The Hidden Dangers of Hospital Births and How to Protect You and Your Baby

Throughout history, childbirth has been seen as a pivotal moment, setting the stage for life. Unfortunately, much like the over-medicalization of death, childbirth has shifted from being a natural process to one heavily managed by medical professionals.

However, not all births can avoid hospital care, and in high-risk cases, hospitals are crucial. The key is to mitigate the dangerous aspects of medical intervention. Childbirth, like many medical issues, is polarized — both hospital births and home births have valid points, but it’s rare to hear both sides be fairly presented so this article will attempt to.

A History of Midwifery

The devaluation of motherhood is a destructive trend in modern society. Pregnant women are treated more respectfully in many cultures, and motherhood is seen as a transformative experience. Our society, however, often disconnects us from the process, treating it as sterile and impersonal. This lack of connection is one of the core issues underlying many problems in modern childbirth.

Many of the dysfunctional things that have come to characterize the birthing process (e.g., unnecessary hospital interventions that create complications begetting more hospital interventions) make much more sense once you understand the history behind them and how childbirth was transformed from a natural human life event to a medical emergency requiring those interventions.

In early America, midwives were highly valued members of society, often receiving housing, food, land, and a salary for their services. They were more than just birth attendants; they acted as nurses, herbalists, and even veterinarians.

One of the most significant shifts came with male doctors entering the field of childbirth. In the late 1700s, it became fashionable in Europe for doctors to attend deliveries. By the 1820s, American doctors, influenced by an ambitious Harvard professor, started pushing for their involvement in births.

The professor argued that women would form a deep trust in their doctors, which would ensure steady business for the doctor who delivered her baby.¹ Doctors began displacing midwives, and the medicalization of childbirth began.

Dr. Joseph DeLee, a key figure in this transition, opened Chicago’s first obstetric clinic in 1895 and later pioneered a hospital dedicated to obstetrics.² While some of his innovations — such as incubators for premature infants — saved many lives, DeLee also advocated for aggressive medical practices like forceps and episiotomies for most births.³

DeLee’s stance that childbirth was inherently dangerous — and required medical intervention — helped cement the idea that doctors, not midwives, were the ones who should be in control. This mindset dominated the medical field for decades, even though, for most of human history, birth had been a natural process without the need for intervention.

By the 1930s, maternal mortality rates in the U.S. were still high,⁴ despite the increase in hospital births, leaving many to question whether medicalization was truly the answer.

These failures prompted a resurgence of midwifery, and despite stiff resistance from the medical profession, in the decades that followed, midwifery evolved into a professional discipline more and more sought out as they recognized its immense value (e.g., recently 1.5% of births were at home, the highest level in decades⁵).

A Standard Hospital Birth

A standard hospital birth is often viewed as a medical emergency, shaped by the media and reinforced by societal expectations. The process typically involves a range of questionable interventions that are necessitated by the time constraints of an obstetrician who has to attend to many births concurrently (unlike a midwife who has time to be with a mother throughout her birthing process).

Note: As we go through these, consider that America currently spends at least 111 billion dollars on childbirth⁶ (which is twice that of most high-income countries) yet ranks last amongst the high income nations in both infant and maternal mortality.⁷

Birthing Position

There are many different positions where a mother could give birth.

However, in most hospital births, mothers deliver on their backs with their knees up (e.g., a 2014 study⁸ of 2,400 hospital births found 68% gave birth lying on their backs, and 23% did so lying down while having their backs propped up).

Note: The primary reason these positions are used at hospitals is that they make it much easier to manage hospital deliveries and to train healthcare providers with mannequins to conduct them.⁹

In contrast, a 2017 Cochrane review¹⁰ and a 2020 review¹¹ found that delivering while standing decreased abnormal fetal heart rates, accelerated labor, perineal trauma, and reduced the need for assisted births (e.g., forceps deliveries) or episiotomies.

Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring

Fetal heart rate monitoring is central to modern obstetrics, commonly conducted through continuous ultrasound in hospital settings. While it can reveal if a baby is in distress, data (e.g., a 2006 Cochrane review)¹² shows it does not reduce mortality or disability but increases the likelihood of C-sections by 66% and instrumental births by 16%.

Pitocin

Oxytocin is the hormone that stimulates uterine contractions. Because of this, synthetic oxytocin (pitocin) will often be given to induce labor or accelerate delayed labor. Pitocin can be quite helpful, but unfortunately, it is frequently given at far too high of a dose (e.g., because a natural labor pace is deemed “too slow”). This leads to a few common issues:

These complications increase the likelihood of needing C-sections,¹⁸ with higher doses of oxytocin making women 60% more likely to need one.

