Giving Birth
This is a thing I thought about often. More, of course, when I was pregnant and facing this very obstacle on my way to having a baby. But still today, three years after having had the privilege to do this in teamwork with the baby in question, it is a thing I muse about. I think I will share these musings with you.
As a first of probably several posts about this, I’d like to talk about Britney’s vagina. Well, not too much, as Chrome already did this quite efficiently: Chrome about Brit’s pussy 
No, I do not want to rant about the “the seriously braindead [american] bigot front”, as my friend so eloquently calls it. At least not now - you know I usually love doing that.
Imho, the sculpture is quite ok - as an expression of a male phantasy concerning female birth-giving. Not as an expression of female birth-giving.
As I pointed out in Chrome’s Blog: No female in labour would chose exactly this position. It defys gravity, and gravity is the only friend you have when you deliver, believe me. OK, the midwife might be the exception. Of course, Britney would not know that, as she did not give birth naturally, but had a section.
Here is the core of my musings: How did it happen that women let themselves be told how they should deliver their babies? How - and when - did we give all of this out of our hands so completely that most first mums-to-be do not know how to handle themselves? When did we give this topic over to the docs?
Don’t get me wrong. I admire doctors. More than one woman I know would have died in childbed without them. More than one child I know would not be alive without them. I am glad that they’re there.
But still, giving birth is primarily a thing a woman should decide about.
As we started with birth in art, I ask you to join me on a little circuit through history.
A prehistoric painting. Look at her position…
And here: An Attic relief showing woman giving birth on birthing stool, with midwife and kinswomen in attendance. Birthing stools are older than Christianity, and yet, they disappeared from the hospitals completely. Only recently did some very modern hospitals start to think about this possibility again… And here, in Classic Athens, we see the most common position I found in old sculptures, paintings, carvings, whatever: Women are squatting. And usually, there are some other women to support them and hold them upright (remember: gravity!)
Who the heck told women that lying on their backs would be a good idea???
Ancient Egypt: Other time and place, similar position. A squatting woman giving birth, assisted by two goddesses (Hathor and Taweret),? from the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.
India, 15th century, a carving in a temple. And the identical position…
This lovely lady is an aztec goddess going by the unpronouncable name of Tlazolteotl, the goddess of earth, sex, childbirth and mothers. Guys, she KNEW what she was doing. And this is how the birthes the sun: squatting!
Yes, talking about goddesses: Kali, giving birth to the universe itself. And what position did she chose? Yes, you seem to get it.
A Costa Rican sculpture of a woman giving birth. She is kneeling, and she seems to pull the baby with both her hands, too.
Woman giving birth, Lotus Sutra (Chinese), 9th to 10th century
This is an image about a woman giving birth, assisted by her midwife and friends. Published in 1580. Oh, and? the title of the publication was? “Kunnst und Lehrbüchlein für die anfahenden Jungen. Daraus reissen und Malen zu lernen”. One of the very few pictures featuring men, btw: In the background. Looking at the stars.
Gustave Witkowski, Pioneer Birth Scene, 1877. And, interrestingly: The same position, again. So, as you see, even in the inhibited pioneer times, women weren’t prissy about birthing. That seemed to come only with the last half of the 20th century.
And as we are talking about art, here is an artwork about female birth-giving (not about an expression of a male phantasy concerning female birth-giving):
Just absorb it and think about it for a while.
Ouch
yup, you’re totally right. Upright is the way to birth. Once you try it upright, you never want to try it any other way.
this is really groses
Dunno if you mean Britney or the process of giving birth to a child. If it is the latter, I advice you never making one. Messy things, both.
Absolutely!
The supine posision ,or lying one the back, came (back) when men wanted to dominate how and (most recently) when a woman should give birth.
(not to blame it all on men today)
But messing with that which comes instinctively to women is messing with the delicate process as a whole.Its been thought to couse most of the complications we hear most about today.drops in fetal heart beats?
Its been suspected that the equipment ment to “assist” a birthing woman (or doctor) requires the very position that couses most problems! on that note it also couses unneeded pain! lying doun also slows the process, longer periods of stress,and more trama to both mother and child!
sadly, most new mothers are confused and scared,bending wilingly to somthing they know little to nothing about.most dont think about “how” they are going to give birth if they think there is only one way to do it!
I thank you for creating this site.
The best way (in my experience) is to demand gas and air, demand every pain killer available to the midwife and then lay back and let the professionals do their stuff.
We may have squatted in the dim and distant past but we did a lot of things then that we don’t do now (and we live longer because of it). Trying to pose an argument that men want us to be on our backs so they can dominate us is absurd - it’s men after all who developed pain killers, gave us gas and air and invented every birthing technique under the sun.
The thing is, Serenity, lying on our backs to give birth hurts more in most cases when it is not the woman’s choice and can cause serious problems for the delivery. It puts the pelvis in an awkward angle.
To each each their own regarding painkillers or not, but every woman has to know that they can also contribute to complications. An epidural can lower the mother’s blood pressure and cause problems for the baby for instance. Of course then the baby can be delivered through a c-section, but this is not the best or safest way to be born either.