Made for This. Mary Haseltine
our being we know how much it truly does matter. And perhaps that is exactly how God designed it.
Six birth stories, each one different. I’ve been blessed by all of them, both by my babies and by my actual birth experiences. It’s clear to me now that each birth was a lesson in virtues that I desperately needed. My first taught me acceptance. My second gave me courage. My third forced me to have faith and trust. My fourth required patience. My fifth was a lesson in humility. And my sixth was a refresher course on each virtue of my previous births. I would not be the same person without each of these births.
Yes, a healthy baby and mama are the most important things. But beyond basic survival, the ability to thrive and grow and change in a birth experience is important, too. For better or worse, a couple will carry the experience of their baby’s entrance into this world forever. It only makes sense to hope, seek, and pray for a birth in which those first moments together as a family are ones that strengthen the family bond and promote love between the parents and child, and awe and gratitude to God as Creator. I’ve been blessed by six of those experiences, and I pray that every mother has the same.
Babies matter. Mamas matter. And birth matters, too.
— Micaela Darr, mom to seven on Earth and two in eternity, birth educator
A Culture of Life Is a Culture of Birth
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”— Jeremiah 1:5
When it comes to the overall culture of birth and specific practices and protocols, we might wonder if it is really a topic that concerns the Church. After all, “as long as the baby’s healthy,” right? However, the gift of a new baby is seen by the Church as the highest sign of blessing for the husband and wife and the visible reality of two people becoming fully one. Entering into the Sacrament of Matrimony, husband and wife oblige themselves to be open to life. Their “yes” to the question, “Will you accept children lovingly from God?” binds them to that promise. Babies are meant to be intimately tied with the sacrament of marriage, and every single one of those new babies enters the world by way of birth. By truly honoring birth and recognizing God’s design for new life from conception through its fullness in birth, we also honor and recognize the dignity of marriage, the dignity of each human person, and the beauty of the One who planned it that way. When we honor birth, we honor marriage. When we honor birth, we honor God.
This doesn’t mean that a good and beautiful birth is reserved for the “perfect” nuclear family, of course. Every mother and baby, regardless of their circumstances, deserves the best possible care and experience of birth because they are made in the image and likeness of God. Part of building a culture of life is advocating for the dignified treatment of every man, woman, and child at every moment, no matter the circumstances. This doesn’t end in the birth room. As pro-life people, we are obliged to care about birth practices and healthy, dignified, evidence-based birth, fighting the stigma that the pro-life community only cares that babies are born but has no concern for the way mothers and babies are treated during the process and after.
We cannot be satisfied with a baby and mother who simply survive. We need to be concerned that babies are welcomed into the world healthy, with joy, and treated in a way that recognizes their God-given dignity. We need to be concerned that the dignity of every woman is respected, especially as she actively takes on the role of motherhood. We are bound as the body of Christ to help create a culture of birth where the totality of woman and baby — mind, heart, body, and soul — is respected and where the most vulnerable among us, the newborn baby and the mother giving birth, are treated with love and evidence-based care.
Catholics and Evidence-Based Birth
Catholics should be at the forefront of the movement in our country for respectful, evidence-based birth. The Catholic Church declares that the faithful should “distinguish carefully between the rights and the duties which they have as belonging to the Church and those which fall to them as members of the human society. They will strive to unite the two harmoniously, remembering that in every temporal affair they are to be guided by a Christian conscience, since no human activity, even of the temporal order, can be withdrawn from God’s dominion.”2
This means that the Christian has an obligation both as a follower of Christ and as a plain old human to show concern for these types of life issues. Even issues that might not necessarily seem like “religious issues” are, in fact, still under the dominion of God, and his plan and law must be respected. We are called to use our well-formed consciences to discern how to live in this world, taking care to apply what we know to be true to every aspect of life. We don’t leave our faith at the doorway of the labor-and-delivery room. However, because our approach to birth and the choices we make are not specifically an issue belonging to the Church, we are free to determine the answers and approaches that best suit our particular circumstances, always doing so with the basic laws of God and the teachings of our faith in mind.
Approaching life from a Catholic worldview, we know that every mother and baby has dignity and deserves to be treated as the image of God. If birth is not safe, or if a woman or baby is demeaned during birth, or if birth practices are not evidence-based and compromise the health and even lives of women and babies, then we are not promoting a true culture of life. Unfortunately, our modern medical system often places profit and efficiency ahead of human dignity, and this is especially true in pregnancy and birth. Our legal and medical model do not even consider unborn babies real persons. Impersonal healthcare too often forces us to sacrifice intimate care tailored to our unique situation. Many providers treat mothers and babies using “factory-model” protocols and treatment. Some even operate using outdated methods. Too often mothers are not listened to during their pregnancies or given the time, respect, and up-to-date information they need to make decisions in their best interests. Far too many women have experienced what they deem a traumatic birth resulting in serious health problems (or worse) for themselves or their babies.3 Far too many women have walked away from pregnancy and birth feeling that they weren’t listened to or were pressured into choices they didn’t really want to make. Instead of receiving evidence-based, reverent care, they leave birth with wounds and scars on their bodies, yes, but also on their minds, hearts, and souls.
In the United States, many are surprised to learn that maternal morbidity rates of women are actually on the rise.4 Compared with other countries, our infant survival rate ranks behind most of Europe and Asia at an unacceptable 57th.5 The cesarean rate in the United States is more than double what is recommended as safe for mother and baby by the World Health Organization.6 Women of color have a greater number of birth complications, and their infants die at higher rates — more than double the rates of other communities.7
Costs of birth have become inflated and pose a deep hardship for many families. Countless women relay birth stories filled with interventions that were not based on real evidence, frustration with a medical system that did not listen to them, and sometimes blatant abuse or disregard for their consent in treatment from the mother for herself and her baby. There is virtually no system of real care in place for a woman after she has had her baby, and often she needs to go back to work or her “normal” life before she has recovered at even the most minimal level from the birth.
Thankfully, small steps have been taken by many providers and hospitals to change birth practices to better reflect modern evidence and to provide more dignified care for mother and baby. But there is still a long way to go.
If we claim to support the dignity of every human person, then we as Catholics must be concerned with birth. If we are asking couples to be open to life, we have to do better when it comes to supporting them through the resulting pregnancies and births with real information and respectful care. We should be a part of the move toward a better system and an essential part of the discussion of creating a culture of birth that can fit seamlessly into a greater culture that recognizes and celebrates the beauty of family, womanhood, and the irreplaceable gift of every human life. How we approach birth