How Modern Thinking Increases Childbirth Fear

As a follow up to my last essay about Childbirth PTSD, I’d intended to publish a comprehensive guide to childbirth—specifically focused on ways to reduce our vulnerability to trauma—but when I sat down to pull it together, I realized there is far too much to say to fit into one or even a few posts. And while I do intend to develop a practical guide, I feel called to examine childbirth through a philosophical lens first, which I’ll trickle out in a series of essays—beginning with this one, which argues that while certain technologies have obviously made childbirth safer (and mercifully so!), the belief system inculcated into all those who inhabit a technocratic society grossly distorts our relationship to nature, which works to increase childbirth fear, leading to worse birth outcomes and lower rates of satisfaction, which then drives more fear.

Next week, in Part II, we’ll look at how our similarly distorted relationship to our flesh-and-blood bodies increases our perception of labor p…