Born Autonomy
I delivered a baby 4 days ago. Gideon was 10 pounds, 1 ounce and 22.25 inches long. He and his mother are doing great.
I’m not a health care professional. I’m Gideon’s father.
My wife and I chose to have our 3 boys at home. Her third labor was so quick that our midwife arrived 5 minutes after the baby. Apart from my fumbling with the umbilical cord, which was looped about Gideon’s neck, the birth was as expected…empowering and enriching.
My experiences convince me that healthy pregnancies should become healthy births apart from the medical profession. There is simply no scientific evidence supporting medical intervention in a healthy pregnancy. Yet, women in the U.S. have been taught that a normal birth is performed in a hospital. Why?
The health care costs for our last delivery was $2500. A spontaneous vaginal birth in a hospital will cost $8000 to $12,000 depending on the hospital service area. Why, when soaring medical inflation has seeped into our collective conscience, do we pay more for unnecessary care?
I’ll explore these questions in the next few posts and attempt to lay a foundation for my contrast of the anti-medicine and anti-medicalization philosophies.
Right now, I need to burp a baby.
1 year ago