american birthing culture

Each year, approximately four million babies are born in the United States. 92% are born in a hospital with an obstetrician in attendance; while only 8% are attended by a midwife either in a hospital, free-standing birth center, or at home vs. 70% midwife attended birth in Europe and Japan. 

America spends TWICE as much per birth than any other country in the world. The business of childbirth has become just that – a business. Three out of every four Americans becomes a parent, yet most of us know very little about the actual process of giving birth until we actually experience it. 

Media presents birth as a medical event only “safe” in the hands of doctors and the medical establishment. With all of our technological advances in science, the United States of America still ranks last among the industrialized nations in infant mortality and low birth weight – 24th in the world. Today’s educated women are concerned about childbirth with iatrogenic complications, and mortality due to over-medicalization and unwarranted procedures. 

Childbirth is not an illness but is managed as such. We must be informed of America’s current situation in order to acknowledge the social and psychological ramifications that it has on our culture. What is happening in American birth today needs to be re-evaluated before we can lower our horrific maternal and infant mortality rates, and make childbirth in this country free from unwarranted procedures and preventable casualties once again.