Posts in these archives express the views of the individual authors, and not those of the Association of Radical Midwives.
Some midwives also speak of emotional dystocia.
Me, I'm still learning. The physiological principle is that with good contractions, with minimal interference and with time for moulding the presenting part, babies are born safely. Maternal and neo-natal morbidity was higher but apparently not with hugely significant differences when you take into account neonatal malformations and a lack of medical treatment for some pathological conditions. I'm not going to go into all the births here where I've seen the normal happen supposedly against the odds. But if any happen in the next few months I'll get permission from the women to discuss them in detail.