How do we change the culture of birth?

Sunday morning, I got up early with Peanut and the dogs. We all settled down in the living room, and I turned on the TV. There's not much to watch on Sunday mornings, so I chose a re-run of 90210. It just happened that this episode focused on the birth of Steve's daughter. I found myself struggling to watch it because it hit too close to home.

Supposedly, Steve's wife needed an emergency c-section. The doctors come tearing in, ignoring Steve's requests for more information, and hustle his wife out to the operating room. A bit later, the doctors come out to tell him he has a baby girl who's in the NICU, and demanding that he signs some consent forms or his wife is going to die. He tries to ask questions, the doctor brushes them aside, and demands he sign the paperwork. They don't discuss options, diagnosis, or risks. Just sign the blankety-blank thing. One of the next scenes is in the hospital room. His wife's coming around, and is asking questions, but Steve doesn't really know. He just keeps giving her this vague answer, you lost a lot of blood.

There's so much wrong about this episode, but there was no outcry when it was first aired. No one yelled and screamed about informed consent. No one freaked out over women not being told exactly what had happened. Yes, it's a TV show. They're allowed some dramatic license, but our culture is so accepting of this type of treatment being okay.

It's not okay. Women aren't incubators. We're autonomous human beings choosing to reproduce. We're entitled to true informed consent. We're entitled to respectful, non-coercive information about the complications. We're entitled to time to process, and choose a course of action. However, that's not going to happen as long as we, as a culture, continue to allow doctors to get away with this type of treatment. We'll classify it as emergent, and batter everyone down until they submit.

So, how do we change it? The attitude is so pervasive, that it's like putting out a forest fire with a garden hose. How do we open up the minds of pregnant women, their support people, and the nurses, midwives, and doctors who are caring for them?