Freebirth Isn't Natural
Classical Philosophy’s Answer to “Natural Birth”
This week: Featured Author Helen Roy critiques the rhetoric of the natural birth movement, especially the promotion of unassisted “freebirth.” Can classical philosophy help find a new understanding of what it means to be “natural”?
Freebirth Isn’t Natural
Helen Roy
As a homebirth mom who made my decision because I felt the hospitals had strayed too far from their mission, I now worry that the purveyors of “natural birth” rhetoric have strayed too far from theirs by neglecting the question of prudence, the possibility of good doctors, and the reality of the dangers of childbirth. The hubristic, radical autonomy implicit to the “free birth” movement, in particular, is not a proper “return to nature.” It is a fetishization of chaos made plausible by the dehumanizing betrayals of modern medicine. Ironically, this glorification of disorder is itself a betrayal of nature, despite its naturalistic, crunchy exterior.
Is there a middle ground?
This Week in Sex-Realist Feminism: Post-Truth Medicine, Coercive Persuasion, and Detransitioning as an Adult
This week: Helen Joyce on how gender "medicine" subverts standard medical practice, Eliza Mondegreen on the online trans community as a cult, and Roxxanne "Tiger" Reed on transitioning—and now detransitioning—as an adult. Plus: giving mothers cash, gender divides American medical associations, the autonomy trap—and more!
From the Archives:
In this exclusive excerpt from The Detransition Diaries, Jennifer Lahl and Kallie Fell tell the stories of girls who transitioned in part due to internalized misogyny.
Afraid to Be Female
Jennifer Lahl and Kallie Fell
How do we stop this internalized misogyny? How do we learn to let children live outside the boundaries of gender stereotypes without labeling them “nonbinary” and ushering them to the closest gender clinic? How do we make this world safe for girls to grow up female?