Reclaiming birth from the medical system: ecstatic and oxytocin rich childbirth

Childbirth has been hijacked by the medical system, with 39% of women in Australia giving birth by c-section in 2022. Health Alliance Australia interviewed Laura Kaplan Shanley who explains that childbirth is meant to be a natural, painless and ecstatic experience but because of fear and interventions, stress hormones released shut down birth hormones like oxytocin and when those birth hormones are not flowing, babies can get stuck and women have all kinds of problems. Laura is a mother of 4 children all born at home unassisted, and is also writer, activist, public speaker and grandmother. She authored the book Unassisted Childbirth, which was accepted for publication by an academic press called Bergin and Garvey but now it is actually owned by Bloomsbury, the Harry Potter publisher and she has since bought the rights to the paperback version of her book.

Grantly Dick-Read says that if we could eliminate the fear and women could trust their bodies, babies could be born very easily. Laura goes on to discuss how the same reflex the propels sperm, will propel the baby from a woman’s body. It is called Fetal Ejection Reflex also known as the Ferguson reflex, which isa natural process that occurs during birth when the body involuntarily expels the baby without the need for forced pushing.

While modern medicine is great in emergency situations, the vast majority of births should be easy, painless and pleasurable experiences but this knowledge about childbirth has been lost but is now gaining traction as many people because of covid, sought alternatives outside the medical system. We discuss the issues with medicalized birth in hospital and within the home and how rules, regulations, and fear based “care” interfere with the natural process of birth.

We also discuss the politicization of birth, women’s rights and bodily autonomy being eroded in respect to birth, the jabs pushed in pregnancy and after birth, intuitive eating, dream births, sex during labour, inducing breastfeeding in someone who has not given birth recently, tribal cultures, our own birth stories, high risk pregnancies, birth trauma, still births, dream births, the benefits of staying outside the medicalized model, breech birth, surprise twin birth, posterior birth, connecting to higher consciousness during birth, support networks, birth after c-section, profiteering from the business of birth, empowerment through knowledge and story telling.

Laura asserts that it is not going back to the traditional ways of birth but a new paradigm,

“And now that we’ve developed our rational critical mind, we have now it’s not like we’re going back in time and doing what people used to do. We now we have our rational critical mind that’s highly developed, and we can tap start tapping back into our natural instincts that have been there all along. And using our intuitive mind and our rational critical mind, we can have great births, we don’t have to, we don’t have to, you know, turn ourselves over to the authorities.”

An amazing podcast that will change the way you see birth.

Laura can be found on

https://unassistedchildbirth.com

Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/laurashanley

https://www.facebook.com/unassistedchildbirth

Book

According to Laura Kaplan Shanley, a renowned leader in the natural-birth movement, childbirth is inherently safe and relatively painless – provided we refrain from physical or psychological interference. The problems often associated with birth can be traced to three main factors: poverty, unnecessary medical intervention, and fear.

When these causes are eliminated, most women can give birth either alone or with the help of a partner, friends, or family.This third edition of Unassisted Childbirth leads with a history of childbirth and then describes how most deliveries occur today, detailing why these processes don’t serve mothers or babies. The information in this ground-breaking book gives women yet another legitimate choice in childbirth that doesn’t rely on doctors and technology, and allows parents, birth professionals, and general readers to reexamine their most basic ideas about birth and learn to think in new ways.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Unassisted-Childbirth-Laura-Kaplan-Shanley/dp/1499152035

https://www.booktopia.com.au/unassisted-childbirth-laura-kaplan-shanley/book/9781499152036.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqO8cjsXkCTRXJ95XLvmMin7xn71f_Pg7w59H6OkwycwuzCh69F