Maternity Care vs. the way a woman's body labors

For years, perhaps decades, I have been saying and in some instances SCREAMING that the US Maternity Care system does not practice evidence-based care.  That's right, it doesn't.  Look at the CDC statistics, the 34% cesarean rate or the fact that nearly 45 other countries have better statistical data than the US when it comes to maternal and infant morbidity and mortality.

However, and this was a HUGE aha moment, when I was watching the live webcast of the play BIRTH on 9/5/11.....I discovered that there is a GIGANTIC disconnect not only between US maternity care and the evidence  BUT  US maternity care and the way women are built to labor and birth their babies!

It all became clear.  Suddenly.  Like a bolt out of the blue.  A woman's body is wanting to labor and birth the baby one way, and we/US maternity care is demanding that the labor and birth happen in a different way.  As if to say that a woman's body is wrong and maternity care is right.  That the woman's body should accommodate the maternity care and NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

Once I actually said it outloud and then put it on paper, it seemed so simple.  Such a simple concept.

So while it is horrific that our maternity care is not evidence based, it is even more horrific that we do not honor and respect the work that a woman's body is trying to do, albeit as individual as we all are.  That our maternity care system is not flexible enough or educated enough to learn about all of the possible variables of normal.

 But that our maternity care system is at odds with a woman's body during labor.