The Student Midwife Summer Issue, Volume One | Page 8

between doctors, mothers and profit. The
evaluation and dissection of birth culture
allows us to understand why we approach
birth in the way we do and shift our practices
accordingly. For many women, their birth
experience was a time when they felt they had
lost control of decisions made about their
body, their treatment and their child. The
medicalized system dictates a strong message
of oppression towards women by
pathologizing pregnancy and childbirth.
Laboring women are placed in a lower
position of authority and credibility through
the way we treat women as if they are sick
and incapable of physically delivering their
own child. I feel it is fair to argue that the
US’s fairly low infant mortality rate has come
at a rather large cost of disempowering
women and increasing cesarean section rates.
With the incorporation of midwives, I believe
that the US birth culture could shift toward a
more holistic and satisfying process for both
mother and healthcare providers, while
decreasing both infant mortality and cesarean
section rates. Also while providing the
emotional and educational support to mothers
would bring an egalitarian element to the
birthing system and in turn counteract the
prevalent and abiding oppressing sexist

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attitudes and treatment toward women in the
maternal health care system. !

Cadence Omana, 1st year student at CSM