Artificial Rupture of Membranes

Another procedure used to induce labor and accelerate prolonged labor is to rupture the amniotic sac (so the water breaks) despite the evidence showing amniotomies do not significantly accelerate labor.¹⁹ Conversely it:

Sadly, amniotomies are frequently done (e.g., in 40.6% of deliveries in Sweden),²⁵ despite medical guidelines advising against them for routine deliveries.²⁶

Epidurals

Roughly 70% to 75%²⁷ of women who deliver in the hospital end up using epidural. While helpful for reducing pain (and often necessary, especially if hospital interventions have made the delivery more challenging), epidurals have a variety of complications such as:

Episiotomies

Episiotomies (surgically cutting the back of the vaginal opening and part of the perineum, then sewing it back together after delivery) have gradually reduced thanks to decades of protest (e.g., in 1979, the episiotomy rate was 60.9%,³⁴ while in 2004 it was 24.5% in 2004³⁵).

The primary issue with this surgery is that the incision, unlike a natural tear, often will not heal well, and in most cases it’s not justified (e.g., the WHO has said it applies to less than 10% of births³⁶).

Forceps and Vacuum Cups

Frequently, if delivery is progressing too slowly (or the fetus is deemed to be at risk), the infant will be pulled out by the head, either with clamps that grasp each side of the skull or a suction cup that attaches to the top of it. This practice has gradually become less frequent but is still widely used:³⁷

At birth, the bones of the head are still soft and hence, easily deformed by force. As such, when these devices are used, a variety of injuries can occur, with severe traumas (e.g., injuries to the nerves for the arms, skull fractures, or brain injuries and bleeds) estimated to occur in 0.96% of births.³⁸

A variety of other less severe injuries also occur in 14.5% of assisted deliveries such as bruises, lacerations, hematomas, and neonatal jaundice.³⁹ Finally, in many cases, these deformations to the skull become permanent, leading to visible deformities and many chronic issues (e.g., headaches) decades later.

Additionally, when forceps are used, roughly a quarter of mothers experience injuries such as vaginal tears and sphincter injuries,⁴⁰ while more severe complications (e.g., 3rd or 4th degree vaginal tears, are reported in about 8% to 12% of those undergoing forceps delivery⁴¹). Likewise, when vacuum cups are used, 20.9% experience vaginal tears, and 2.4% experience postpartum hemorrhages.⁴²

Skin-to-Skin

Babies are supposed to go on their mother’s skin after birth, as this is immensely healing for both of them, and in many cases can stabilize abnormal vital signs and sometimes save at risk babies (e.g., in less affluent countries, it’s been shown to reduce mortality of low birth weight infants by 25%⁴³ and I’ve seen quite a few miraculous instances of it stabilizing a baby). For context, the benefits of immediate (and daily) skin-to-skin contact for the infant include:

Shortening the time until a premature infant can be fed orally.44	Preventing low blood sugar in infants and NICU admissions for it.45,46
Improving the gut microbiome.47	Less crying and improved sleeping durations48 (which as any mother can attest is very important).
Developing the emotional capacities of the brain49 (e.g., increasing empathy later in life).	Improved behavior, social interactions, and cognitive function in early childhood.50
Reduced physiologic response to stressors in infants and improved maternal bonding.51	Enhanced cognitive development.52

While for the mother they include:

Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping

Although hurried obstetricians routinely immediately cut off the umbilical cord blood supply, delaying the loss of this essential blood has been shown to provide many benefits (especially for premature babies) including:

Injections

Immediately after birth, infants are given a vitamin K shot and a hepatitis B vaccine.

Note: Refusing these has led to child protective services referrals.

The hepatitis B vaccine is given despite limited risk factors for newborns, as hepatitis B spreads through drug needles or sex. The vaccine’s potential harm includes autoimmunity risks, particularly affecting developing brain tissue.⁷⁷

Vitamin K shots (some which contain harmful adjuvants) prevent bleeding in infants, as they can lack vitamin K, which is needed for blood clotting. Without it, infants risk bleeding in the first 24 hours (0.25% to 1.7% of births⁷⁸), and 0.004% risk bleeding between 2 to 24 weeks.⁷⁹ Conversely, 0.3 in 1,000 infants have severe reactions to these shots⁸⁰ (which is comparable to the lives they save).

