Articles
Integral Medicine and Childbirth
The integral medicine revolution is rippling out and beneficently touching most branches of medicine. The hearts, minds and spirits of patients are being folded into the larger equation of treatment and although there is a pressing need there seems a curious blind spot in relation to obstetrics. Unfortunately, cultural prejudices regarding women are still deeply embedded in our collective thinking. This is uniquely compounded in obstetrics with its direct association with long entrenched social reserve around sexuality, menstruation and the primal act of childbirth itself.
Birth stands at the sacred center of life and the evolution of consciousness is directly impacted in how it is handled. Our current medical realities around birth not only do not take into consideration the integrated mind-body-spirit of the mother and child but more often than not send them home reeling from physical and psychological trauma that may last a life time for both of them. The ancient medical vow, "first do no harm" needs to be revisited with blinding honesty in the hospitals where 98% of our babies are born.
One of the foundations of integral medicine is its respect for the human being in our wholeness. We are hearts, minds and memories and the importance of the layers of consciousness which weave into our personal myths, meaning and stories are not empty metaphor but compelling bridges to self-actualization, knowledge and wisdom. The moment a child enters this world a unique new story enters the collective mythology of humanity. These moments are where our individuality touches the collective directly. These are the moments where time and the timeless meet.
Childbirth is the passage through a locus of power and mystery. The openness and vulnerability of both mother and child are akin to other passages through transpersonal realms. It is not surprising we speak of the resolution of the birth trauma being a universal human quest. There may be an inescapable element of birth trauma in this crossing from the disembodied to the embodied state but it is currently compounded with completely unnecessary physical and psychological violence. The mother likewise is in an intensely open, vulnerable, affective state of conscious as she heroically has both consciousness and organic life pass through her. It is instinctual, primal and transpersonal. The care with which we seclude and protect someone on a shamanic journey, with psychotropic substances or with holotropic breathwork, should be the norm for childbirth. Instead, we have them in a nightmare world of institutionalized fears supported by intrusive high-tech equipment.My work as a doula brings me into direct contact with birthing mothers and also supporting families in the days immediately after birth. When women hear of my profession I hear dozens of birth stories which are decades old but in the telling the immediacy and freshness cannot help but be felt by any sensitive listener. I have had several women begin to cry as they recounted a tale of horror that created a permanent wound in their heart. The birth of my own children is a story including obtuse and inconsiderate physicians and unnecessary medical interventions creating physical and psychological trauma to be healed. I have seen a woman shaking in tears of ecstasy as she reached out to hold her baby for the first time saying, "I did it, I did it!" I've seen unmedicated babies with eyes like laser beams lock into a visual exchange with his or her parent which defies description. When not interrupted by extraneous forces, nature has provided, exactly on cue, a period of time the newborn will enter into a state of quiet alertness for several hours immediately after birth. The windows of the soul of the mother, the father and the newborn open wide for a moment of ecstatic introduction.
I have worked with a new mom with severe post partum depression who had zero engagement with her infant. How instrumental her traumatic Cesarean section was to her descent into hell is unknown. Each day between day and night as the sun was setting her new baby would cry and shake inconsolably, stiffening and repeating what are called birth movements as if instinctively seeking to resolve the trauma and find some elusive completion. I had a sweet couple in their thirties who had struggled for many years with infertility. The child had been longed for. At the physician's recommendation the mom was given an epidural early in the labor and the couple settled in for the long wait. It was a Sunday morning and this couple had long enjoyed Sunday mornings as a time to be together and read the Sunday newspaper. Dad went downstairs, purchased the paper and the three of us began to read, occasionally sharing a snippet of news or funny anecdote.Every now and again we would exchange the sections as the morning wore on into the afternoon. I positioned my chair to be aware when one of the laboring mom's numb legs would fall off the bed so I could put it back. As we moved into the afternoon I noticed a too quiet feeling had descended on my birthing mother. I finally heard a catch of breathe and saw tears had begun to flow down her face. "It's not supposed to be like this, is it?" she asked me. "This isn't just any Sunday morning, this is the Sunday I will have my baby." So I asked her if she would like to breathe through the contractions she could not feel and she said, "Please." So we put down the newspaper and together we brought our hearts to bear on the birth of her child.
I have also seen medical interventions save lives and situations where pain medication was the only compassionate choice but do these exceptional situations need to define the norm? There is a compelling need for reform. Although basic mind-body techniques for managing the pain of childbirth have been available for over 25 years they are dismissed out of hand by most obstetricians. Women enquiring about "natural childbirth" are openly scoffed at as though this childish expectation was long ago proven an impossible dream. The resistance to change in institutionalized medical care is beyond quantification. A new vision and new voices articulating the variables in fresh language is needed if any significant impact is to be realized.
