In other cultures and in earlier times, birth was treated differently than it is today in the United States. Instead of being scared of the pain or possible complications, women looked at it as an exciting rite of passage. Women were prepared by other women in how to get their bodies ready for labor and how to help their bodies during the labor process. Today women rarely know how to labor effectively unless women attend educational birth classes or are prepared by extensive reading or speaking with other women. Some arrive at the hospital expecting to be told what to do with no preparation whatsoever. A very interesting anthropological paper by Robbie E. Davis-Floyd, Ph.D theorizes that the current state of birth in America has become a series of ritualistic procedures that bring “ordered structure to the chaotic flow of the natural birth process.” This explains how birth has gone from a natural process unique to each woman to a process that is managed and controlled by doctors to fit a predictable pattern.
We believe what you put on your body is as important as what you put in your body.