materialworld:

…

In this time of “ethnic cleansing” as monocultures spread throughout society and nature, making peace with diversity is fast becoming a survival imperative.

Monocultures are an essential component of globalization, which is premised in homogenization and the destruction of diversity. Global…

—love vandana. love. love.

—this is what what the medical system does to birth.  the reason that so much violence happens around birth, is because the medical system in the past few decades especially, has created a ‘one size fits all’ model of birth.  the standards that have been created, make biological diversity a pathology.  for example, folks are told if they go past their due date, they will be induced (aka have their water broken manually, put on a pitocin drip).  if they do not give birth within twenty fours, and/or their cervix does not dilate a centimeter every 1-2 hours, they will be considered ‘failure to progress’ and be sent to surgery for c-section.  this is standard hospital practice. 

the problem is that birth isnt predictable. it is wild.  most first time mothers will go past their due date.  dilation happens usually not a steady forward progression, but more like it stretches and closes with every contraction, changing shape and size constantly.  there are as many different variations of birth, as there are births in the world.  each one is different.  300,000 people are giving birth right now.  it is kind of awe-inspiring if you sit back and think about it.