Note: This entry and the 2 below are rants from before Gabriel was born and I was bored and stir crazy.
I really don't like how some people in the labor and delivery business have co-opted the word "natural" to mean "pain medication-free," as in one of my favorite questions for the expectant mom, "Are you going to have a 'natural' childbirth?" "Natural" is such a loaded, value-laden term, and belongs nowhere in the discussion.
First, "natural" connotes "good" - who would ever argue that something natural is bad? Case in point: the term "natural flavors" you see on the ingredients list of your bag of chips. Nothing natural could ever be bad, right? That certainly sounds better than "preservatives" or "MSG." Second, it implies that a labor involving medication is somehow "unnatural" or otherwise bad in some way (or at least pales in comparison to the "natural" way). Third, I can think of a lot of things that are natural that I still wouldn't want to endure. Dying in childbirth is "natural"; women have been doing it for millions of years! Certainly longer than they've been taking "unnatural" medications. Sign me up for the death thing! What about disease? That's "natural." But vaccines? Wholly unnatural. So we shouldn't vaccinate our kids; just let them get diseases and try to survive. It's the natural way. "Natural" selection, survival of the fittest...can't get much more natural than that. Why not apply it to our species as well?
So when people ask me about a "natural" childbirth, I ask them if they mean "pain medication-free." Come on people, let's take back "nature"! Otherwise "nurture" will have free reign and trash the place.
I really don't like how some people in the labor and delivery business have co-opted the word "natural" to mean "pain medication-free," as in one of my favorite questions for the expectant mom, "Are you going to have a 'natural' childbirth?" "Natural" is such a loaded, value-laden term, and belongs nowhere in the discussion.
First, "natural" connotes "good" - who would ever argue that something natural is bad? Case in point: the term "natural flavors" you see on the ingredients list of your bag of chips. Nothing natural could ever be bad, right? That certainly sounds better than "preservatives" or "MSG." Second, it implies that a labor involving medication is somehow "unnatural" or otherwise bad in some way (or at least pales in comparison to the "natural" way). Third, I can think of a lot of things that are natural that I still wouldn't want to endure. Dying in childbirth is "natural"; women have been doing it for millions of years! Certainly longer than they've been taking "unnatural" medications. Sign me up for the death thing! What about disease? That's "natural." But vaccines? Wholly unnatural. So we shouldn't vaccinate our kids; just let them get diseases and try to survive. It's the natural way. "Natural" selection, survival of the fittest...can't get much more natural than that. Why not apply it to our species as well?
So when people ask me about a "natural" childbirth, I ask them if they mean "pain medication-free." Come on people, let's take back "nature"! Otherwise "nurture" will have free reign and trash the place.
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