Article about expectations of childbirth

[belgo]

here

These comments I found interesting:
'women themselves should perhaps be less competitive with each other about how they give birth,'
and
'mothers themselves need to stop being so gladiatorial about what they managed to endure.'

I'm in two minds about the whole childbirth thing. On the one hand I know natural was the best way for me to give birth (did it twice 'naturally'), but I have to admit, I'm wondering about having an epidural for the next time I give birth...

Another thread on this topic in Childbirth

An acquaintance of mine sent the usual email round after her dd was born with the usual info on date, time, baby measurements, etc but she added: XXX was born by natural birth... a detail which I thought was a bit of showing off, and quite frankly, too much information. I do think some women are competitive about it.

I don't see that there's anything showing off by saying 'natural birth'. It was simply a fact, as opposed to saying 'baby born by c-section'.

I thought it was a little bit of too much information on an email sent to a whole office, but it's my opinion only. I was reluctant to advertise my own dd's birth at work tbh. Only close friends and relatives got the statistics about it, as well as details of the birth itself, on request. Not because it was difficult or bad in any way (I have a fantastic memory of the day and it went as planned), just because it is personal.

I mean I would be very suprised if someone added to her email: "XXX birth was drug-induced and I used the epidural". Wouldn't that be a little bit irrelevant for the rest of us?

As it happens, I have a friend who had an induced epidural birth, and she describes her birth as 'natural'.

So I don't think saying 'natural birth' is saying very much apart from that it wasn't a c-section.

Sorry, I thought the way the word "natural" is used today means drugs-free and this person I am talking about uses it that way. You seem to say that natural is drugs-free in your post of Fri 14-Mar-08 07:58:06.
Anyway, I don't want to argue. Bye.