Parents & Kids

Birth Is Not Like What We See In The Movies

Though Hollywood features can be quite dramatic, the real thing can provide much more entertainment.

With women opting for "free birth" or "unassisted birth" the stakes are only getting higher. Dismissing medical advice is also taking the form of a misguided practice of prolonging delivery well beyond due dates.

For some expectant mothers, there's a strong desire to have less "medicalization" of labor and delivery. It manifests itself in home births and water births for those adamantly opposed to a hospital setting. Now, “unassisted birth” goes a step further excluding a trained professional from the delivery. It's time to clarify the risks.

Dismissing this encounter as that of another entitled teen ignores a major societal problem that needs fixing.

Accidental or intentional trauma from foreign bodies represents a large chunk of the preventable injury health care burden. That's not only costly in monetary terms, but also in degrees of anguish and unnecessary suffering. Though the items and circumstances vary, no age is spared.

The knowledge of a baby being big or small is just data, not meaningful information. Context is key.

Branding normal phases of development and transitions have become a thing, mainly to sell books more than identify any new discovery. That said, the first three months of a baby’s life after birth and mom’s postpartum period is a rather unique time for many reasons.

Ideology, not medical reality, has infected much of modern parenting. The most compelling pediatric articles -- centered around misguided activism that still persists -- focused on infant feeding, vaccines and mom-shaming.

By encouraging the avoidance of unpleasant things and equalizing all degrees of suffering, our culture has overcorrected to the point of hampering child development.

Marketing normal development manufactures a problem in need of a solution, which typically appears in the form of an expensive product. As a result, the vulnerability and fears of new parents get most exploited.

Kids are more resilient than you think, but are also magical thinkers. In the absence of direct communication from a parent, they will create their own narrative which can foster greater worry.