I have never been to Euskadi (better known in the rest of Spain as the Basque Country), but since it is news for being the autonomous community with more vaginal deliveries and consequently a lower rate of caesarean sections, my curiosity has grown greatly.
I want to meet those strange women who give birth, 85% of the time, through their vagina. I imagine them big, huge. Some with green skin, others with completely black eyes, such as a pupil that formed the entire eyeball, others less striking at first sight, but tough and powerful, all taller than taller men and giving birth with ease , practically alone, receiving their babies as one who heats a glass of milk: "Hey, Iñaki, remember to bring diapers when you leave work, which I gave birth to the girl a while ago."
And births, how should they be?
And I imagine the births as someone who stops for a moment to sneeze, stopping the world, after an apology: "one moment, my baby is going to be born ... give me five minutes and we continue walking". And one of those great and strange women turns aside for a moment, looks for a little privacy, takes off her clothes, bends down and emits a throaty groan as she grabs her baby that comes out after a single contraction, sliding down the canal of childbirth as a fish slips between the hands of a child.
He hugs him, kisses him, takes a cloth from the bag with which he minimally wraps the baby and a second one with which he puts it on his chest, between his clothes, vertically, tied to his body so that he remains in contact with his skin, as if he were still inside his belly, but now outside, and asks his company for some water to clean himself and resume the march with a new topic of conversation: "the new family member."
If not, I do not understand
This is how I imagine that a society has achieved that only 15% of women give birth by caesarean section, and I am almost certain that it must be so, because if not, I do not understand.
WHO has been explaining how births should be for decades. Already in 1985, when many of those who are mothers were not born now, they made the so-called declaration of Fortaleza, where the recommendations for childbirth were made public, among which the respect for the mother and the baby stand out, leaving woman who adopts the posture she prefers to give birth, not separating the mother and baby if it is not strictly necessary, avoiding episiotomies as much as possible, inductions and that the rate of caesarean section of a country does not exceed 10-15%.
30 years ago and it sounds very current. So current that even today are some of the recommendations that many hospitals do not follow. So current, it seems almost a thing of the future. We have not yet reached them all.
WHO, those who speak from an office?
It has happened to me on many occasions, on more than I would have liked. It is to mention the WHO and, who does not like what they say, listen to a "those who speak from an office? That they go down here, at the foot of the canyon, the day-to-day of a delivery room and show me that you can get only 10-15% of C-sections. " And is that in Spain we always move between 22-24%. A few more years, some less, but it seems that always far from the WHO figures, as demonstrating that it is impossible to approach.
So until suddenly, those people of the north with those strange women who are so eager to know showed that it can be done differently and that women can be given birth in a normal way, just as nature thought they should be born the babies and the women had to give birth.
On a trip to the Basque Country
I am already thinking about the possibility of traveling to Euskadi to meet these women and see if they are as in my imagination, although in reality it is not urgent. Who should go urgently is the rest of Spain (The first ones, which are around 28% of caesarean sections). What do i say Let the rest of the world go, and especially professionals from the countries of Latin America, that there many must think that the vagina serves only for the sexual act.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | Map with the percentage of caesarean sections in Spain, according to autonomous communities, Brazil, the country with the most caesarean sections in the world, Mexico, the country with the most caesarean sections in the world