Note: A strong case can be made that the bleeding these shots “prevent” is a result of early cord clamping.

Lastly, there is quite a bit of NICU evidence demonstrating that premature infants are more susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome following vaccination⁸¹ (particularly if multiple vaccines are given concurrently).

Note: Data also shows that giving a mother antibiotics during delivery can adversely affect the infant later in life (e.g., it has been linked to obesity,⁸² epilepsy,⁸³ cerebral palsy,⁸⁴ and asthma⁸⁵).

Cesarean Sections

C-sections surgically bypass the birthing process, and while sometimes necessary (e.g., the WHO made a good case they are for 10% of births⁸⁶), they are done far too frequently (e.g., in 2023, 32.3% of all births were C-sections⁸⁷).

Note: One of my least favorite statistics in medicine is that C-section rates dramatically rise at the times doctors typically want to go home.^88,89,90

C-Sections can cause a variety of physical and emotional complications for the mother (e.g., making it difficult to have future pregnancies without additional C-sections and leaving scars which can cause a myriad of chronic issues without specialized treatment).

Many issues also occur for infants such as increased respiratory distress at birth,⁹¹ a roughly 20% increase in allergies and autoimmune disorders,⁹² a disturbed microbiome and tendency towards obesity,⁹³ and impaired cognitive, emotional, or sensory development⁹⁴ — all of which are discussed further here.

When to Have a Hospital Birth

High-risk pregnancies often require hospital births or C-sections and commonly include:

Misplaced placenta, though it can sometimes correct itself throughout the course of a pregnancy.	Sudden and unexpected bleeding (which can require an emergency C-Section).
Breech presentation, which can cause complications95 but may be corrected before birth with the appropriate technique.	Incorrect fetal positioning (e.g., head not facing forward).
Twins.	Previous C-sections.
Other risks such as maternal age, obesity, illness, or preeclampsia.

Note: Ultrasounds are widely used to assess pregnancies. As I show here, there are significant risks (and minimal benefits) from the procedure. Conversely, a brief assessment a few weeks before your due date (or while in labor) can provide vital information for managing the birth.

Conclusion

Based on everything that’s been presented thus far (along with the more subtle implications of these points), a strong case exists for eschewing a hospital birth entirely, as there are so many risks, particularly if you have a low-risk pregnancy.

Conversely, our experience has been that a bit more than 5% of low-risk births ultimately end up needing to go to a hospital (which can be quite stressful if you have to suddenly be transferred to the ER and be delivered by the obstetrician who is on-call).

Because of this, there is no correct way to approach this situation, and I feel a lot of that is ultimately due to how incredibly resistant the medical field has been to adopting approaches that take a little bit more time but greatly help the mother and child.

For example, in 1991, the WHO created the “baby friendly hospital” concept (which incorporated a few of the basic things that should always be done), but three decades later, only 30% of American babies were born at hospitals with that designation.⁹⁶ As such, I believe the following are critical to do if you pursue a hospital birth:

Conversely, if you choose to not give birth at a hospital, you need to:

More than anything else, I feel immensely grateful for the centuries of work the midwife community has made to both provide options for natural births and to pressure the medical system to abandon it’s most harmful obstetric practices — as while things are nowhere near perfect, the options mothers have now are much better than they were in the past.

Most importantly, now that this foundation has been laid, I believe we are at last approaching the moment when this dysfunctional paradigm can at last be overturned as the uniting theme behind the MAHA movement is making our children healthy again, and that is something which begins at birth.

Author’s Note: This is an abridged version of a longer article that goes into greater detail on many of the points discussed here (e.g., the complications of C-sections and how to address them) which provides guidance for protecting yourself at the hospital, finding the best place to give birth and shares many of the strategies we have identified to have the healthiest baby possible, address many of the complications that arise during pregnancy, and to have an optimal childbirth.

That article can be read here along with a companion article on the dangers of ultrasounds which can be read here.

A Note from Dr. Mercola About the Author

A Midwestern Doctor (AMD) is a board-certified physician from the Midwest and a longtime reader of Mercola.com. I appreciate AMD’s exceptional insight on a wide range of topics and am grateful to share it. I also respect AMD’s desire to remain anonymous since AMD is still on the front lines treating patients. To find more of AMD’s work, be sure to check out The Forgotten Side of Medicine on Substack.

Test Your Knowledge with Today’s Quiz!

Take today’s quiz to see how much you’ve learned from yesterday’s Mercola.com article.