When you have a baby, what is the position you need to take while you have a baby?
You probably think you need to go into the hospital, get an epidural and either lie on your back or be semi sitting with your feet in stirrups pushing out your baby.
It's the way all the movies portray it, the way our parents did it, the way it happens in North America...
Right?
Here's the thing.
You don't have to. You don't have to lie down on your back if you don't want to.
In fact, most women given the choice will not lie on their back. They'll naturally choose other positions such as hands and knees, squatting, standing or other positions such as side lying rather than lying on their back.
Women have been choosing whatever position they felt fit up until the past hundred years or so when birth became incorporated into the hospital setting.
"However, despite these proposed benefits of pushing in an upright position, most women in the U.S. give birth either lying on their backs (57%) or in a semi-sitting/lying position with the head of the bed raised up (35%). A small minority of women give birth in alternative positions such as side lying (4%), squatting or sitting (3%), or hands-knees position (1%) (Declercq, Sakala et al. 2007)." Source.
The Reason Why
So why the change then?
It's from a combination of reasons.
Epidurals - epidurals are a needle inserted into your back and administer a medication that helps numb the pain. Source. However, with more numbing, the less moving you can do. Eventually you end up being unable to move your legs, only to have an OB/GYN and nurses telling how where to put your legs and how to push with directed pushing due to being unable to feel anything properly.
Provider Preference - with the rise of OB/GYNs doing the hospital deliveries and all women birthing in the hospital, it's only expected that there would be a fundamental shift in how women birth. OB/GYNs are taught to manage high risk births; to take control of a situation when things could or are going wrong. Low risk women however do not need this maintenance but that hasn't stopped the views from the provider. It's for the convenience and easier "maintenance" of a birth.
The following is a quote from a reddit thread you can find Here:
"mobrn 83 points 3 years ago
Labor and delivery nurse here: Pure convenience for the medical practitioner. Utter bullshit, I might add. Whenever I can (epidural or not, because you can move with a really good, well placed, epidural, you can move) I get my patients into supported squats (with a bar, with my help, the help of family members), on their hands and knees, onto the toilet. Birth is ACTION. Lying down is not normal :("
Public education - this one is HUGE. When you've been taught that there are certain positions you should take through educational literature such as the picture below.
This book is titled Healthy Beginnings - Giving your baby the best start from preconception to birth. It's approved by the society of obstetricians and gynaecologists of Canada. Of course then it would have writings that are skewed to the preferences of OB/GYNs who do most deliveries in Canada.
What Can Be Done Then?
With an epidural, you can change positions or even birth in other positions. Check out Penny Simpkins info graphic on safe birthing positions with an epidural below. You do not have to lie on your back with feet in stirrups just because you have an epidural.
Education is key. Take to the internet and do some of your own research. For example on Evidence Based Births page found here:,
In comparison with non-upright positions, women who were randomly assigned to upright positions were:
23% less likely to have a forceps or vacuum-assisted delivery
21% less likely to have an episiotomy
You can also take to pinterest and find a multitude of pushing positions or other ideas to help you achieve a more natural birth. This image was from pinterest.
Birthing upright or on hands and knees help open the pelvis whereas lying on your back pushes your tailbone into the birth canal making it easier for the baby to get stuck, harder to push the baby out and ups the chance of fetal distress.
Finally, if you have a care provider that's pushy about you lying on your back, you can tell them "no", "I do not consent" or you could even fire them.
Yes, you have the RIGHT to FIRE your care provider(s) EVEN in mid birth if you are not happy with their care. Anything they try to do to you further makes them fully liable in court.
Choose The Birth Position Right For You.
This is your birth, this is your baby and you have the RIGHT to do whatever you want that makes you the most comfortable. If that is by birthing on your back, go for it. That's up to you. That may very well be the most comfortable position you want to be in, but it shouldn't be from you feeling like you HAVE to be on your back or being forced by your care provider.
Check out my other birth and breastfeeding posts on steemit 
Breastfeeding; The Successful Struggle
What Is A Doula?
Birth In The Hospital; An Unintentional Birth Control
Breastfeeding - 9 Tips To Determine If Your Care Provider Is Supportive
Having Trouble With The Breastpump? A Big Reason May Be This...