{"id":322,"date":"2014-05-19T19:37:13","date_gmt":"2014-05-19T19:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=322"},"modified":"2015-10-13T19:06:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:06:35","slug":"how-to-give-birth-the-right-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2014\/05\/19\/how-to-give-birth-the-right-way\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Give Birth the “Right” Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mila Kunis recently announced that she will be giving birth naturally,<\/a> saying \u201cI did this to myself – I might as well do it right.\u201d By \u201cnatural,\u201d Kunis means that she will be using a midwife when she gives birth and opting out of the hospitalized, medically-induced birthing experience that dominates in American society today. Kunis is just one, albeit highly publicized, instance in a larger move away from the hospitalized birthing experience to \u201chome birth.\u201d<\/a> However, this shift is not without its conflicts, and Kunis\u2019 statement that natural birth is \u201cdoing it right\u201d points to deeper societal perceptions of the right way to give birth and how those perceptions of what is \u201cnatural\u201d might be changing.<\/p>\n

The media often frames this increase in home births as potentially dangerous and problematic, but women were giving birth at home long before they started going to hospitals. The medicalized model of childbirth is a fairly recent product of a larger shift in societal acceptance of professional science over local knowledge.<\/h5>\n