The De-naturalization of Childbirth

    I had no idea how large the amount of women who receive cesarean sections is. Before today's readings, the idea of a c-section was highly obscured to me. I had a general understanding of what it was, as my aunt had had one for one of her pregnancies, but I was under the impression that it was reserved for emergency situations. I did not realize how loosely doctors defined "emergency", resorting to a c-section at the slightest hint that the baby may be in danger.
    Frankly, I don't like where medicine seems to be leading in terms of how it treats childbirth. Replacing vaginal birth with cesarean sections takes away a very natural element of childbirth, which in most cases is not necessary. While I can clearly see how in certain situations, a c-section is very much necessary to save the life of the child, I do not support the implementation of this surgery in cases where the child could have been birthed vaginally. It just seems to put unnecessary stress on the body of the mother, and create an environment in which much more could go wrong than normal.
    Going off of that, the deconstruction of the article from the internet pointed out something that resonated very highly with me. While a scale exists for the condition of the baby, the only note of a successful birth on the part of the mother is that she survives. So much more consideration is given to keeping the child healthy than the mother, resulting in literally carving the mother open when it is often not necessary to do so. Though this is a farfetched connection, it seems to coincide with anti-abortion arguments that the fetus/baby's rights trump those of the mother, and subsequently her rights to the control of her own body. Saving a baby simply employs an "at all costs" mentality, which I don't think should necessarily be the case when the mother's health becomes a real issue.  

    The biggest problem I have with the increased amount of c-sections is the fact that it mostly boils down the convenience. Doctors don't want to have to play guessing games surrounding how long a patient will be in labor, so they perform a c-section. Doctors want more "control" of the situation, so they perform a c-section. (Although the deconstruction makes a good point that at no point during surgery are you more in control than in a situation devoid of surgery) Nature made birth the way it is for very specific reasons, and I think it is our duty to work with our nature instead of trying to get around it. I think more time and resources should be put into making natural childbirth less painful and more seamless rather than into ways to "standardize" birth and avoid natural childbirth completely.

    Just as a disclaimer, I am not a woman and therefore don't exactly possess the ethos to determine how childbirth should be handled. I can't physically comprehend the pain that accompanies childbirth, and perhaps for some women, a seemingly unnecessary c-section is very much preferable to that pain. I don't mean to criminalize women who voluntarily choose to receive a c-section, but rather the medical industry that increasingly tries to make c-sections preferable to and more convenient than natural birth.