Childbirth in the modern era of technology

This week I’ve been raving about the importance of privacy during birth. It seems that in the modern era of technology that we live in, privacy seems to be a distant reality.

We have phones with microphones and cameras everywhere we go, and if you choose to give birth in hospital and be in the system, there are a lot of eyes on you watching your choices as well as people having control or some level of power over your decision making process, your body, your baby throughout your pregnancy, labour and beyond. 

Michel Odent, for those who don’t know him, he is a well-known French obstetrician and childbirth specialist, who has spent his life challenging the conventions of medical orthodoxy (if you never heard of him and you want to learn more about birth and breastfeeding, his materials need to be on the top of your list of ‘books to read’). He spent years observing women giving birth and studying deeply about childbirth physiology. His work expanded into observing the evolution of civilisation and its influence on birth and breastfeeding and subsequently society. He brings to light the relevance of remembering that in addition to being human beings, we are primarily mammals, and when mammals are about to give birth, they have the primary need to isolate themselves in order to give birth to their offspring.

There is a cascade of physiological and psychophysiological events that need to happen for the mother to bring her baby into the world and prepare herself for the long journey of motherhood. This physiological process relies on a flurry of hormones that harmoniously work and collaborate with each other so that the mother is prepared to give birth and mothering and the baby is prepared to be born and develop in all aspects now in a dry and non-sterile environment. For this phenomenon to happen naturally and favourably, privacy is a crucial element in this process. 

What in the past seemed to be essential for a mother to give birth to her child, now with the advent of technology in order to give birth women don’t even need to undergo, and so bypass this physiological process, which has the aim to provide the optimal foundation for motherhood and child development. We have synthetic oxytocin, manmade opioids and physical intervention to control and facilitate birth, or should I say ‘get the baby out’. I do wonder what is the long term effects on society, having grown up children who have never received their mother hormones bath during labour and birth and nor his/hers due supply of blood as a consequence of the umbilical cord being cut so quickly.

I ask myself as a birth professional, who is present at birth, how can I be with women in labour and yet protect the mothers need for privacy, without her feeling she is being observed? And how do we do this under bright lights, constant interference, monitoring, checking and in a room far from being like home with people we only just met a few minutes ago?