Natural Childbirth - Road to Health
I was awakened to the ease of natural birth in a hospital
when I was about 7 years old. I witnessed a village woman who was shouting at
the top of her voice protesting her forced hospitalization after childbirth.
She was washing her clothes when she went into labour and delivered a child.
Her mother in law helped her cut the cord and cleaned both child and mother.
Then she went back to washing her clothes. Her horrified husband had admitted
her forcibly into the hospital. She created a ruckus and was discharged pronto.
In the year 2010 I was on a tour to Andhra Pradesh and met a
group of village birth attendants in Medhak district. They told me how they
prepared the mothers for delivery with food and massages and how the delivery
was in sitting and standing positions for ease. I interviewed new mothers and
they said they were highly satisfied. The doctors in PHCs of the district told
me how these attendants had opened their minds about natural birth and they too
allowed natural birth in their PHCs if people went there. They came gave birth
and were gone within hours. Even among the few cases they referred to the CHC
many had normal birth under supervision.
The birth attendants were well versed about traditional ways
of pain management that modern doctors should know too. If people are
interested they can contact DDS Hyderabad to know more. The women managed
agriculture and millets programmes of DDS ensure all round nutrition for the
mothers and also empower them.
Since then I have associated with tribal in Odisha who too
don't feel birth is an issue. Why have things changed now? The major factor is
deterioration in health and vitality. The health of our ancestors is no longer
visible today. The other of course is mainstream fear mongering about the
process and mismanagement. Even the WHO has come to recognize that caesarean
sections are a menace and take place for profit.
There is nothing romantic about natural birth. Nor about
organic food and lifestyle. They were normal since human beings appeared on
earth. They have been turned abnormal because there is money in artificial.
This is the truth. The child loses out tremendously in the process of
caesareans unable to inherit its mothers microbiome and the first milk. It also
has to deal with all the medications given to the mother which are passed via
the breast milk. Such a baby can never be healthy.
Today studies show a baby born at home has a richer and
healthier microbiome than one born out of home. There is a study to show how
the body learns through a difficult childbirth and rectifies the problems in a
subsequent one. Institution births are encouraged so children can be shot up
with vaccines. Modern medicine completely negates the healing power of the body
to impose itself. It is not a system of medicine. It is a business plan that
thrives on ill health and misery.
The biochemical model of health no longer holds true. It has
been replaced by extensive work on the microbiome, mycobiome, epigenetics, and
new discoveries like the role of the appendix, extension of the lymphatic
system to the brain, the interstitium, and the role of the mucosal system, gut
microbiome, and lymphatic system in immunity. Thus we have entered an era where
we acknowledge biology to be the main driver.
We are just 43% human and 57% composed of trillions of
external cells that connect us to the environment and perform vital physical,
mental and emotional functions. We are also gaining insight into the role of
mitochondrial energy as a driver of organs and their functions. There is also
seeping in the knowledge of alkaline and acidic mediums and the importance of
the circadian rhythm that extends beyond timely functions to the full life
cycle. From conception to death we follow such a cycle.
All of this point towards a totality that is in sharp
contrast to the reductionist viewpoint. How do modern concepts affect the
totality? Let us start with pregnancy. Earlier the MD's who were not
specialists tended to accord the highest respect to this state, careful not to
medicate. Nutrition and routine activity coupled with evening walks was
recommended.
We know about the placenta barrier. This barrier is today
breached and made porous thanks to mercury, aluminium and Polysorbate 80 in the
two tetanus shots given to pregnant women. Consequently all medications
directed at them reach the foetus - a forbidden territory. Today we also know
how the ultrasounds women are subjected to impacts the foetus.
The process of normal childbirth is a cathartic which
releases precious hormones in the mother. These hormones take care of the many
problems associated with childbirth and may even correct a breach as observed.
The passage of the baby through the normal channel compresses all fluids out of
it, clears the lungs, and also seeds it with vital microbes that shape its
future health. If we preserve the coating on the baby instead of washing it
instantly, allow the full cord blood to flow into it, and retain the placental
connection for a little more time we do a great service to the baby.
A caesarean childbirth is convenient but is a great loss to
health as far as the baby is concerned. Hospital births also ensure a not so
safe environment and force the supine position that is not really a birth
position. After caesarean the mother is not in a position always to deliver the
first colostrum robbing the baby of vital nutrients. The medicines directed at
the mother passes on to the infant further affecting its health. In a hospital
the infant is also exposed to a not so friendly microbiome. The mother may
continue to be medicated depending on the complications after surgery.
Thus home based natural births accompanied by common sense
trained attendants are now being preferred by those knowledgeable who wish to
preserve their health and also that of the new born.
Evolutionary perspectives on cesarean section
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, Volume 2018, Issue 1, 1 January 2018, Pages 67–81,https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoy006
Published:
27 February 2018
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, Volume 2018, Issue 1, 1 January 2018, Pages 67–81,https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoy006
Published:
27 February 2018
Abstract
Cesarean section (surgical removal of a neonate through the maternal abdominal and uterine walls) can be a life-saving medical intervention for both mothers and their newborns when vaginal delivery through the birth canal is impossible or dangerous. In recent years however, the rates of cesarean sections have increased in many countries far beyond the level of 10–15% recommended as optimal by the World Health Organization. These ‘excess’ cesarean sections carry a number of risks to both mothers and infants including complication from surgery for the mother and respiratory and immunological problems later in life for the infants. We argue that an evolutionary perspective on human childbirth suggests that many of these ‘unnecessary’ cesarean sections could be avoided if we considered the emotionally supportive social context in which childbirth has taken place for hundreds of thousands or perhaps even millions of years of human evolution. The insight that human childbirth is usually a cooperative, even social event in which women are attended by familiar, supportive family and friends suggests that the harsh clinical environment in which women often give birth in the developed world is not the best setting for dealing with the strong emotional forces that usually accompany labor and delivery. We argue that providing a secure, supportive environment for laboring mothers can reduce the rate of ‘unnecessary’ surgical deliveries.
https://academic.oup.com/emph/article/2018/1/67/4911519
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