The book "The hundredth monkey " by Ken Keyes, explains an event observed by a group of ethologists (animal behavior researchers) and develops an interesting theory. Today, knowing the experience of a friend, I have thought about her and how we approach, or perhaps we have already reached, the critical point that will make respected deliveries normal in our environment.
The hundredth monkey theory It developed from this story. The behavior of the Macaca Fuscata monkeys was being studied on the island of Koshima. In 1952, scholars began offering sweet potatoes, which they left on the beach. The monkeys loved them, but cleaning them with sand with their hands was not too effective. One day, a cute teenage girl they called Ita He began washing his sweet potatoes in the sea water. Little by little the other teenagers followed her, then their mothers, and then a large number of individuals, although others still used their hands.
However, one day, the hundredth monkey was reached, to say a number. That morning all the members of the tribe, without exception, adopted the new idea and thereafter Ita's discovery became customary. It was as if, reached a point of expansion of the new idea, it was transmitted to the whole group.
But that was not the most amazing. The custom of washing sweet potatoes crossed the sea. Groups of the same species of the continental zone, without any contact with the previous ones, also washed their sweet potatoes from that day.
The theory developed from this experience indicates that, once reached a critical number of individuals who acquire a new idea, it becomes possible for everyone. It is not a proven theory, it implies still incomprehensible things, however similar behavior is observed in other living beings. And also in the History of Humanity, because independent cultures adopted language, wheel, agriculture or writing almost coetanea.
Now I get to the point: until recently present a birth plan It was an experience almost close to gambling. There was no guarantee that he would be accepted. However, many women have continued to take him to the Hospitals and work to make it commonplace.
My friend Silvia I was worried about her next birth. His first son was born in a public network hospital a few years ago. They received all the usual protocols: immobilization, shaving, enema, prohibition of eating and drinking, oxytocin, episotomy and separation. I didn't want to go through the same thing again. I was convinced that a respected birth was the best for both of us. But she felt lonely, misunderstood and weak. His environment was not well understood, nobody trusted that he could change what was usually done in that Hospital. They thought his desire would only bring him negatives or something worse.
But Silvia He drew strength from weakness. If I didn't fight I couldn't win. She couldn't stop looking for the best for her son and herself. I was convinced that those protocols would bring unnecessary suffering to both. I couldn't be quiet. So he did, he wrote your birth plan, without too much hope.
And do you know what happened when he presented it at the Hospital, that same place that worked five years ago in a completely different way? He arrived, introduced him and immediately made him talk to the Chief of Gynecology. And he, very kind, told him that everything he requested was consistent with the Normal Delivery Care Strategy.
Silvia He returned home with his accepted and signed birth plan. Happy, serene, hopeful and proud of herself. He had been brave, he had changed the world. She may be just one more monkey that joins a tide that will make us confident that our birth plans will be taken care of. Or maybe she was that hundredth monkey we expect. For me, Silvia, is my hundredth monkey. Congratulations from the heart.
Via | ACC More information | The Birth is Our More information | Midwives of Úbeda More information | Press release from the Ministry of Health on the Normal Delivery Care Strategy More information | Respected Delivery In Babies and more | Normal delivery strategy In Babies and more | Health has a good plan In Babies and more | Normal birth initiative In Babies and more | Spain, the country with the highest caesarean section In Babies and more | The industrialization of births In Babies and more | Midwives also ask for a more natural birth In Babies and more | Humanized scientific birth, a more natural option In Babies and more | More hospitals in favor of a humanized delivery
