Sorting through contradictions

Next Tuesday is my due date and I’m in full nesting mode. I’m busy doing things in the house, both to get ready for baby number three in addition to other projects I know I won’t get to once the baby arrives. Amidst all of this, I’m trying to prepare for the act of actually giving birth.
Of course, I’ve done this twice before, but just like every pregnancy is different, so is every delivery. I want to avoid a C-section, which seems so common these days, and did I mention I’m going to try and go natural? So I’ve hired a doula and have been reading up on the subject. I’ve read a book about the Bradley method (a competitor of Lamaze) and a book called Birthing from Within. I’ll write about the books and doula after wards since I’m not really in a position right now to judge if these steps were helpful.
I will say it seems that birthing advice seems to contradict itself. On one hand, I’ll read that we use the word labor because it is hard work, so prepare for it. No dimmed lights, no candles. Get ready to walk and breathe. Within the same source material, I’ll read about relaxing and how important it is and the only way your uterus can work is if the rest of your body is relaxed.
I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she agreed and extended it to the birthing community in general. She’s a proponent of natural birth but admitted that often the midwife community will point to flawed studies touted by the medical community while touting flawed studies that back up own opinions.
And just today as I was waiting for my kids to get out of school, I was talking to a group of mothers about this over priced organic burger place my family visited. One lady piped up and said, “I don’t trust organic.” Some of those products are not pasteurized, and there have been cases of people getting sick. Another mother mentioned how she always buys organic milk because she believes that there is a link between early onset of puberty and the hormones added to some milk.
As parents, I guess we have to try and navigate through all this information and do what’s best for our family. I do buy organic milk (always pasteurized). I try to limit the amount of chemicals in my home, but I also immunize my kids and think that not immunizing is irresponsible.
All parents make these decisions and I respect the fact that many parents come to different decisions than I do. At the same time, as a society, we also have to come to some sort of consensus, especially because these individual decisions we all make eventually affect public policy.
For example, health care costs are skyrocketing and yet many insurance companies pay for alternative medicine or chiropractors. It seems the people on both sides of the political spectrum have thrown science out the window in favor of conspiracy theories.
As human beings, we are all prone to contradictions in the decisions we make. Collectively, these choices do affect the world around us (for example, you will see a lot of dairy products today with the label r-BST hormone free). I try not to think about it too much or I’ll go crazy. I’m just practicing relaxing and working hard... making little changes to better the life of my family.