At a time when the NHS is being pinched on all fronts, it emerges that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is proposing to make elective caesareans at public expense a right for all prospective mothers.

This is a big deal, a social sea-change. Many mothers and prospective mums will cheer. But opposition will unite the most hippy-looking members of the natural-birth movement with the fiercest exponents of public-sector cuts. One imagines a “Continuity NCT” or “Real NCT” emerging, and it wearing wooden beads and being scary.

The most treacherous ground of all, in this debate – and yet the ground over which the most vicious battles are fought – is the superiority of “natural” birth. Beware anyone who uses “natural” as a praise-word. It is an empty, and often brutal, sentimentality.

The “natural” order of things was historically invoked to justify slavery, colonial domination and the oppression of women, among other things. My late uncle used to scoff at those who regarded homosexuality as “unnatural” – pointing out that it occurs in nature, and that the lord provided us with all the equipment necessary for the “unnatural” and enjoyable practices associated with it. [Read more...]