What Women Want: A Positive Birth Experience AND A Safe and Healthy Birth

In India today, in many urban hospitals, interventions and Cesarean rates are at 80 to 90%. The scale is heavily tipped towards the hospitals and the medical system, where the birthing women’s voices and choices remain largely unheard. Women are often told “You have a healthy baby, isn’t that good enough?” So, do women just want to “survive birth”? Or do they expect more? Does their experience matter? This is what we set out to find.

We asked women who came into our Midwife – led care about why they chose our practice? We asked them to talk about what they learned about themselves along the way. We asked them about what factors were important to them in their birth journeys . And we asked those of them that had already birthed their babies, to talk about their birth experiences.

What we heard from them, validated our notions of why we do what we do – all the 24×7 support, all the counseling, all the education we give them – every one of these things, played vital roles in the woman’s experiences surrounding her pregnancy and birth.

This is what came out strong and clear:
A woman who is encouraged, supported and empowered, can make good choices for herself, her baby, and her family with positivity. A woman who is given respectful maternity care, remembers every minute detail of her experience vividly. The woman’s husband/partner feels equally supported and is able to welcome their baby with love and a sense of awe. And, both parents report extraordinary positive experiences, that they will carry with them for a lifetime.

The Sanctum Midwives are honored to have accompanied all of these brave women and their families in their life-changing birth journeys!