• Promotion and worship of medical prowess. Some members of the obstetric fraternity consider their knowledge and skills so valuable that they see no harm in supplanting natural law with man’s cleverness. Since they can divert the path of a baby they accept every invitation to do so, irrespective of the need. “I can, therefore I will” is their motto. Women who choose an elective caesarean no doubt worship these people as saviours, and those who perform the operations are only too happy to fulfil that role – for a hefty fee of course.
• The modern fanaticism for “choice”. In the supermarket of lifestyle options, some women now celebrate that they can be relieved of the tyranny of their reproductive nature. From the 28 little white pills which save them any need to understand their fertility cycle so as to have sex on any day of their choice, to childbirth by appointment on a day at a time of their choice, the ego no doubt enjoys this apparent self empowerment and freedom. But in fact such choices are examples of self weakening and enslavement to others.
• The belief that caesarean section is safer for mother and baby than vaginal birth. This has been statistically proven as untrue, and has never been true. The myth has built up due to misunder-standing and misrepresentation of the figures showing a fall in peri-natal deaths as being connected to an increase in caesarean childbirths. A proper examination shows that reduced peri-natal death has much more to do with the improved paediatric procedures than with the rise in obstetric interventions like caesarean delivery. As well, over the same period there has been no substantial change in maternal deaths(15).
• Biased media reporting. Most reportage of childbirth in the media serves to reinforce the existing stereotypes and boost the cause for elective caesareans – that vaginal childbirth is unbearable; that medical science is going to save the world; that caesarean childbirth is happily becoming more the norm; that such modernist trends are the way to go; that women should have choice, choice, choice; that the birthing naturalists are either quaint, deluded, old fashioned or just too radical to be taken seriously.
• Fear of pain. Caesarean childbirth is not pain free. Whilst the operation may be, for several days or sometimes weeks afterwards you may be in more pain with less mobility than on the day of labour.
• Pressure from the partner. Some men are afraid of the results a vaginal birth may have on their sex life but this rarely

eventuates due to physical factors. Such outcomes are more likely due to the psychosexual insecurities of the man. Some men are secretly afraid of the raw sexual power of a vaginal birth and attracted to the nonsexual and clinical nature of a caesarean birth. Some men are equally as afraid of pain as their partners, and instinctively sense they will feel powerless to help them during labour. Power-lessness is to be avoided at all costs for these men and therefore they may willingly support and even actively encourage their partner to go for the caesarean option.
• Powerlessness. Equally as for men, there are women who cannot stand to be in a position of powerlessness and for them natural childbirth represents a fearsome challenge to their sense of control. Here, delegating the delivery to a professional, relieves them of that situation and maintains their control over the birth. The baby is of no consequence in this scenario, it is relegated to powerlessness too. What a start to life.
• Vaginal Vanity. Like many men, many women worry that vaginal birth will adversely affect their sex life. They see the vagina as primarily a passage for pleasure brought about by sex, rather than for childbirth brought about by pleasurable sex. They worry about the pain and healing which might arise from an episiotomy or tearing. All these things are easily avoidable and recovered from in ways far simpler than major abdominal surgery.
• Desire for an unconscious childbirth. Even if one is awake and conscious during a caesarean, it is only a partially conscious event. Due to the anaesthetic, the body will have no muscle-memory of the event (just the afterpains!), the mind will have no transcendental experience, and the heart will have no full connection with the birthing process. In short there will be no personal transformation. The detachment of it all will keep the woman safe from any chance of psychological challenge. I really wonder why anyone would actually desire and plan for this to be the case, unless they consider that a child should be “delivered” like a parcel from the postman. Material acquisition is the concept which comes to mind here. The child’s birth has been reduced to the same status as purchase of goods whereby the woman gets the end result without any part in its actual production.
• Convenience of time. This would have to be the most superficial reason one could think of to elect for a caesarean – simply to fit labour in to some social or employment schedule. Have they not considered that a child has its own needs to come when ready?