What do you know about childbirth?

Well, if you've been through it, you'll have a pretty good idea, but if you ask any woman who has yet to have a baby what she knows about childbirth you are probably going to hear things like

"...it happens in a hospital..."

"...it hurts..."

"...you need drugs, injections, doctors, nurses…"

"... it can go on for days..."

"... it’s dangerous..."

"... you can DIE!!"

 

Where do we get this from?

When you stop and think about it... we never really get properly edicated about childbirth. And yet, it has the potential to affect half of the global population. Instead of there being a conscious effort to educate women abotu childbirth, we are left to our own devices to abosrb whatever happens to be passing in the wind. And this usually means that our main sources of information are places like...

TV shows & movies

They want DRAMA!!!!! A hospital scene with loads of doctors and nurses in white coats and masks fiddling with beeping machines is just that - DRAMA! Filming a mum quietly giving birth at home by candle light with her husband holding her hand, and a midwife knitting in the corner is not exactly dramatic material. And yet, that was pretty much what one of my births was like. The other one wasn't that dissimilar except the midwife wasn't knitting.

School

We've all been there girls! Sat at school being made to watch THE VIDEO. You know, that hugely dramtic childbirth one... the wone with the screaming woman, blood everywhere, hospital scene the one that was etched into your brain that put you off kids for life.. yeah.. that one! Now I can 't help wondering whether the objective for schools "educating" teenage girls about childbirth, is probably going to have prevent teenage pregnancies higher on the list than educate/demonstrate how childbirth CAN BE. Well, it worked for me anyhow... the idea of kids pushed firmly to the back on my to-do list.

Friends & family

We might be lucky and hear positive tales, but generally we’ll probably only hear to the horror stories… the positive stories don’t seem to surface. In fact, I'm speaking to a lot of mums right now who have had positive birth stories and one thing keeps coming up; they don't often get to share their story. It seems that when it transpires that they had a great birth, that other women are not interested in hearing their story. Or if they do get a chance to start sharing, they aren't well received so they keep it brief and then decide not to share next time, or they play it down. Some have even been cut-down while sharing their stories, while others are accused of gloating. Like, seriously! And all this FROM OTHER WOMEN! And so all we're left with are tales of pain, trauma, drama and "NEVER AGAIN!"... how tragic.

 

Where does all this lead us to believe (WRONGLY!) about childbirth?

Well, the short answer is this: we're being drip fed a ton of lies about childbirth! Of course, it's not an intentional thing, it's just where we find ourselves. Through the various sources of information that we are typically exposed to that help inform us on childbirth, it can be fairly safe to say that the overall picture is not a pretty one. There are some consistent lies about childbirth that we're being fed and they are coming right up....

The 3 lies about childbirth that won't go away

Labour and childbirth WILL be painful

This seems to be a given, and non-negotiable fact. WRONG!

There are many women who give birth and don't find it painful. I'm one of those and it wasn't a fluke as I managed it twice. Just search this blog for positive birth stories to find other women's accounts of their positive pain-free births if you like (I'll be adding more to this as time goes on). There are many cultures where pain isn’t automatically assumed to accompany childbirth, it's mainly a western thing. And let's not forget, animals aren't in pain when they give birth either and that's because they're not full of fear,