Lamaze Healthy Birth Practice: Avoid Interventions that Are Not Medically Necessary

Although research shows that routine and unnecessary interference in the natural process of labor and birth is not likely to be beneficial — and may indeed be harmful — most U.S. births today are intervention intensive. A majority of people surveyed for Listening to Mothers III experienced the following interventions during labor:

• Continuous EFM (93 percent)
• Restrictions on eating (80 percent)
• IV fluids (62 percent)
• Restrictions on drinking (60 percent)
• Epidural anesthesia (67 percent)
• Artificially ruptured membranes (31 percent)
• Artificial oxytocin augmentation (36 percent)
• Episiotomy (17 percent)

Learn more about each of the interventions listed above by clicking on the link. 

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Learn more information about the benefits of avoiding unnecessary medical interventions in birth, including specific benefits and risks of each intervention:

• Read the summary of and complete Lamaze Healthy Birth Practice Paper on interventions, available in eight languages, to learn more about healthy labor and birth.
• Learn more about common medical interventions. 
• Watch a video that demonstrates avoiding unnecessary medical interventions.