Interesting article - delete if not allowed

I went to the trouble to sign up with The Guardian to comment, only to be told that comments for this article are closed.

I am very suspicious that the article is actually an advertisement for the same medical/pharmaceutical industry *causing* the types of injuries described here.

First of all, physical injuries are not caused by giving birth! Maternal injury is caused largely by medical interventions. This woman sustained a fourth degree “tear” during a hospital birth, evidenced by her symptom that it is “next to impossible to hold in flatulence.” Such injury is very uncommon in a home birth setting. Rarely does a tear continue down the midline to extend through the anal sphincter. Episiotomies do that.

Links to both the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School are provided in the article, the very heart of the medicalization of women’s health. The medical system has never tried to take a holistic approach to prolapse, but rather pushed the same propaganda over and over.

The non-surgical stance of the article appears to be a cover-up to gain the reader’s confidence. The author’s suggestion of “…biofeedback, electrical stimulation, and core strengthening exercises.” is simply more of the same.

When you click on the link to contribute to the Guardian’s cause, “The Mother Load”, very little information is given about how your money will be spent. They’ve raised over $46,000 so far and one has to wonder who the major contributors are…Ethicon? Pfizer? Merck?

The “medical and pharmaceutical communities” will never return women to health because that is not the business they are in. Gynecology has never been about “women’s health”, but rather a massive drug and surgical industry for which women’s bodies are fodder.

This certainly isn’t the first article of its kind. I am continuously frustrated by similar articles placed in news outlets like the Daily Mail, where comments are not even allowed. Since its inception the American Medical Association has had a vast media outreach web dedicated to the distribution of its propaganda.

Imho, articles like these are the medical version of “fake news.”

I might consider cancelling my NYT subscription over this one!! Take a read:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-hys...

Christine - can you try to contact the author?

Surviving - really??? That’s article is awful

Christine - not everyone can have a home birth, I didn’t want to risk a chance of something happening to baby and so did natural w midwife in hospital - she was hands off and no interventions but still tore pretty bad (in my opinion) and was upright for the whole thing. I also know people who have 3rd or 4th degree tears and no episiotomy but what really grossed me out is that they still use forceps and the stories I’ve read about the damage to the women that causes. It’s like all that matters is the baby end result.

I think we will be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing, given that "women's health" forms a huge part of the GNP. Big Pharma and Big Medicine go hand in hand with Big Business and the present political climate. God help us all.

Yes, severe tears happen in natural childbirth, but they are rare. Ina May Gaskin delivered over 3,000 babies during her career as a home birth midwife and her experience supports this fact. Michel Odent, the world's leading authority on natural vs hospital birth has shown how even birthing in the unnatural hospital setting can lead to anxiety and the cascade of intervention.

That’s true it was extremely scary and so many random people coming in and out, unsupportive and weird environment. I don’t know the perfect answer though.
I don’t know if the article is fake or not, just nice to hear people talking about it as you never hear it.