Why All Births Are Natural: Reframing the Way We Talk About Childbirth

It’s time we stop using the term “natural birth” to refer only to unmedicated, vaginal deliveries. Because let’s be honest, every birth is natural.

When we reserve “natural” for a very specific kind of birth (typically vaginal, with no medical intervention or pain relief), we unintentionally create shame around every other birth experience. This narrow definition dismisses the strength, courage, and sacrifice behind so many different ways that babies come into the world — and that needs to change.

What Makes a Birth Natural?

Here’s what I believe: the most natural thing a woman can do is grow and bring life into this world. Whether she conceives through IVF or IUI, delivers vaginally or via C-section, uses an epidural or not, it’s all birth. It’s all motherhood. And it’s all natural.

Growing a baby is no small feat. A woman literally reshapes her body, redistributes her organs, sacrifices sleep, comfort, mobility, and more, all to grow life. That process is profoundly natural. The method of delivery should never diminish that.

So why does language matter?

Words Can Hurt — And Heal

Using “natural” to describe only one kind of birth implies that others are unnatural as if they’re less valid or less worthy. This mindset contributes to shame, birth trauma, and the dangerous belief that using support; whether medical or emotional, is a weakness.

Women who choose (or medically require) interventions like:

• Induction

• Epidural or pain management

• C-section

• Vacuum or forceps

• Episiotomy

• IVF or IUI

…deserve to feel empowered, supported, and celebrated.

Let’s say it clearly: There is no “easy way out” in childbirth. Every path to bringing life into the world carries its own set of physical, emotional, and medical challenges.

The Stats Tell the Story

In Canada, the reality is this:

• 27.7% of births in Canada are delivered by cesarean section (CIHI, 2022).

• Over 60% of birthing individuals use epidural or spinal anesthesia during labour (Canadian Institute for Health Information).

• Assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including IVF and IUI, are responsible for over 1 in 25 births in Canada — and that number is growing each year.

  
  

These numbers don’t reflect failure — they reflect progress, support, and survival.

Let’s Call Every Birth What It Is: Natural

Had a C-section? Natural birth. 

Used an epidural? Natural birth. 

Needed an induction? Natural birth. 

Conceived through IVF? Natural birth.

Let’s stop equating “natural” with “painful" or “unassisted,”.Motherhood is messy, raw, and powerful — and no medical intervention can take that away from you.

A Call to Reclaim the Term

Okay Motherhood, it is time for us to rewrite the narrative. Let’s reclaim the term “natural birth” to include all births, because bringing life into the world is the most natural, miraculous thing a woman can do, no matter how she does it.

Your birth story is yours. Own it. Celebrate it. Be proud of it.

Because you are a woman. You are powerful. You are a mother.