Luck has no place here

I have encountered a couple of people in the last week, and many more in the last few years, who after hearing me recount a story about a blissful, smooth, easy birth at home without a licenced professional, says something to the effect of 'that was lucky'.

Whilst I find this uninformed and a bit annoying, it is yet another reminder of the amount of work we have to do. I take a deep breath and smile, and think 'that's one for the blog'. I am also grateful for these moments and these people for bringing to my attention what it is that people are wrongly thinking and about feeling about birth, and I am reminded about how important it is to continue my work of speaking the truth - when many shy away from it for fear of upsetting others.

It is not luck that a woman should give birth smoothly in the comfort of her own home, perhaps with some trusted people around to support her, perhaps completely alone. This is not luck; this is milennias worth of evolutionary design testament to the fact that there are 7 billion of us on this planet. Birth is safest when it is left alone. Birth is safest when women are supported to birth with instinct. It is a natural biological event. The hormonal dance that orchestrates labour and birth work the absolute best in most cases when the woman is undisturbed, with quiet and in darkness. These factors create a sense of safety, which allow the hormones to flow as they have been designed to. It is also part of the incredible design of our bodies to stop the process of labour if a threat is detected. Let's think of a woman birthing in a forest and a lion approaches her. It is not safe to give birth anymore and so her body kicks in with adnrealine, inhibiting the production of oxytocin and pausing labour - allowing her time to find somewhere else that is safe to continue. Our bodies are highly attuned to detect threat, and our nervous systems perceives danger before our conscious mind has. In the hospital setting there are endless, and increasingly more accounts of dramatic births with [insert life threatening condition/scenario] resulting in the woman and baby being 'saved' by medical professionals. I acknowledge that complications do happen, and professionals in these settings do sometimes carry out life saving procedures, of which I am grateful. However, more often than not, the 'life threatening condition' was caused by the hospital setting. So it is not lucky that if you do not enter that setting, that very often things go very smoothly, without drama, and that you unlock new levels of power. It is not luck, it is a choice based on optimally facilitating the normal physiology of birth, and of a woman choosing what she feels is the safest option for her and her baby.

On the other hand, I would say luck has a place in the hospital setting. I would say that if you have had a pleasant experience in the hospital, you are indeed one of the lucky ones. You had no idea who would be attending your birth, what mood they would be in, how many other women they would be stretching their, already very stretched, resoruces between or how quickly the ward manager would be wanting to get you out of the room for the next woman to have her baby. This all effects the outcomes of your birth.