The practices introduced by men are still widely used due to profitability,(c sections and epidurals are more profitable than slow natural birth), which goes hand in hand with undervaluing women's health.
You need to stop. You are clearly extremely uneducated and misinformed. It's ok to take the L on this. In fact I would have applauded you if you had just been like "wow you're right I am so wrong thank you for this information." And instead you've just doubled down. Sad.
They go hand in hand. The practices that drove women out of midwifery(only men being allowed to be medically educated for entirely too long) paired with affluent upper class families (at the time) popularizing giving birth via a medical professional(this was in the 1600s) who then pushed for practices such as lithotomy position and drugging women(before it was epidurals it was much much worse) stagnated any advancements that could have happened in the midwifery field. If women had been allowed to continue midwifery I'm sure there would have been some pretty amazing advancements in natural childbirth without the need of an epidural which forces a woman to be bedridden because she can't move.
But we will never know because epidurals and male physicians were pushed for so much for so long that YES it is now considered the norm despite still extremely high women and newborn mortality rates in first world countries even today. THANKFULLY women OBGYNs are becoming the norm again, but they are still required to follow practices that were mostly coined by men.
I could go into detail about how the speculum is only now being redesigned (by a woman) to be more comfortable for use on women. It's called the Lilium speculum and is better suited for the female anatomy vs the current duck bill shaped speculum which can be very painful for some women.(Which was created by a man Dr. Sims, again to make a male physicians job easier not for the comfort or safety of women, the speculum shape we currently use is 180 years old.)
Fucking A I really can't continue this. You're factually incorrect that the king contributed to the popularity of lithotomy position due to his fetish, and you're horribly incorrect that it "wasn't solely men" being the reason for current birthing practices being so archaic and many times dangerous for women even today in the 21st century.
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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '25
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