Whether it’s The Cosby Show or The Office, watch any long-running sitcom for long enough and you are guaranteed to find a episode featuring birth. Once you’ve seen a few of your favorite characters act it out, the cable-friendly labor and delivery process becomes almost formulaic in its chaos. Step One: A woman’s water breaks at an inopportune time, like in an elevator or the middle of the night. Step Two: The couple rushes to the hospital, likely wearing pajamas, and forgets the diaper bag. Step Three: In the delivery room, the woman screams for an epidural while her husband (wearing scrubs) passes out on the floor. Though this sequence makes for good television, it’s rare that the media portrays childbirth as a natural, safe, and potentially positive experience. Does this make a difference in the way woman think about birth?
A study published this past March says yes. Using young women who had never given birth but planned to in the future, researchers from the University of Queensland in Brisbane assigned participants to view one of three magazine advertisements: one in which a celebrity endorsed natural birth, one in which a celebrity endorsed medicalized birth (mentioning Caesarean sections, epidurals, etc.) and one control condition in which an advertisement endorsed organic eating. Compared with those in the control condition, women assigned the natural birth article were significantly more likely to report a shift in intentions toward non-medicalized birth. Researchers hypothesize that this result is due to a decrease in the perceived risk of natural birth, indicating that fear and uncertainty play a large role in women’s preference for medicalized childbirth.
With nearly a third of American women delivering via Caesarean section and over 60% of vaginal births proceeding with an epidural, it is important to understand not only why medicalized birth is increasing in popularity, but also the impact it has on the infant’s health. The most concerning difference between babies born vaginally and those born by C-section is in the initial colonization of their gut bacteria, or microbiome. As a woman’s body prepares for birth, her vaginal microbial composition becomes dominated by bacterial species that are beneficial to the baby. When an infant is delivered by Caesarean section, it is not exposed to this helpful bacteria, and instead picks up microbes present on the skin of its mother and father. Some scientists believe that missing out on this bacterial head-start makes infants born by Caesarean delivery more susceptible to asthma, obesity, and type I diabetes. If gut bacteria continues to be suppressed (by poor diet or antibiotic use), it may increase the child’s risk of serious health problems (e.g. food allergies, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, ulcerative colitis) later in life.
Image Source: Peter Dazeley
Research on the impact of epidural injections is limited, but most studies indicate that there are minimal negative affects for both mother and infant, as long as the medication is properly administered. Though some aspects of medicalized birth may not be explicitly detrimental to infant health, it is important for expectant parents to notice any biases promoted by media sources, and objectively evaluate what childbirth choices are right for their family.
Feature Image Source: Miki Yoshihito
