How Did We Get Here? The Hijacking of Birth
Birth hasn’t always looked like this.
Cold rooms. Bright lights. Strapped down. Hooked up. Monitored. Managed.
We’ve come to accept this as normal, but it’s anything but.
Once upon a time, birth was something sacred.
It unfolded quietly in the home, supported by other women -the grandmother, the neighbor, the friend. It was instinctual, intuitive, and deeply rooted in community.
But something changed. Something was taken.
The Shift From Home to Hospital
At the turn of the 20th century, birth began its slow, calculated migration out of the home and into the hands of physicians. Not because it was safer, but because it was profitable.
Physicians saw an opportunity, a big opportunity.
Half the population are women. All women who give birth become patients. And with that came a steady, lucrative business, mothers and babies as a financial resource.
In Canada and the U.S., doctors began campaigning hard. They told women it was safer to give birth in hospitals. They warned of the dangers of childbirth at home. They marketed themselves as the saviours of birth, going door to door offering hospital tours and showcasing “modern” interventions. Sterility. Technology. White coats. It all looked so advanced, so safe.
And yet, the early outcomes were horrific. (they’re still horrific!!)
Infection rates soared. Deaths increased. Forceps deliveries, ether anesthesia, twilight sleep—women were subjected to violent, invasive procedures that tore them from their bodies and their babies. Trauma wasn’t the exception, it was the norm.
But none of that mattered. The machine had been set in motion.
The Criminalization of Midwifery
As hospital birth took over, traditional midwives, the very women who had served their communities for generations, were pushed out, discredited, and in many cases, criminalized.
In Canada, midwifery was made illegal in most provinces by the 1940s.
It wasn’t until 1994 that it was finally re-regulated in Ontario. But by then, the damage was done. Generations of women had grown up hearing only hospital birth stories, stories of “thank goodness we were at the hospital,” stories of cords around necks, slow labors, breech babies, inductions, meconium, babies too big or too small…
Stories of being saved.
But what they didn’t tell you is how many women left those experiences feeling broken.
Not empowered. Not whole.
Just grateful to have survived.
The Truth Behind the Statistics
Today, the outcomes speak for themselves.
1 in 3 births in Canada ends in a C-section.
1 in 4 women suffer from postpartum depression.
And the leading cause of death in mothers during the first year postpartum is suicide.
Let that sink in.
We are not doing better.
In fact, the technocratic model of birth has failed us. The so-called “gold standard” of care leaves too many women physically wounded, emotionally traumatized, and stripped of their dignity.
Birth has become something to endure, not something to cherish.
A means to an end. Not a rite of passage.
What Are We Doing to Our Mothers and Babies?
Well, the truth is, we’ve been lied to.
We’ve been told that hospitals are the safest place to give birth. That we need constant testing. That only machines can confirm if our baby is okay. That pain is dangerous. That we can’t trust our bodies.
But birth is not an emergency.
It’s not a medical event.
It’s just birth.
Hospitals are designed for emergencies—not for the sacred unfolding of life.
As women, we were literally designed to do this.
To grow our babies.
To birth them.
To nourish them.
It is the most natural thing in the world. There is no flaw in this design. It works.
And this is not how women should become mothers.
Afraid, ashamed, broken…
Women should enter motherhood feeling strong, capable and the most empowered they have ever felt.
Reclaiming the Truth
That’s why we created the Reclaiming Birth Conference—to remember what was nearly lost, and to remind each other that there is another way. A way that honors the body. The mother. The baby.
Birth doesn’t have to be scary.
You don’t need machines or permission or endless ultrasounds to tell you that your baby is growing and that you are enough.
You are enough.
Your body knows what to do.
You can reclaim birth.
The system sells a false sense of security.
It promises safety, but it cannot guarantee outcomes. No one can.
What it does guarantee is control over your body, your birth, and your story.
They say they can save every baby. Prevent every problem. Be the hero in every room.
But those are illusions, carefully crafted to keep you afraid and dependent.
And in the process, women are robbed.
Robbed of the very experience that could have made them feel powerful, connected, and alive.
Robbed of the rite of passage into motherhood.
But there is another way.
A better way.
A true way.
One rooted in trust, not fear.
One that honors birth as sacred, not pathological.
One that reminds you who you are, and what your body was made to do.
We don’t need to change the system.
We need to change ourselves.
We need to go back, back to doing this ourselves.
Back to trusting our bodies. Back to women supporting women. Back to real care.
It’s time.
With love,
Christina Rigutto
Co-founder Reclaming Birth Conference
@wild.spirit.birth