Birth without violence, part 2

I may have led you to believe, based on my last posting, that I am a convert to Leboyer's birthing method.  But this is not true.  I have certain reservations.

Unlike some of the more recent popular proponents for natural home birth who tend to strongly advocate for the mother, Leboyer focuses on the baby's well-being.  You might say the Leboyer's chief insight is pointing out the neglect of the baby in the birthing process.  But then Leboyer's method begs the question about the mother's well being.  In his concerns for the baby's emotional well-being, Leboyer prescribes a silent delivery room.  Now, perhaps this can be a useful part of giving birth peacefully, but hey, maybe the mother has let out some steam!

I didn't look a lot into criticisms of Leboyer and his methods, but I looked a bit (and also checked out a bit of the scholarship).  I looked at this brief article from People's magazine, archived from 1976, which superficially explores Leboyer's own life experiences.  It is telling that the motivation for his technique stems, at least partly, from Freudian analysis which allowed Leboyer to relive his own traumatic birth.  Also, what must be acknowledged by Leboyer and all men, and that which I am happy to acknowledge myself, is that we, men, cannot have access to the birthing experience.  

Partly I think that I am drawn to Leboyer's method because I suspect that maybe my own birth experience could have been better too (see, this is the personal part of blogging that I committed to in my previous post).  Maybe if my mother had something closer to a natural birth and chose to breastfeed, I might be a more naturally compassionate person.

Having a new baby is like buying a new car.  For the first few weeks, you fuss all over it, you wash and wax it, smell it.  Then you start noticing a scratch here and a ding there, and you relax.  Still, it's important to do what you can to give the baby a good start.  Without going crazy, in following the guidelines to a healthy pregnancy with some attention paid to the fetus when it can hear you, and having a healthy birth, you are doing what you can for the baby and for you.