"Wild" Birth

Wild Politics by Susan Hawthorne, critiques globalisation and the international political economy. While reading this book it occurred to me that Hawthorne’s definition of “wild politics” provides a useful framework for birth activists seeking to define birth as it should be: Un-medicalised. Un-industrialised. Pure. Natural. Powerful. Woman’s. Wild!

Hawthorne adopts Kate Millett’s definition of politics, as Millett outlined it in her 1972 classic Sexual Politics: “power-structured relationships, arrangements whereby one group of persons is controlled by another” (in Hawthorne 2002, 21). We can observe that reproduction is a political issue, particularly in the contemporary setting where certain medical practitioners such as obstetricians enjoy power over birthing women (whose pacification is made evident by the fact that they are referred to as "patients" in this setting) and over other health care providers.

Hawthorne’s use of the term “wild” also offers something useful to advocates for empowered birth. Hawthorne writes:

When I use the world “wild” I mean to capture the whole range of meanings, from wild as in angry or vicious; wild as in diverse, wide-ranging, rebellious; and wild in the way it is used idiomatically, comparable to cool, neat: wild, outside the barriers of control by the dominant party (Hawthorne 2002, 24)

Birth activists, such as myself, are angry that many women are treated like objects during pregnancy and childbirth. Some women recovering from traumatic birth experiences are also angry that they have been abused by the system that promised it would meet their needs. Feminist birth activists and mothers alike, are angry at the oxymoron of “care provider” in the current maternity system, where so many of our so-called care providers turn out to be the perpetrators of abuse.

Birth activists recognise the importance of diversity. Each woman and each birth is unique, and therefore each woman has a different set of needs and desires for her birth. Natural birth activists know that the current medicalisation of birth means that diversity is ignored. In fact, diversity threatens the system, because the system depends on uniformity – processing women and their births according to protocol and schedule. Women need a maternity system that is flexible and all-inclusive, that can actually meet the needs of women and their babies, even when those needs fall outside of a medical understanding of birth (for example the need for privacy, the need to feel safe and protected and loved, the need to do nothing and simply let birth be as long and as painful as it is).

Birth Activists rebel against the medical maternity system that demands women submit to the tests, procedures, technology, and protocols of medical professionals. Natural birth activists do not believe that birth should be neat or controlled; it should not be forced to fit into a hospital timetable, and women’s choices should not be controlled by the medical model, which is the dominant party.

Hawthorne also considers the meaning of “wild” in relation to “wild animals” and “wildlife”. She states:

Removing a wild animal from its locale to, say, a zoo, in order to preserve it, moves it away from its status as “wild”. Even when zoos attempt to reproduce “environments”, they can never replicate the local ecology and its relationships for the wild animal (Hawthorne 2002, 22).

This can equally be said of women during birth. Rounding up birthing women into a hospital in order to “help/improve/assist”, removes them from their wild nature. It domesticates birthing women. Even when institutions such as birth centres attempt to reproduce “wild” conditions they can never truly create the natural environment and its relationship to the woman in labour. The woman has been removed from her natural habitat, her home.

In her natural habitat the pregnant woman is comfortable, she has a special understanding and appreciation for how the ecology of her home works. She is an agent of her surroundings, meaning she has control. By removing her from that context and putting her into another building (and an institution) she is robbed of that comfort, and her birthing experience becomes bogged down in having to learn a new system and environment as she births.

During birth she may be forced to think about more than just her birth experience, she may consider the staff around her (as well as the other women giving birth there). She may consider not getting in the staff’s way, not inconveniencing them, she also will deal with staff change-overs and learning to adapt to each new person. The very fact that she is in an institution that has different tools in it means that she has to consider those tools – will she allow this, or that? What will the consequences be if she refuses this or asks for that? Her energy is spread thin across a number of issues, rather than being focused intently on herself, her body, her baby, her birth. These are not issues she would have to worry about in her own home/habitat where she would not have strangers or their foreign objects or tools.

No matter how hard an institution may try to replicate the natural habitat, with nice hotel-looking maternity suites, it is not the woman’s home. Her wild birth experience has been captured, and civilised by medical hunters.

Birth can be seen as an issue of wild politics. Birth itself is wild, in the sense that it is natural, and ultimately beyond the complete control and comprehension of humanity (like death, and much of life). Women, like nonhuman wildlife, have been captured and domesticated in birth. Birthing institutions such as hospitals and birth centres are zoos for women in labour. But feminists, mothers, and birth activists alike are turning their rage into productive political ends. They are staying at home to give birth, setting up information and support networks to increase other women's awareness. And in so doing, these women are sending a strong message to the current maternity system: we will not tolerate women's bodies and their birth experiences being controlled within the parameters of your dominant system! We must birth wild and free. Just as birth should be.

Source

Hawthorne, Susan (2002) Wild Politics: feminism, globalisation and bio-diversity, North Melbourne, Spinifex Press. http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/non-fict/wp.htm