As the end of the semester approaches in my Bio Psych of Birth course, the question “What does normal birth mean to you?” arose. As I pondered what normal birth meant to me, I couldn’t help but wonder what others who were not exposed to my class thought of the question.
While conversing with a nurse during my shift on a maternity floor, I proposed the question of what” normal birth” is to her. The nurse replied, “ It is a woman who comes into the hospital with no complications and gives birth vaginally to a healthy baby.” The point she was trying to make is that when a birth occurs within a hospital it is considered a normal birth. I pushed further and asked would a normal birth include interventions. She replied, “Yes, if a little aid is needed for comfort, she will be provided with the necessary intervention.” The nurse’s definition changed from a delivery within a hospital vaginally to using any medical means necessary for a vaginal birth with no complications for the mother and child.
I decided to look for another opinion of a normal birth from a fellow nursing student who has not been exposed to the lectures of the bio psych of birth class. The student stated a normal birth consisted of “…giving birth in a hospital with medication to control the pain, and if it takes too long a c-section.” I am somewhat ashamed to admit that this was almost my own verbatim definition prior to my exposure to the Bio Psych of Birth class.
The nurse and my fellow classmate described what is known as the norm within the United States. Contrary to popular belief, the norm is different from “normal birth.” A norm is what the trend, or what the majority of the population does. In 2009, 32.7% cesarean sections, 55.5% epidurals, 20.1% medical inductions, and 24.6% augmented labors occurred statewide in New York. These percentages are viewed as ‘the norm’ within the United States. The true definition of a normal birth is the woman’s ability to trust her own body to perform the birth process with no unnessary interventions. A normal birth consists of a woman in the company of a support system relishing in the experience and excitement of childbirth on their own.
Today I would like to pose a question to you: why is it that normal, non-interventive birth, which has been achieved for centuries by women everywhere, is now considered abnormal within today’s society?