A History of Birth
According to the
Bible, normal birthing in the early days of human
civilization was most often handled by trained midwives.
Hebrew Midwives were most often trained older women who had
apprenticed with a midwife and a woman who had children
herself and knew that children were a blessing from the
Lord. Midwifery was seen as an office and a ministry and
was accounted a great responsibility. These Midwives
adhered to a strict level of cleanliness and employed
natural means to assist women in childbearing. They also
participated in a Titus 2 type ministry by helping to
educate young women about their bodies, having children,
and healthy pregnancies.
The Bible gives us a wonderful story about 2 Hebrew
midwives in Egypt, Shiphrah & Puah, who were charged by
Pharoah to kill all the male Hebrew babies (Ex.1). The
Bible says these women feared God more than Pharoah and
refused, but that is not the most startling part of the
narrative. When called to account for their lack of
compliance, these women told Pharoah that the Hebrew women
didn't labor like the Egyptian women and delivered quickly
and effortlessly with the babies arriving before they could
get there. Pharoah accepted this information as fact and
issued a new decree in light of these new facts. The Bible
also goes on to say that God blessed these women and made
them famous with large families of their own for their
obedience to Him.
So, why did Pharoah accept this information? Because it was
true!! The Hebrew women were hardy and ate healthy diets.
They were physically active and fit. They didn't fear birth
and counted children as a blessing and barrenness as a
curse. They relied on older and wiser women to assist them
in labor, delivery and early care of their children.
The Egyptian women counted pregnancy and children as an
inconvenience and actively practiced abortion, infanticide
and extreme measure to prevent pregnancy. The Egyptian
women relied on slaves to do everything and were lazy,
physically unfit and ate a less healthy diet. Egyptian
women feared birth and avoided it at all costs. No wonder
the Egyptian women had more problems than the Hebrew women.
Even in non-Hebrew cultures, midwives were the norm and not
the exception. Most male doctors considered childbirth
beneath their dignity and refused to participate in all but
the most extreme cases of difficulty. Until the late 1400's
doctors didn't even consider trying to regulate midwifery,
much less take over the business of delivering babies.
During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, midwifery almost
died out when barber-surgeons began trying to monopolize
childbirth services. Women were forbidden to practice
medicine or midwifery and many midwives were accused of
being witches and killed. Only men were allowed in the
medical schools and soon the Barber-Surgeon were delivering
most of the babies.
Hospitals and asylums opened during the Renaissance to give
medical students a place to learn their trade. The
unfortunate side effect to this was an dramatic increase in
childbed fever which killed vast numbers of new mothers
because the students would come straight from the
dissection tables to the labor wards and examine the women
without washing their hands. This transmitted the diseases
not only from the dead bodies to the initial patient, but
from patient to patient as the doctor went from one
laboring woman to another examining her internally. More
women died from childbed fever than survived, and the
largest percentage died within 48 hours of birth.
Many women still continued to give birth at home and slowly
midwifery began to make a comeback. Midwife-assisted births
had better outcomes and almost no evidence of the childbed
fever rampant in hospitals. Some hospitals even employed
midwives at one end of the hospital to care for the poor
and less wealthy patients and doctors at the other end to
deliver the babies of wealthy clients. Even here, the
midwives' outcomes were better and incidence of childbed
fever was much lower. Wealthier women who could afford the
doctors often pleaded to be delivered by the midwives to
avoid the death in the medical wards.
In 1847, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweiss instituted rules in his ward
that physicians must wash between patients. He was
convinced that the infections were being spread by the
doctors and that the reasons midwives had better outcomes
was directly related to their practices of cleanliness.
This practice dramatically decreased the incidence of
childbed fever, but most of his contemporaries ridiculed
his research and continued to practice as they always had.
By the end of the 1800's many doctors were finally
beginning to accept the research of Dr. Semmelweiss and
others. Washing standards and protocols were instituted
across Europe and American, but many women continued to
favor delivering at home to a hospital delivery.
Things were beginning to change because of the introduction
of chloroform in labor. Despite the fact that these
chloroformed women were unable to care for their babies for
several days while they recovered from the effects of the
gas, a growing number of women saw the use of anesthetic to
be a boon. Nurseries were started because mom was unable to
care for her baby for several days, so the babies had to
cared for by nursing staff.
In 1940, Twilight Sleep was introduced. This heavy dose of
narcotics and amnesiacs completely incapacitated laboring
women and caused women to loose control. Many were
literally strapped to their beds to keep them from injuring
themselves. Recovery was a long process because of the
drugs and breastfeeding was more impossible than before.
Dads were useless with this kind of labor and delivery, so
they were relegated to the waiting room. Twilight sleep was
also difficult on the babies were born sleepy and unable to
respond or suck. Breathing was difficult and babies had to
be watched carefully to insure that they didn't stop
breathing. Many were force-fed in those first days after
birth because they would not or could not suck effectively
due to the drugs in their systems.
In 1944, Dr. Grantley Dick-Reed wrote Childbirth Without
Fear. He studied midwives with laboring women and learned
how these women assisted laboring women to give birth
without medication using relaxation techniques. He also
studied the fear-pain cycle and discovered that women who
were not afraid of childbirth had less pain and fewer
problems.
