"De·liv·er. 1. The carrying and turning over of letters, goods, etc., to a designated recipient or recipients."
Vs
"Birth. 1. The act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring; childbirth; parturition."
I was on the phone to a relative catching up on what had happened in our lives in the weeks since we had last spoken and I told him I had attended a friends' freebirth (homebirth without a midwife). Not entirely familiar with the birth serving aspect of my life, my relative asked "Oh so did you help deliver the baby did you?" The answer was no, of course not. I didn't help deliver a baby. Neither did my friends' husband deliver the baby. The fact is that no body delivers a baby, the mother simply gives birth!At no point did a postal worker knock at the door and ask us to sign for a baby. Mum laboured! Her cervix opened up, her uterus gently massaged her baby downwards, her baby nudged forward head first (at this particular birth), entered the vagina and then Mum's vagina stretched enough for baby's head and body to moved down and out into the world. A birth is nothing like a delivery.
"Deliver" is in no way an equal term to birth and it does not mean the same thing as birth. When birth is referred to as a delivery the pregnant and birthing woman is rendered passive vessel which contains the baby, and the medical staff make themselves the active agents of birth. They "deliver" the baby, the woman and her body are merely the raw material with which these active experts produce an outcome and product: that is a healthy baby.
Birthing women are active! Birth is an act that women do. It is not a process in which they are passive, naturally. Therefore the term "delivery" is misleading and inept in its application to childbirth. As the definition provided above alludes, to call a birth a delivery is to call a mother a designated recipient of goods.
(Definitions from dictionary.com)
"Deliver" is in no way an equal term to birth and it does not mean the same thing as birth. When birth is referred to as a delivery the pregnant and birthing woman is rendered passive vessel which contains the baby, and the medical staff make themselves the active agents of birth. They "deliver" the baby, the woman and her body are merely the raw material with which these active experts produce an outcome and product: that is a healthy baby.
Birthing women are active! Birth is an act that women do. It is not a process in which they are passive, naturally. Therefore the term "delivery" is misleading and inept in its application to childbirth. As the definition provided above alludes, to call a birth a delivery is to call a mother a designated recipient of goods.
(Definitions from dictionary.com)
2 comments:
Here, here! Great post :)
Well said! I am surprised that so many people still say 'delivery'. At work their is a board in birth suite that has the woman's name on it, then you are supposed to put a big fat 'D' (for delivery)next to it once she has birthed. I have never done that. I always put a 'B', and it is for the reasons you have just said. Women birth their babies. Babies are not delivered by anyone.
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