The Robot Mother

When looking for pictures for my blog one day I inadvertently ran across these.  They are pictures of medical students in Korea learning how to deliver a baby using a robot mom and baby rather than live ones because of the low birth rates currently in that country.

Though they had a good reason to do this the pictures simply struck a chord.  Is this scarily transferable to our current obstetric situation?  How many women are treated like nothing more than a vessel to be delivered of its cargo with the least amount of fuss and noise?

How many women after a typical hospital birth are left with a feeling of emptiness?  How many of them miss the experience that they could have because they are treated more like a robot than a woman?  How many of them when they dare to question their feelings of dissatisfaction are less than gently told to "get over it".

 In my current childbirth class one of the students asked why her midwife was negative towards The Bradley Method (TM)?  The midwife and others at the hospital had basically said it was "all right, but difficult to actually do".

I had somebody in the past inform me that when they asked their doctor about taking my classes, he informed her that Bradley students were "not allowed" to birth at their hospital.  Is the medical establishment (even some midwives) so petrified that somebody will question them that they actually discourage people from educating themselves and learning what happens in a normal and natural labor and delivery?  The evidence is clear on this subject.

"Good patients" don't ask questions.  Sadly, the good patient often has a bad birth.  You are not a robot.  Don't act like one.