Recognising this is very different to saying that medical intervention is inherently harmful. We can recognise that our bodies’ normal physiology can be seriously affected by the practices that are there to try to fix things if they go wrong, and still welcome and be grateful for those interventions if they are needed. It is trying to find a balance between not over-intervening but still ensuring that intervention happens if necessary.

Undisturbed birth respects that when any species gives birth it is physically vulnerable. For this reason, our bodies, like many other species, have developed a system which can slow or stop labour if we feel vulnerable. In millennia gone by this may have been that we needed to get away from predatory animals. If we went into labour, then realised that we were being stalked by a sabre toothed tiger, our bodies would be flooded with a hormone which meant that labour could stop until we could reach safety. It doesn’t take a confrontation with a giant cat to have the same effect; anything that makes us feel nervous can trigger this reaction. This can happen to many people as they go into hospital. They may feel safest birthing in hospital, and they may have great trust in the doctors and midwives, but if they also have a negative association with a hospital then this can lead labour to slow or stop.

Undisturbed birth respects the fact that labour progresses best when:

• Lights are dimmed
• Voices are low
• We feel safe
• We can move freely
• We can eat and drink what our body tells us is right for us
• We feel that we have privacy
• Everyone around us is responsive to our needs and supportive of our decisions

This type of birth is more often supported at a home birth or in the midwife led unit than on the obstetric unit. This is because the midwives working in home or midwife-led environments are more likely to have a strong focus on supporting birth physiology, which is what led them to work outside the obstetric unit in the first place. The birth environment is also usually set up to be more supportive of physiology, with no machines which go ‘bleep’, lights which dim and equipment such as balls, slings and pools to help with active labour.

That said, there are many midwives who work in obstetric units who are passionate about supporting physiology, and some obstetric units are putting in active birth equipment and adding light dimmers and blinds to their birth rooms. This doesn’t take away from the rest of the environment in the hospital, but it can help. Done well, it can help hugely.