What is in a name? Normal or Physiological Birth

#Normal or #Physiological?

The RCM  have caused a media storm by commenting on the removal of the 'Normal Birth' campaign - which was actually replaced by 'Better Births' in 2014 - THREE YEARS AGO.
But the media picked up on recent comments from Cathy Warwick and created headlines focused on the notion that midwives are giving up on 'normal' birth. The change from calling vaginal childbirth 'normal' birth to 'physiological' was based on the information from mothers and families, and maternal and neonatal death reports.

The reports come off the back of the Kirkup report following the Morecambe Bay investigation. Maternal and Neonatal deaths were found to have been preventable and it was based on a small number of dominant individuals promoting normal birth over medical intervention.
Unfortunately this tarred all midwives with the same brush, creating a barrier between medical and midwifery staff. This report focused on the actions of 3 individual midwives, which did not represent the profession.
In my experience (which I write most of my blog posts upon) I have never seen a midwife reject medical intervention without first using their training, education and clinical judgement.
As a student midwife it is important to us that we understand and respect evidence-based care, and use the guidelines and policies created on the back of research to form our decision making process and referral to medical staff process.

Two terms that were noted upon by journalists were the terms 'Wait and see' and 'Use your intuition'. 
To a lay person, this seems like a dangerous and sometimes worrying approach to risk factors in childbirth. However we used these terms while still using clinical judgement and evidence based practice as paramount.

So what about the normal/abnormal debate? Many mothers noted that they felt guilty, ashamed or judged for choosing c-section, having an emergency c-section or for choosing pain relief such as an epidural. For midwives, and student midwives we are taught normal for us to identify when processes and progress becomes outwith normal parameters, e.g. blood pressure = PET, fetal heart rate monitoring = fetal distress.
We are taught and learn 'normal' as spontaneous vaginal birth. This doesn't mean we do not have the support and care for mothers who choose, or have to have emergency operative procedures. 

The change to physiological as a name is, in my opinion, just looking for a different word which means the SAME thing. The definition of physiological is...