Historical Perspectives on Childbirth Practices

The reason why you lie on your back when giving birth is because one

European king had a fetish for watching women's private

parts while they put to birth. So he made women keep their

legs wide open during childbirth.

You see, early humans understood that bringing a life

into this world was not an easy task, and the woman

needed all the help that she could get.

In that common sense, they figured out that the same way animals

gave birth in the wild, standing or either squatting,

gravity was the primary doctor and nurse in this scene,

which would naturally make childbirth easier.

And so in ancient Africa, this was the standard

procedure. But somewhere in Europe was King Louis.

Some people called him the Sun King, which for some reason had a

thing for watching women put to birth, and the position that made

this easier was lying on your back.

Lying on your back meant easier to see, but

also harder to birth. Putting to birth was supposed to

follow the woman's body, not the audience.

But still, this became a standard.

So labors became long, slow, painful,

unnecessarily painful. Yet generations of women

were trained to put to birth this way, in a way that made

it more comfortable for someone else except the mother.

Same women who would later become missionaries, going to share

the gospel to a continent. Guess the continent.

Africa. With the gospel came lessons that we did not

need. Our midwives reschooled,

retrained on how to deliver babies in a

position that was easier for the king of another land

to watch. And this knowledge soon became integrated

into our schools, from schools to hospitals.

Centuries later, our mothers, sisters,

daughters can't stop lying on their back, even when the

king isn't watching anymore. Even though recent Europeans have come to

debunk this kind of history, there is also no

counterclaim proving otherwise.

I mean, who would love to have a bad name on their

family history?

So my question now is to the professionals in these fields,

the

African professionals in these fields, when was the last time

you looked around and challenged practices, things

that do not really favor our people, our bodies,

our climate, our environment? And I also

wonder how many foolish practices we carry out,

practices that we do not really understand their origin, but we

carry them out because this is what we came to see.

Truly, it is easier to deceive a people than to

convince them that they've been deceived.