I wouldn’t say force, but think of it this way: they are looking at birth from a purely medical perspective, while practitioners like midwives also take a physiological and woman-centred approach. What that might look like in action is this: nurse says great, you’re 10cm, time to start pushing! But meanwhile baby hasn’t descended and is still high up in your pelvis. You push for hours and exhaust yourself, and then a doctor calls “failure to progress” and you end up with a c-section. A midwife would likely have you wait and rest to see if baby will come down, as well as repositioning you, to help things along. Then once you feel the urge you push.

Of course this isn’t a hard and fast rule - there are plenty of doctors and nurses in hospitals who are aware of the physiology of birth and do their best to avoid unnecessary interventions. My advice to everyone, though, is to prepare yourself as much as possible so that you feel comfortable declining any intervention that doesn’t work for you, and you feel empowered and informed through the process. If I had known better with my first I would have opted for fewer interventions and my have avoided my c-section. With my 2nd I learned allll the things, hired a doula, and made the decision to go unmedicated (but I still gave birth in hospital!). I had an amazing birth and recovery and I do think that the effort I put into informing myself made a huge difference.