Quote of the week
In 1982, psychiatrist Ronald Laing wrote: "We do not see childbirth in many obstetric units now. What we see resembled childbirth as much as artificial insemination resembles sexual intercourse. Or a tube feed resembles eating a meal. The act of birth is abolished. . . . And birth, as a home and family event, has virtually been cultured out." It is a question of power, said Laing. "Women are allowed or not to have their babies at home. In hospital, they are allowed or not to move, scream or sing, stand, walk, sit, or squat. . . . Fathers are allowed or not. Women are allowed, even encouraged, in some places, to ask question, but not too many. Women are allowed or not to have their babies after birth. . . . To allow is to exercise as much, if not more power, than to forbid."
The article is only findable in a cached form at the moment so I will hunt further for it.
