Clarifying the Basics

I can't stress this enough: I do not think that the medical industry is evil/useless/bad/terrible/{insert negative adjective}. But, as I am not nearly as succinct and eloquent as I would like to be, and as I would like to express my (and my husband's) opinion on the place of modern medicine in the birth process, I will draw from the reading we did during our pregnancy and share these thoughts, which mirror ours exactly:

"We are not opposed to medical technology, and we do not deny the importance of technological contributions to the field of obstetrics...Our dedication to helping women give birth on their own, however, determines when and how we intervene should a problem arise; because every woman's situation it different, there cannot be a standardized or routine pattern of intervention. And because we consider birth a personal, intimate event, we make every effort to lessen the invasive nature of medical assistance. As it turns out, many aspects of our practice eliminate the very dangers that conventional obstetrics has created: when women have the freedom to move around during labor and to assume vertical breathing positions, certain complications never arise and many commonplace interventions become unnecessary."

-Michel Odent, OB-GYN Author of Birth Reborn