Birth as an American Rite of Passage by Davis-Floyd Robbie E

Author:Davis-Floyd, Robbie E.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520927216
Publisher: University of California Press

THE IDEOLOGY OF SAFETY6

A baby’s birth can be wonderful, no matter how you deliver. You can’t control whether you deliver vaginally or by Cesarean, but you can have some control over your emotional response to the birth. If you focus on having the safest delivery possible, you’re more likely to have a satisfying experience.

—The Birth Book: Your Guide to Vaginal,

Cesarean, and VBAC Deliveries (a

booklet distributed free of charge in

obstetricians’ offices)

I think women who have their babies at home are self-indulgent. They are only thinking about what they want, and not at all about what will keep their babies safe.

—Suzanne Samuels

Although the quality of the process through which a baby is born is of tremendous psychological and emotional importance to many pregnant women, the ultimate goal of every pregnant woman is to have a healthy baby. And, as stated in Williams Obstetrics, “the transcendent objective of obstetrics is that every pregnancy … culminate in a healthy mother and a healthy baby” (Pritchard and MacDonald 1980:2). Our fundamental technocratic belief that birth is inherently unsafe, coupled with the equally fundamental belief that technology can make it safe, provides a point of linkage between the philosophical base of obstetrics and the desires of every woman’s heart so strong that the vast majority (98 percent) of American women—including even most of those who would prefer to stay at home—will go to the hospital to give birth, “just in case something should go wrong.” As Becky puts it:

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