Re: sanctimonious pretensiousness

[Jayne]

Dear Vaal,   I'm sorry you find it sanctimonious pretentiousness that a woman may find trust in herself to birth her baby by herself.   I honestly doubt the balance will ever eventuate.   You know what - my homebirths did/do have that perennial rosy glow painted around them :-)  My 1st child's hospital birth was the pits and I feel terrible sadness for those pregnant women heading towards the slaughter house with such faith in their obstetricians.   Working in a hospital I'm sure you see the horror again and again.   Jayne         ----- Original Message ----- From: Thrupps To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2001 12:15 AM Subject: sanctimonious pretensiousness Dear All     You know there are times when I get tired of hearing all this sanctimonious pretensiousness about women trusting their bodies to birth etc etc. For generations our bodies have been letting us down. If they didn't there would be no need for Catherine Hamlins Fistula Hospital in Addis Abbaba, or for those women of our great grandmothers era where they had many pregnancies and few living children to show for them. Sure we have come a long way with sanitation and clean water etc, but our bodies do go off the rails sometimes, and it is through no fault of our own, so let's keep some sanity going.     The medicalisation of birth is of plague proportions, but let's be fair there is a role. It's just getting the balance / getting the roles right!     And, yes I am a  midwife who practices in a hospital, and I admire you independent practitioners, but I get very frustrated with the imbalances. The negativity around the obstetric model of birth and the perennial rosey glow painted around the homebirth. Where is the truth?     Somewhere in between where there is mutual respect for the skills of both methinks?     There, I've stuck my head out of the closet ... it's all this Christmas madness that's getting to me! Regards ... Vaal