The U.S. experience used to be this way, but about 100 years ago the medical industry realized they could make a lot of money off of child birth (our last bill was $40k).
The hospitals released advertisements scaring women from voodoo (read: black) women/midwives helping with birth so that doctors and surgeons could take over, it worked fantastically. The doctors eventually chained women to beds and tested various chemicals to ‘cure’ their pain that resulted in profound unintended consequences.
This history is still with us, and creates a lot of uncanny valley experiences. I.e. treating pregnancy like a disease.
When we gave birth during covid, I had to use an elevator to get to my wife. When the elevator door opened, a group in hazmat exited with a patient clearly dying of covid.
I was like: “are you fucking kidding me, this is still where we give birth in this country…”
The hospitals released advertisements scaring women from voodoo (read: black) women/midwives helping with birth so that doctors and surgeons could take over, it worked fantastically. The doctors eventually chained women to beds and tested various chemicals to ‘cure’ their pain that resulted in profound unintended consequences.
This history is still with us, and creates a lot of uncanny valley experiences. I.e. treating pregnancy like a disease.
When we gave birth during covid, I had to use an elevator to get to my wife. When the elevator door opened, a group in hazmat exited with a patient clearly dying of covid.
I was like: “are you fucking kidding me, this is still where we give birth in this country…”