In 1953, Dr. Fernand Lamaze published his findings about
labor and delivery in Russia. His philosophy substituted
scientism for faith and introduced self-hypnotism as a
method of coping and a way to remove God from the birth
arena. His "prepared childbirth classes" were accepted by
many hospitals because the instructors taught couples to
accommodate hospital practices instead of listening to
their own bodies. His work did, however, open the door to
childbirth education classes and helped bring the father's
back into the picture.
Not many years later, Dr. Robert Bradley introduced his
philosophy of husband-coached childbirth in a book by the
same name. Dr. Bradley believed that God gaver women the
ability and instinct to give birth naturally. He encouraged
fathers to take an active roll in pregnancy, childbirth and
parenting. He advocated prepared, natural, non-medicated
childbirth, breastfeeding, and shared parenting. He
encouraged couples to rely on their faith in God and the
skills they learning in childbirth classes to prepare them
for labor and delivery.
In the late 1980's, a growing trend began taking childbirth
back to basics. Advocates of non-medicated,
non-interventive childbirth spawned new hope that women
were inherently capable to giving birth safely and with
manageable discomfort. Hospitals responded by the
introduction of the LDR and birthing centers as
free-standing birth centers births and homebirth statistics
began to rise.
For the couple who desires a natural birth, there are lots
more options today. Midwives once again assist couples to
birth at home, free-standing birth centers or hospital.
Community midwifery is practiced in every state in the
union, although not legally in some. Unassisted deliveries
occur every day by couples who either can't afford the
services of a professional or choose to birth alone.
Childbirth classes of every flavor abound in most
communities. Hospitals often offer classes to couples
delivering in their facility, although often these classes
may be more geared to teaching the couple to adapt to the
hospital protocols than how to birth naturally. Private
instructors, certified and not, teach classes in homes.
More time is focused on options and informed birth than
ever before.
Pagan birth practices have also gained in popularity. New
age and occult rituals abound with both midwives and
childbirth instructors. More often your choice is between
Christian or pagan philosophy than secular or
religious-based options. The truth is that often New Age
and occultic-based practitioners are quicker to acknowledge
and emphasize the spiritual basis of birth than are
Christians.
In many ways, we have come full circle. Couples are
determining for themselves what works best for their
families. More and more birth practitioners are women,
bringing back the concept of women helping women. The rise
of the doula or professional labor assistant has returned
the idea of continuous trained support with each couple and
in helping women to cope using more traditional measures
instead of drugs, whether in a hospital or birth center
birth. Labor assistance has also returned the mentoring
component back to childbirth. Mortality and morbidity rates
are lower due to an emphasis on hygiene, good nutrition,
exercise and prenatal care for all women.
The one facet which must still strive to become commonplace
is the return of the Titus 2 mentoring roles back into the
church and accepted as a part of the Church's
responsibility in the arena of birthing and parenting.
Christian birth professionals have been ridiculed for
espousing a spiritual focus in the birth process, or worse,
ignored or shunned by the local church. The concept of
"Christian" childbirth and parenting classes is often
passed over as unnecessary, lacking in scientific
information, out of the scope of what the church felt it's
role should be, or simply not practical.
Slowly, however, a new breed of birth professional is
taking a stand to return Biblical faith and modeling to the
childbirth scene. Christian childbirth education classes
are being taught where faith, science, parental
responsibility, spiritual headship and authority, and true
and accurate teaching on all birth options come together to
meet the needs of families. Christian labor assistants
offer their skilled hands and hearts to help moms and dads
work effectively through the labor process with a minimum
of fear, a respect for the female body and it's ability to
give birth normally, and a respect for the place of fathers
as spiritual heads of their families. Christian music,
often praise and worship music, is being heard in labor
suites, birthing centers and homes along with prayers and
scripture reading as a part of the coping techniques
parents can use to make birth a special spiritual time to
celebrate the life God has blessed and placed in their
home. Christian midwives are becoming more numerous to give
birthing couples an option in caregivers and in birth
places if they want to birth with few interventions and/or
want to give birth in the privacy of their own home.
Christian childbirth instruction may include information on
Biblical nutrition, emphasis on the normalcy of
childbearing and it's basic safety, a focus on what
Scripture says about children and childbearing and what it
does NOT say, how God sees and patterned the family model,
Biblical models of childrearing, a contrast drawn between
faith-filled birthing and fear-filled birthing, and a focus
on one-on-one ministry and mentoring. Most of these women
(for most are women, although in the Bradley model, classes
may be taught by a married couple) are married with
children and many are beyond the years of very young
children. Many see their work as ministry and an extension
of their faith, not just a pay check.
It's time for the Church to wake up and reclaim birth as
the spiritual blessing God intended. It's also time to
reintegrate faith, Biblical truths and Titus 2 modeling
back into birthing. When we do, we will begin not only to
see healthier birth outcomes, but a reclaimation of the
family by providing them with a happier and healthier
foundation.
9/30/98 by Rev. Kathy Barr, CCD, CCCE, CCM, BFE, PE, CVE
Special thanks and appreciation to Apple Tree Family
Ministries and it's founder, Helen Wessel, who compiled
much of this information in Under the
Apple Tree and
The Joy of
Natural Childbirth.
Contact
Information:
Kathy
Barr, CCD, CCCE, CCM, BE, PE, CVE, Traditional Naturopath
817-819-8457
