Ignorance in American Women

ig·no·rance
n.

The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.

I know the word ignorance typically has a negative connotation, but in this instance, I do not mean it to. As you can see by the definition, it is simply being unaware or uninformed.

Most women in the United States are ignorant about the most important event in their lives, the birth of their children. They know what they are taught to do and follow blindly those who we are supposed to be able to trust. As soon as most women think they are pregnant they drive to their doctor's office, do a blood test and find out their due date. They make their next 7 minute appointment (yes, doctors appointments are on average 7 minutes long), and head to the nearest maternity store to pick out some new outfits.

They may grab a few books from the book store, usually to start reading about where they are in their pregnancy, what they should be scared of and then they stop reading and the books lie dormant on the coffee table.

After talking with friends and family members, most who have had wide ranges of experiences with their hospital births. They may hear horror stories of how one woman had to have an emergency cesarean because she just couldnt push the baby out, or another who's baby was too big so they had to pull him out with a vaccuum. Long labors, epidurals, vaccuums, episiotomies, Pitocin, and cesareans. Of course this poor woman is scared of her birth, she has heard nothing but horrible stories! But everyone is happy in the end because they have a happy, healthy baby.

When there are serious complications and something doesn't turn out right, women don't usually hear about it because no one wants to talk about the situation.

Nor do women hear about beautiful experiences, where no drugs or interventions are used. Women are simply allowed to labor as their bodies were made to do in an environment where they felt safe. THIS is a shame, that women who don't know other women who have had experiences like this.

Not to say that everyone should have an out of hospital birth or even a natural one, but it is aweful that women either don't know about the OPTION to have this kind of birth, or they are so afraid of the idea (because of their ignorance) they don't even give it a second thought.

So that has become my life's work. Not to persuade every woman to have a natural or out of hospital birth, but simply to show them ALL of their options so they can make informed, educated decisions.