Jennifer Block is an accomplished journalist and book author with a passion for women’s health. Her book, Pushed: the Painful Truth About Childbearing and Modern Maternity Care, compares the incompetence of childbirth care in the United States with European practices.

Block and local health professionals will speak at “The Birth Circle Symposium: Birth in America” from 6:30 to 9 tonight in the Multicultural Room at Baker University Center. The event will feature a screening of the documentary The Business of Being Born, which offers a critique of birth practices in the United States. The event is $3 for students, and general admission is $10 in advance and $15 at the door. The Post’s Ashley Lutz spoke with Block about the problems with childbirth care and how it pertains to college women today.

The Post: As a journalist and book author, how did you become so passionate about women’s health?
Block: I always had an interest in it and when I landed at Ms. I was editing the health section… So many women’s health issues are influenced by politics, like birth control and abortion. I’m interested in the struggle for autonomy and freedom, and women’s health is right there. I first got interested in childbirth because it’s one of those compelling miracles that you see but when I began to realize that it’s become political I was really interested.

Post: Why do you think that childbirth has become a political issue?
Block: Women were facing the same struggles as with controlling their fertility and deciding how many children to have. The birth process is another reproductive right to choose that wasn’t getting attention. Women who get caesarean sections have trouble finding a doctor willing to give them a vaginal birth with subsequent children. In fact, hundreds of hospitals have banned this. It’s not allowed because of fears of complications, such as placenta problems or fear of uterine rupture. However, this is rare and less likely to happen if a woman’s labor is natural and not induced… Gynecologists say women should be able to make this choice but policies put out are very restrictive. Hospitals say forget it. At the bottom of it is simply fear of losing a lawsuit.

Post: Do you suggest any solutions?
Block: …I think that for things to really change, women need to want and demand better care. Many assume that because we’re in the United States, an affluent nation, they are getting the best care possible. Research tells us the optimal birth is to have one as close to the physiological process as possible, with no epidural or inducing of birth. The birth process is something the body does all by itself. Standard of care has become to induce labor with drugs, to speed up labor with drugs, to move to a caesarean without supporting the physiological birth process. This immobilizes women in labor.

Post: Why is the midwife system more optimal?
Block: Midwives can position the woman to help the baby out along the way. Women can’t move positions when they’re on a constant fetal monitor and numb from the waist down. The vast majority of women are leaning back, which is the worst for the baby because it increases the likelihood of tears and can cut off oxygen to baby. Let labor begin on its own, progress on its own without drugs… Women want safest, healthiest experience possible and assume that a top-notch hospital or doctor could know where that is… This century needs to move toward a European model: 60 to 70 percent of births in countries like Britain and the Netherlands are performed by a midwife, but only eight percent of U.S. births are. Yet these countries have lower rates of complication and infant mortality.

Post: How is this issue relevant to college students, who may not plan to give birth for years?
Block: I think it’s really important because college women are interested and thankful that they get this information when they do. A lot of women don’t get the information until after they’ve had a traumatic birth experience. I think it’s really important for all women to know this because birth is a huge event in a woman’s life for their health. When you talk to women about the birth experience it can either be empowering or traumatic, and it’s important for college women to know what to expect: even if maybe they won’t be giving birth for a few years.