The safest way to [give birth] has always been the natural way.

Tucked under my duvet this morning, The Globe & Mail  in hand, I sat, stunned by the words shaped by the tender lips of a representative of  the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada.

There’s the idea out there in the public sometimes that having a C-section today with modern anesthesia and modern hospitals is as safe as having a normal childbirth, but we don’t think so,” said Dr. Lalonde…The SOGC believes that if a woman is well-prepared during pregnancy, she has the innate ability to deliver vaginally.

I jumped out of bed in disbelief, narrowly escaping third degree burns from the scorching water that leaped from my earthenware cup of Valerian root tea. Maybe I’d done too much Yoga yesterday? This samadhi business can get out of hand. Take someone out of their mind, if they’re not careful. I continued to read.

Physicians should no longer automatically opt to perform a caesarean section in the case of a breech birth, according to new guidelines…a response to new evidence that shows many women are safely able to vaginally deliver babies who enter the birth canal with the buttocks or feet first. [In] a reassessment of earlier trials…it now appears that there is no difference in complication rates between vaginal and cesarean section deliveries in the case of breech births.

I squatted on the floor. Exhaled a steady stream of breath as if I were pouring water from a jug. Kept reading.

Breech presentations occur in 3-4 percent of pregnant women who reach term. That translates to approximately 11,000 to 14,500 breech deliveries a year in Canada.

Until today, all of them by cesarean section. I interlocked my fingers, hands at heart, then placed them and my forearms on the floor in front of me, forming an upward pointing triangle.

Caesarean sections, in which incisions are made through a mother’s abdomen and uterus to deliver the baby, can lead to increased chance of bleeding and infections and can cause further complications for pregnancies later on.

I bowed the top of my head to the ground.

[In the wake] of a serious shortage of doctors to teach and perform these deliveries…the SOGC will launch a nationwide training program to ensure that doctors will be able to offer vaginal breech births. 

In the stream of my next exhale, my hips rose; my legs floated up above me.  I was in a headstand. When the world turns upside down, I follow.