High epidural rates, society vs. reality

Why is it that such a high percentage of women takes an epidural? Many pro-natural birth advocates claim it's because health care providers don't tell women all about the negative side effects, and that women don't educate themselves enough.

I think the problem lies in a much, much earlier stage, long before the woman even becomes pregnant. I think the main problem is not (only) that pregnant women are not informed enough by their caregivers, I think that society as a whole plays a main role.

Let me explain.

When births moved into hospitals, the doctors didn't fail to close the doors behind them. Birth literally happens behind closed doors. In the beginning, the woman wasn't even allowed to have anybody with her, including her husband.
Before that, birth happened at home with a midwife, and was very much part of society. Often, the woman would be assisted by her husband (sometimes), her sister, her mother, her neighbor. Birth was a normal part of daily life.
So when birth moved behind the closed doors of the hospital, the societal familiarity of birth also disappeared.
What remains, is whatever trickles out from behind those hospital doors, and that's mainly horror stories.

I believe that there are 2 reasons for that:

1) I think that birth in a hospital, under hospital circumstances, has not really been an improvement for the circumstances of the mother. It generally did not make her birth experience better, quite the opposite. It has been like this for 3 generations already, since the 1920's approximately. Which means that in most cases, even our grandmothers didn't know anything else. So in a short century time, this has become our knowledge of the birth process.

2) Horror stories make for much juicier stories, so they're more likely to go around.

So this is how our society has gotten to know birth. Hollywood also adds some very unrealistic views, even though they generally leave out the epidural (and every other gory detail).
Society's view of birth has become distorted. One of the clear messages society gives about birth is that it's unmanageable without an epidural, and birth is a medical emergency. And we've been brainwashed with these messages ever since we were little.

As a childbirth educator I try to set the record straight about birth. But when I get a young, newly married 21 year old scared little birdie who is heavily pregnant, and I need to tell her that birth really isn't this big scary monster, it's already too late. It won't be able to take those fears away because they're too deeply instilled.
And that is where my frustration lies.

Stumble It!