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Appropriate technology for birth

Abstract:

(Marsden Wagner is the World Health Organisation's Director of Perinatal Health Care Services: European region. There is probably no better indicator of the approach that is taken to birth than the way in which technology is used at the time of birth. Consequently, as might be expected, supporters of the medical model of birth and supporters of the social model of birth hold widely different views of birth technology. In the medical model, a reliance on technology is the natural outgrowth of the mechanistic view of the body. The body is a complex, rather imperfect machine whose efficiency can be improved by other machinery. It is important to react to signals from, or information about the body, but those reported by the patient are subjective and qualitative. Machines, which relay quantitative and objective information directly from the body, are more reliable. The social model presents a contrasting set of beliefs. According to the social model, a crucial ethical and practical dilemma at present is an uncertainty about the nature of technology, its real benefits and hazards, and the extent to which perople are able to make informed choices about how and where technology may influence and dominate the structure of everyday life.

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medical model of maternity care, physiological birth, social model of maternity care