Quotes by Jennifer Block

Today, whats normal is being redefined: from vaginal birth to surgical birth; from My water broke, to Lets break your water; from Its time to Its time for the induction. As medical anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd writes, in the early twenty-first century, we do not know what normal birth is. Most practicing obstetricians have never witnessed an unplugged birth that wasnt an accident. Women are even beginning to deny normal birth to themselves: if normal means being induced, immobilized by wires and tubes, sped up with drugs, all the while knowing that theres a good chance of surgery, well, might as well just cut to the chase, so to speak. Just give me a cesarean, some are saying. And who can blame them? They want to avoid what they think of as normal birth.

Among industrialized countries, the U.S. ranks 29th in infant survival.

The context needs to be that the goal is a healthy mom. Because mothers never make decisions without thinking about that healthy baby. And to suggest otherwise is insulting and degrading and disrespectful.