Perspective: Why rumors of a royal home birth were greeted so differently in the U.K. and the U.S.
Britain's Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle, who gave birth to a boy this week. By Wendy Kline Wendy Kline is the Dema G. Seelye Chair in the History of Medicine at Purdue University and author of"Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women's Health in the Second Wave" and"Coming Home: How Midwives Changed Birth." May 7 at 2:06 PM Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, gave birth to her first child this week in a British hospital.
Not so long ago, both countries shared a respect for midwifery and home births. But over the centuries, they went in opposite directions. In the United States, technology and the dominance of obstetrics have served to diminish the status of midwifery and home birth. This frustrated midwives, and, according to Leavitt, physicians’ techniques probably “created new problems for birthing women and actually increased the dangers of childbirth.” Nonetheless, the professionalization and greater technology available to physicians gradually won the day.
Carter was one of a growing number dismayed by the emotional and physical toll of medicalized childbirth. “What should have been the most exalting and exulting of experiences was riddled with horrors at a big inner-city hospital where I felt like I was going to the Bastille, not to be seen again,” reflected one woman to a reporter.
Those who started out getting their care in a hospital were four to eight times as likely to get a C-section. Rather than being driven by patient risk or preference, this tendency toward C-sections appeared to be driven by proximity to the operating room. The study’s authors concluded that the risks of over-intervention in the hospital may outweigh the risks of under-intervention at a birth center or at home for the majority of expecting mothers.
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