Honestly, are there any bigger hypocrites than natural mothering advocates?
Their philosophy is based on the belief that childbirth and breastfeeding evolved to be perfect. They tell themselves and each other that women are perfectly “designed” (or evolved, if you prefer) to give birth vaginally without pain medication and therefore that must be best. Women are perfectly “designed” (or evolved, if you prefer) to breastfeed exclusively and for years at a time, so that must also be best. In nature, women co-slept with their babies, so — regardless of the demonstrated increased risk of death to babies — co-sleeping must be best. After all, anything that promotes breastfeeding is, by their definition, best for babies even if it kills them.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Why aren’t women who advocate slavish devotion to what “nature intended” for childbirth and breastfeeding equally insistent on early and frequent pregnancies?[/pullquote]
But fertility and child spacing were also “designed” by nature (or evolution, if you prefer). Here’s what natural fertility and child spacing looked like:
- Menarche was age 16 or so
- Childbearing began in the late teens
- Women could not control fertility
- The average woman experienced 8-10 pregnancies
- Life expectancy was 35 years
So why aren’t women who advocate slavish devotion to what “nature intended” for childbirth, breastfeeding and co-sleeping equally insistent on early and frequent pregnancies?
Shouldn’t every woman become sexually active within a year or so of menarche?
When sexually active, shouldn’t every woman eschew fertility control of any kind?
Shouldn’t childbearing start in the late teens?
Shouldn’t women be perpetually pregnant or nursing, only rarely having menstrual periods?
Shouldn’t every woman have 8-10 pregnancies or more?
Wait, what? That’s not convenient/desirable/compatible with contemporary lifestyles?
So? If convenience/desire/compatibility with contemporary lifestyle aren’t justifications for epidurals, formula feeding and infants sleeping in cribs, how can they be justifications for women to control fertility, delay childbearing and limit the number of children they have?
Isn’t there something fundamentally unnatural about any women who delays childbirth until her late twenties or even late thirties?
If it’s “selfish” to have an epidural or formula feed, isn’t it equally selfish to delay childbirth until you’ve found your soulmate?
Delaying childbearing for a career? There were no careers in nature.
Early and frequent pregnancies are harmful to women’s health? How could that be if women are “perfectly designed” to have early and frequent pregnancies?
Tell us, natural mothering advocates, if women are supposed to “trust” birth and breastfeeding, why shouldn’t they trust unhindered fertility and frequent childbearing?
Inquiring minds want to know!
