The loss of access to and respect for autonomous midwifery is tragic | Midwifery

I'm an NHS midwife, disheartened by your article (Influencers have made millions by promoting 'wild' births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to infant mortality worldwide, November 22). However, my main disappointment is that, like any successful quackery, it exploits truth and real fear: medical abuse destroys lives, women can and should trust their bodies, and a healthy body rarely carries a child it cannot bear.

However, physiology is not an ideal endpoint. Evolution continues, with genetic variation spreading through a population through “survival of the fittest.” In the cruel “wild”, the least “well adapted” (whether due to health or circumstance) do not survive. However, people don't like those odds. Medical intervention, yes, but since the dawn of language, a wealth of vital social knowledge has been passed on to facilitate successful childbirth.

Midwives provide respectful emotional support, which in itself can relieve pain. A good modern midwife will fiddle with a blood pressure cuff (and rightly so: uncontrolled preeclampsia is a killer), but will also prioritize holding your hand and breathing with you during contractions. However, in most cases, experienced midwives practice “watchful waiting”; be unnoticed to intervene directly or escalate the situation to more medically oriented colleagues when/if necessary.

The loss of access and respect for autonomous midwifery, its descent into obstetric care, is a raging Western misogynistic tragedy, resulting in both abhorrent obstetric violence and the Russian roulette of free birth. The solution to both problems is accessible, respectful, experienced and autonomous midwifery care.
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