Skip to content

Another insistence by the experts that turns out to be, err, wrong

Midwives have dropped their decade-long campaign for “normal birth”, saying that it made women feel like failures.

Women will no longer be told that they should have babies without medical intervention, the Royal College of Midwives has said in an overhaul of “misleading” professional guidance.

The imposition of the one central rule upon something that we, and our predecessor species, have been doing for tens of millions of years is wrong then what hope anyone getting the rules right for something we’ve only just started to do, like trade, mechanisation, capitalism and large scale voluntary exchange?

Asking for a friend.

24 thoughts on “Another insistence by the experts that turns out to be, err, wrong”

  1. Ah, but one-size-fits-all from the medical and submedical trades brings the extra benefit of causing physical pain to the patients,. That must really appeal to the cruel puritans who infest those trades.

  2. They weren’t experts. They were authoritarian feminist cultists seeking to increase their status (and so pay) relative to doctors by ‘de-medicalising’ childbirth. The NHS and local government is full of these inter-professional rivalries – or demarcation disputes, if you prefer.

  3. Walking upright these last million years requires a rigid pelvis which complicates delivery: modern obstetric interventions assist women with suboptimal pelvises or, increasingly, babes too large for the birth canal. The natural birth movement, inspired by hippy nostalgia, became a weapon in the war of some midwives against the medical establishment. It would have been irrelevant if the NHS were not a monopoly organisation, nor the staff highly unionised: patient outcomes being the least of its concern.

  4. Another area which was captured years, if not decades ago. It’s amazing that the public is unaware of how many areas of public life are now controlled by fanatics.

  5. LJH,

    Walking upright these last million years requires a rigid pelvis

    And one hella shoe budget. Pray tell, what’s the secret of your longevity?

  6. It’s that weasel word “natural”. Dying during labour is very natural, but that’s not how they frame it.

  7. It’s things like this favour Ecksian solutions. The “experts” have waxed fat on their “advice”. Now a total reversal. Yet absolutely no consequences to the f*****g experts. They pocket their pensions, smugly.

  8. Where to start?

    No1 son was delivered after about 10 hours labour with an APGAR(?) score of about 2. That is with a very fast pulse and not breathing. We were in a maternity hospital. The alarm went off, and within seconds, experts at intervention arrived. He was intubated and put on a ventilation pump. He survived “not breathing” and was revived without apparent ill-effects.

    Midwiferry is stuffed with magic-thinking fuckwit feminists with all sorts of fantasies about “natural childbirth”. “Natural Childbirth” means a lot of dead women (my father’s first wife) and dead or brain damaged children.

  9. Midwiferry is stuffed with magic-thinking fuckwit feminists with all sorts of fantasies about “natural childbirth”. “Natural Childbirth” means a lot of dead women (my father’s first wife) and dead or brain damaged children.

    Yes. The toll of dead and injured from this absurd fad quite probably exceeds the toll of dead and injured from the Grenfell fire. But then it happened in “our” socialist NHS, so that’s all right then!

  10. The campaign for “natural childbirth” was a reaction to the previous cult of “assisted” which far too often involved unnecessary caesarians.

    It is the “one size fits all” doctrine that must be stamped out with hob-nailed boots.

  11. John77: I am pleased I had the option of two “unnecessary c/sections” rather than “trial of labour” ending in emergency(always a worse option) c/sections. I have two bright children and no continence issues unlike many of my contemporaries who bought into the natural is best mythology. What is your position on the current scandal of vaginal mesh implants promoted by the NHS as a cheap fix for continence problems caused by obstructed labour, tearing and poorly executed episiotomies ?

  12. @ Ljh
    Firstly, I am not against C-sections where necessary but against one-size-fits-all. My wife chose natural chilcbirth and has had no continence issues, so do not assume that they are a normal. let alone automatic result.
    In answer to your question, my response is “ugh!”

  13. Bloke in North Dorset

    bis,

    “The “experts” have waxed fat on their “advice”. Now a total reversal. Yet absolutely no consequences to the f*****g experts. They pocket their pensions, smugly.”

    And Michael Gove got pilloried for pointing this out (mostly because the BBC interviewer tried to cut him short and many outlets didn’t use the full quote ).

  14. I love the “it’s natural!” argument

    I always respond with:
    “You know what else is natural? bears. And Smallpox.”

  15. John77: continence issues are a common complication of normal vaginal delivery, serious issues are noted immediately after delivery, others remain minor until postmenopause with reduction in muscle bulk of the pelvic sling keeping the urethra closed. The scale of the vaginal mesh scandal is directly due to the promotion of NVDs by midwives in the NHS. Many women pre modern interventions became invalids after delivery due to incontinence of urine and/or faeces.

  16. Incontinence varies in severity, frequency and type(stress, urge, overflow and mixed). Women often delay reporting it due to embarassment. A quarter of women age 18-44 will experience some degree of incontinence, rising postmenopause. Not all cases are due to birth trauma but most of the most severe incapacity is. It is a common problem by any measure

  17. Social Justice Warrior

    It’s curious how this story has emerged. The RCM quietly redirected its rcmnormalbirth website to betterbirths. A campaigner noticed, got them to confirm the change, and announced it on Twitter two days ago. A New Scientist reporter published a story about it. Only when the nationals got hold of it did the RCM started giving statements.

  18. But are women ‘normal’ these days. They delay the first child in a way that was not standard once.
    They are rather obese and rather idle compared with 100 years ago. Many women had muscles then.
    Add alcohol , cigarettes, ant depressants etc..
    And of course most nearby are western but the world isn’t.

  19. Isn’t it just a change of terminology rather than a change of approach? The only thing that has changed is that births without any assistance are no longer to be called “normal”. And there are good reasons for that

  20. And Michael Gove got pilloried for pointing this out (mostly because the BBC interviewer tried to cut him short and many outlets didn’t use the full quote ).

    It was actually Faisal Islam on C4, but otherwise spot on.

  21. Bloke in North Dorset

    Should have looked it up instead of assuming.

    Anyway, Channel 4, working hard to make the BBC look right wing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *