Once upon a time, women gave birth in caves, in the forest, or by a stream, surrounded by nature, family, midwives and love.

Then we moved birth into homes, separate from nature, but still attended by family, midwives and love.

Next, we started to encourage women to birth in hospitals with doctors, separate from nature, separate from family, separate from midwives, and separate from love.

Now we encourage women to birth in hospitals with doctors and medications to numb the pain, separate from nature, but usually with family and love.

Today, the medical technology available for birth gives us the illusion that birth is safer, that the conditions in which women give birth have improved, that mothers and babies are at less risk of adverse events than in the past.

But, if birth has been made safer by the advancement of technology and the move away from nature, then why is the maternal mortality rate in the US on the rise, and rapidly? Not to mention the rates of birth trauma, poor postpartum recovery rates and increased rates of neo-natal intensive care needs.

Further, why are expectant parents so confused and overwhelmed by all the choices they have to make in pregnancy and birth?

The ways that birth and birth preparation have changed may be significantly impacting birth outcomes and contributing to the rise in all of these rates.

The recent decades have seen birth preparation usher in breathing techniques from coached breathing to patterns that are memorized.

They have seen monitors determine when a woman should push.

They have produced an ever growing number of statistics that repeated over and over often about an ever growing number of interventions that expectant parents struggle to learn before their little one's due date.

And they are taught in a linear model, as birth happens in a straight and continuous line.

Instead of continuing down this path of learning about birth, I encourage you dear mom or dad-to-be, to consider what birth would be like in the absence of medical technology, without the statistics you are probably reading, without the pressure of learning every last intervention that could arise in labor.

What does that look like?

It might look like this:

Breathing, naturally.

Pushing only if the urge arises.

Owing the knowledge that you are an individual, free from statistics.

Finding peace that interventions are not your top concern, your inner patterns and reactions in the world are all you need to know.

Your contractions and birth are part of a beautiful and continuous cycle of life, know it well and you can birth with confidence, so much so that when you walk into your birth room, your birth team won't ask how they can help, they will ask if you even need help!

Continue the journey to your unique and amazing birth with your Natural Birth Compass!

Go deeper into this topic on Episode 45, Future of Birth in 2021 and Beyond on the Unschooled Homebirth podcast, wherever you get podcasts!