This article talks about unnecessary medical intervention during childbirth, and the effects on mother and child. It also talks about the effects of psychiatric drugs on the body, and concludes with alternatives for safe and natural birth, and proven effective and holistic healing.
---Western VS. Eastern Philosophies:
According to psychologists at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US, who tracked the eye-movements of two groups of students while they looked at photographs, American individuals focus on the central objects of a photograph, while Chinese individuals pay more attention to the image as a whole.
The same way of perceiving things can be seen to be observed in the medical philosophies and cultures of the west and east.
Eastern and Western medicine differ in how illness and disease are diagnosed, treated, and prevented.
While Western medicine focuses on the parts of a system, sometimes to the point of neglecting the connections between the whole, traditional Chinese medicine takes a more holistic approach to the health and well-being of a person.
Generally speaking, Eastern medicine takes a holistic approach that looks at the entire body, spirit and mind when diagnosing and treating illness. Western medicine, on the other hand, tends to look at each system and symptom individually and leans more heavily on pharmaceuticals to treat disease and illness (excerpted from here).
The same way of perceiving things can be seen to be observed in the medical philosophies and cultures of the west and east.
Eastern and Western medicine differ in how illness and disease are diagnosed, treated, and prevented.
While Western medicine focuses on the parts of a system, sometimes to the point of neglecting the connections between the whole, traditional Chinese medicine takes a more holistic approach to the health and well-being of a person.
Generally speaking, Eastern medicine takes a holistic approach that looks at the entire body, spirit and mind when diagnosing and treating illness. Western medicine, on the other hand, tends to look at each system and symptom individually and leans more heavily on pharmaceuticals to treat disease and illness (excerpted from here).
'Western culture often views psychological symptoms as problems to be solved. Eastern practices tend to focus on taking a deeper look into a person’s life circumstances... Western medicine and psychology have traditionally viewed the mind and body as separate entities. Eastern practices take a more holistic approach and also incorporate spirituality.'
(Excerpted from here).
Unnecessary medical interventions during birth:
To understand how unnecessary medical interventions disrupt the physiology of birth, read this study.
To borrow from the study, 'Routine interventions have the potential to interfere with the processes at every point in labor and birth, leading to a cascade of other interventions (such as caesarian sections) and ultimately increasing risk for mothers and babies .'
To quote Dr. Isa Gucciardi, PHD, 'one stunted initiatory experience tends to lead to others. Incomplete initiations make it exceedingly challenging to heed the call of our biology to grow and develop as spiritual beings, to embrace each new version of ourselves as we strive to engage wholly with our life. Based on the level of interruption from unnecessary interventions in many births today, it seems reasonable to suggest that a lot of women are undergoing incomplete initiations when giving birth. The result is a spiritual crisis that can leave us feeling confused, lost, and extremely disempowered. While not often understood, an unsuccessful childbirth initiation can be linked to the common mood disorder “postpartum depression.”
I went from postpartum depression, unchecked, to bipolar manicdepression.
I had an incomplete and traumatic birth experience, which resulted in me asking for my baby and myself to be left to die on the birthing bed, tired as I was of pushing the wrong way, in the wrong position that my body was in.
This marked my descent into emotional imbalance, when the nurses and doctors took my baby away from me post-birth to do blood tests on baby, which allowed me only a minute of skin-to-skin time. My animal body probably processed her absence from me as her death during birth, otherwise, where was my baby?
The effects of psychiatric drugs on the body:
I have racked up a total of 8 admissions into the institute of mental health, Singapore (for 2 weeks to month at a time).
There, I saw so many people who suffered emotionally from being kept like prisoners, warded and medicated.
Many reported feeling numb and disinterested in the things they used to feel passionate about. I have friends who have developed akathisia, movement disorders, and involuntarily tics, due to being on prolonged use of psychiatric drugs.
Interestingly enough, if you googled Bipolar disorder TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) you would be hard-pressed to find articles and information about the condition, from an Eastern point of view.
Perhaps this is because, instead of viewing it as a mental disorder, the Chinese view it as more of a temporary emotional imbalance, a side effect or outcome of stress or stressful instances in your life.
I have been to a TCM practitioner before, once, early in my bipolar disorder diagnosis. She literally asked me 'what is bipolar disorder? Just go walk outside with your kids!' And gave me a powder concoction made of natural herbs for my body...
Safe and natural birth, and proven effective and holistic healing:
Check out these websites and search terms for further reading:
Key search terms: TCM for mental health, natural/water birth, allomothering
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About the author:
Shermin is an avid reader and explorer of the topics of human nature and well-being. She is neither a scientist or a researcher by training, but has the lived experience of someone who struggled with her mental health, adhered to the western model of healing (psychiatric drugs and hospital admissions for the birth of her children, and during episodes of emotional imbalance), and found it not only lacking, but detrimental to her long-term health (debilitating side effects, such as a feeling of numbness and disinterest, and involuntary tics).
She wrote this article as a passion project, to put together all that she has read and learned so far about the mind, body and healing.
She is currently pursuing an education in traditional Chinese medicine.
About the author:
Shermin is an avid reader and explorer of the topics of human nature and well-being. She is neither a scientist or a researcher by training, but has the lived experience of someone who struggled with her mental health, adhered to the western model of healing (psychiatric drugs and hospital admissions for the birth of her children, and during episodes of emotional imbalance), and found it not only lacking, but detrimental to her long-term health (debilitating side effects, such as a feeling of numbness and disinterest, and involuntary tics).
She wrote this article as a passion project, to put together all that she has read and learned so far about the mind, body and healing.
She is currently pursuing an education in traditional Chinese medicine.
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