Childbirth without Fear!
“The Joy of Life must
be the vision of motherhood, instead of the fear of death that has clouded it
since civilisation developed”
Grantly Dick-Read[1]
Childbirth without Fear: what does that look like?
Most mothers approach birth with anything from a phobic stir
to debilitating, paralysing fear. This
fear can either be instinctual or learned through popular beliefs and
expectations or a combination of both.
We live in a culture that teaches women to FEAR what is
essentially a natural, physiological function.
A function that a woman’s body is perfectly designed to do, if it is
left undisturbed and allowed to unfold in its own way into the birth process. Women are not taught the physiology of natural
birth and often are offered the medical model of birth as the only viable option
available to them.
I believe there was a time in history when women approached
childbirth without fear. They revered
and trusted their bodies and they accepted that sometimes death is part of
birth, each reflecting a transition from one state to another. Birth was women’s business and men did not
interfere with this sacred process.
Man has been tampering with the birth process for thousands
of years. Lack of understanding of the natural physiology of birth, the
Christian notion that suffering in childbirth was retribution for the sins of
Eve, the adoption of the lithotomy (on back) position all contributed to higher
pain levels, increased mortality rates and escalating fear. This has led to the highly medicalised,
interventionist style of birth that most of the developed world practices today.
In 1945, an obstetrician called Grantly Dick-Read wrote a
book titled as above, Childbirth without Fear.
It is a remarkable tome of wisdom for which he received little credit
and was quickly marginalised by the money making obstetric machine. It came about when his notion of childbirth
was challenged in 1920, by a young, working class girl, who, when he asked her
if it was too painful, she replied, “It didn’t hurt doctor, it wasn’t supposed
to was it?”
Her question shocked him and made him reconsider everything
he had ever believed about childbirth.
He realised that there is no other physiological function of the human
body that is painful under normal conditions.
Pain always communicates that something is wrong. It is the body’s ultimate protection against
damage. He was now puzzled, why then did
birth create so much pain and why did it create different levels of pain for
every woman?
He studied the anatomy and physiology of birth and concluded
that in fact, birth should not be painful under normal conditions. He deduced that the pain, perceived or real,
was caused by excessive tension in the body.
The tension was created by the expectation of PAIN through the emotion
of FEAR. He called this the
FEAR-TENSION-PAIN syndrome.
“The most important
contributory cause of pain in otherwise normal childbirth is FEAR”[2]
He realised that the presence of fear and the physiology
that it creates was contraindicated to natural, painless childbirth. Fear puts the body into a state of extreme
alert, the ‘fight or flight’ syndrome, whereby adrenaline is released into the
bloodstream causing blood to be diverted from the major organs to the
extremities, tension in the muscles to increase strength and speed and
inhibition of all the ‘birthing’ hormones; oxytocin, beta endorphins and
prolactin. In the mammalian brain,
survival takes precedence over everything else, including birth.
He started to test his theory on his patients and he quickly
discovered that if he reduced the levels of fear in the women that he assisted,
he reduced the levels of pain and the birth proceeded far more quickly and
effectively. After over 20 years of
seeing the positive benefits his approach to childbirth was creating, he wrote
the book.
Initially his book had an impact, however in the post war capitalist
expansion period it was soon swallowed up by the power, money hungry machine
that is modern medicine.
The etymology of fear in childbirth is well explored and
explained in his five Sources of fear in childbirth.[3]
- Judgements of others about
our ability (mothers, husbands, friends)
- Anecdotal evidence from
relatives and friends
- Public opinion
- Past Evidence from own
experience
- Experts opinion (medical,
usually male)
You only need examine the actions of other mammals to see
where humans are going wrong. Birth is
not a learned response; it is a primal, instinctual, physiological response
that is in place to ensure the successful propagation of the species. The lack of trust in the ability of a woman’s
body has led to the development of all manner of interventions in a misguided
view that they are helping the birth process.
Humans require the same conditions to be in place, as do our
furry friends. The primary and most
important condition is the perception of safety. The notion of safety is being in a familiar,
secluded space where birth can proceed undisturbed and unobserved. I don’t know about you, however, my
understanding of the hospital environment does not fulfil those requirements.
The medical, pharmaceutical, insurance and legal industries
thrive on creating FEAR amongst individuals, governments and corporations. Fear drives profits as their products and
services are consumed just in case something goes wrong. We are disconnected from our own inner wisdom
and power for, healing, birthing and taking responsibility for our own actions.
We need to get back to the understanding that doctors and
equipment do NOT birth babies, women do!
Therefore women need to be in control of their own choices and their own
bodies. The Fear machine, driven by legal
liability has created the situation where a woman cannot choose how, where and
with whom she gives birth without being subject to legal and social
ramifications.
I have had three empowered, drug free, stitches free
homebirths and in each one, I can see where my own instinctual and learned
fears played a part during the labour and birth, causing discomfit and longer
labours than necessary. Although my
children’s births were amazing, empowering and ecstatic, I did not achieve what
I now believe is every woman’s right, a pain-free, sensual, orgasmic
birth. Why?
- I had NO notion that it
was possible!
- EVERYONE had told me that birth
was painful!
- I was unaware that past
negative sexual experiences and “Victorian” inhibitions about natural
bodily processes could adversely effect the birth process
- I had NO knowledge about
the exquisitely balanced ‘cocktail of hormones’ that are released during
natural birth that once surrendered to will create higher levels of
ecstasy. Resistance is what causes
pain!
I only had my gut instinct and my intense dislike of doctors
and hospitals leading me to birth in this non-medical, non-interventionist
way. I triumphed over a system that has
gone wrong, however I know that if I was to birth another baby now, I could
take it all the way and achieve the type of birth nature intended, calm,
joyful, sensual and orgasmic. In an
ideal world the holy triad of my husband, my baby and myself would be the only
ones present during the birth with a midwife standing by in case of the need for
assistance. This new being would be
welcomed in the same way that he/she was created, in love and ecstasy!
I am telling YOU that it is possible! This is the natural
birth right of every woman!
Together we can shift the consciousness around birth, we can
demand autonomy over the birth process and we can create ‘Childbirth without
Fear’ for the generations to come!
It might just change how we live and relate on this earth?
