More Than the Data: Why Evidence Alone Can’t Guide Your Birth
- Positively Pregnant
- May 23
- 4 min read
We’re told to make informed decisions. To do our research. To trust the science.
And of course - information matters. Research can be an incredibly powerful tool when navigating the many choices of pregnancy and birth.
But here’s the quiet truth most people never say out loud: You are not a statistic. You are a whole woman. A living, breathing, feeling individual - with a body, a baby, a history, a voice, and a deep inner knowing that no study can quantify.
And when we rely solely on research to guide birth decisions - we risk forgetting that birth is not a formula to be solved. It’s a rite of passage to be lived.
The Problem with “Evidence-Based” Maternity Care
Let’s dig in for a moment. When people talk about “the evidence” in maternity care, they’re usually referring to clinical trials, population data, and statistical outcomes. That’s not inherently a bad thing. But context is everything.
Most of the birth research we have access to is:
Conducted in hospital settings
Focused on medically-managed, often induced labours
Framed within the obstetric model of care
Centred on risk reduction, not on physiological or undisturbed birth
This means that the conclusions drawn are often shaped by environments where:
Time limits are placed on labour
Pain is expected and routinely managed with medication
Birth is seen as something that needs to be done to a woman
Interventions (like induction, continuous monitoring, directed pushing) are commonplace
So when that data is then applied to women planning a natural, intuitive, undisturbed birth - especially outside of a hospital setting - it’s not always relevant. In fact, it can sometimes create confusion, anxiety, or pressure to conform to a system that simply doesn’t reflect your intentions.
Birth is Not Just a Clinical Event
Here’s the piece so often missing from the conversation:
Birth is more than a process of getting a baby out. It’s more than stages, timings, and guidelines. It’s more than charts, flow diagrams, or “evidence-based recommendations.”
Birth is an emotional, spiritual, and psychological experience.
It touches every layer of who you are. It changes you.
And the way you move through it... how you feel, how safe you are, how heard you are -matters just as much (if not more) than whether every decision aligns with the NICE guidelines.
Because how you feel during birth impacts how your body functions. Safety isn’t just physical - it’s emotional. Energetic. Relational.
So What Do We Do With the Evidence?
This isn’t a call to ignore research. It’s a call to place it in its rightful place - as a tool, not a gospel.
Information can help you explore options. It can help you prepare.But it should never override what you feel to be true in your gut… your womb… your bones.
Because no piece of paper, no percentage, no guideline can ever know what it’s like to be you.
Your Intuition Is Not Woo — It’s Wisdom
I’ve been working with birthing women across the North East for over seven years. And in all that time, I have never seen a woman’s intuition be “off.”
I’ve heard women say:
“I just knew it was time to get in the water.”
“I knew something wasn’t right, even though everything looked fine on paper.”
“I knew my baby needed me to wait.”
“I just instinctively got in that position.”
And I’ve watched that quiet knowing lead them home to themselves.
Not once have I regretted listening to a woman’s gut. And not once have they either.
Reclaiming Sovereignty in Your Choices
So yes - gather the evidence. Read. Ask questions. Be curious. But also…
✨ Gather your breath✨ Gather your dreams✨ Gather the way your body responds when you tune in
Let your intuition be part of the decision-making process.
Not something you apologise for. Not something you silence.
You are the expert on your body. Your baby. Your birth. And you can weave science with soul. Information with instinct. Research with reverence.
Need Support in Finding That Balance?
This is exactly what I hold space for in my doula support and 1:1 birth prep sessions.
Together, we’ll:
Explore your options
Look at the evidence and your values
Tune into your inner knowing
Build a plan that feels calm, confident, and aligned with you
You don’t need to walk this path alone.Let’s build a birth experience that honours both the wisdom within and the world around you.
Jessica Ord is a multi award winning North East doula, birth educator and author. She lives on her rural family farm in Northumberland with hubby Farmer Richard and their 2 wildlings Monty (7) and Primrose (3).
To date her birth preparation and hypnobirthing courses have helped over 600 free thinking parents across the world have birth experiences which left them feeling healthy, happy and whole.
She runs a fortnightly pregnancy group - NE Bump Club - from her welcoming antenatal studio on the farm, and serves families across the North East as a birth Doula.
Comentarios