebirth. Please take a minute to read this superb article. I found this especially poignant:

One of the most telling anecdotes in [Jennifer Block's] book [Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care] takes place at Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Centre in Sebring, Florida. When Hurricane Charley hit in 1994, it knocked the power out. The hospital had an emergency generator, but its capacity was limited. So the hospital sent most women home and asked them to come back when they were in active labour.

During the few days following the hurricane, nurses noticed a change in the way babies were being born: most babies made it into the outside world without medical intervention and within hours of their mothers arriving at the hospital; nurses saw no cases of fetal distress or respiratory distress in newborns; and the hospital's C-section rate dropped dramatically -- from more than 29 per cent to 17 per cent (six per cent if several scheduled repeat C-sections were excluded from the stats).

Prior to the storm, most mothers were induced so that their babies would be born during the day, and labours were electronically and chemically managed. Once life returned to normal, a number of nurses quit the hospital, convinced its management of labour was doing more harm than good.