Catastrophe Disaster and The Pursuit of Artificial
A hallmark of western modern age medicine and health care has been to strive to not only imitate nature but to outdo nature. Where this influenced me the most in my primary field of work was the generation-long debate of which is better…breastfeeding or formula. For a long period of time, marketers of formula had strong influence over the entire population in the US, backed by the education system for healthcare providers including doctors, nurses and government public health officials. The Pursuit of Artificial (and its profit-making schemes) came at the expense of the natural. If you wanted to breastfeed your infant, you had to go outside of the system because not only did the system shun you, it inferred you were not following best practices as a parent since breastfeeding was inferior to artificial and might even contain dangerous chemicals.
During those dark days in modern obstetrics, care givers even forgot how breastfeeding was suppose to work. If you were in most US hospitals during those days and you wanted to breastfeed, your baby was still given a bottle of glucose water by the nurses first. Or you were given that bottle to feed your newborn before you attempted breastfeeding. There were all kinds of “medical” reasons put forth as to why that bottle was policy. Truth was that artificial formula does not contain the mother’s first milk, the natural laxative to start the bowels working. Glucose water was given to be the artificial substitute. Another example from my early RN experience was the policy that only the delivering mother and the medical team were allowed to witness the birth. And during labor, support persons were not allowed to stay at the bedside, only to visit at the bedside a few minutes each hour. Natural childbirth as we know it today with its support system was never an option.
…..then one day things began to change and the natural way began to gain ground again against the Pursuit of Artificial. Like a quiet rebellion. Like a quiet resistance. Nature regained its rightful place. Nature refuses to follow this path.
In our rush to fill in the void created by catastrophic disaster, let’s remember to respect Nature’s lead in supporting those survivors left behind. The new neighborhood is self-stabilizing. It does not need the Pursuit of Artificial (and its profit-making schemes).
-Eunice