Eco-friendly, Natural Birthing

With the global environmental crisis going on, I can’t help but be surprised that there’s not more being said about fundamental shifts needed in our thinking. What difference would it make if more women opted for intervention-free, natural births?

As a Bradley Method(r) Instructor, I’m inclined to see birth from a natural perspective. Dr. Bradley’s ideas about birth came from the farm; he observed other mammals giving birth, and in his obstetric practice observed that the same characteristics benefit a laboring human mother. A quiet, safe, dark place. Abdominal breathing. Freedom of movement. Relaxed.

Take all these natural characteristics, apply them to the hospital room, and you’ve reduced the amount of energy used. The lights are dimmed or off, less plastic contraptions are used and discarded, and waste in general is minimal. If you consider a home birth, you take away the fuel used in transportation (except for the midwives), the waste is contained to whatever you use in your kit, there are no machines to use electricity, and precious human energy is saved to focus on what matters – the birth of a healthy child by a healthy mother.

Even more important, though, is the contact between mother and child. Most natural is the bonding between mother and child, whether animal or human. I love Michele Odent’s theories about bonding he mentions in The Business of Being Born. “Can a society survive without love?” he asks in his French accent. (He further explicates his theories in this video series.)

Read the story and look at the slideshows about the elephant born at the Oregon Zoo. The elephant is sweet, yes, but do you feel that the mother is looking for something? Is she seeking a private place for herself and her new baby? Is she looking for support from others of her kind? (Note that in the story she seems “comforted” when getting to see others from her herd.) Is the baby trying to connect to the mother after an extended separation? Where does one get bottles like that in the African wilderness? Do we really learn anything from births like this, or are we just trying to impose our typical modern maternity care upon others? Does that mean one in three elephants have cesarean sections?

There are many birth videos to watch online (many collected at Free Birth Videos ). We are blessed to have so many. We are blessed to have the technology when it’s needed. For the most part, though, we do our society and our planet a favor when we birth as nature intended, and that’s a fundamental shift our maternity care system can use.