You see it all over social media. Influencers, birth workers, expecting mothers. “I want a natural birth!” “Everything I’m doing to have a natural birth.” “3 ways to prepare for a natural birth.” We all know what they mean. They’re talking about delivering vaginally, usually, without an epidural. The reason why I hate this so much is because it’s labeling what’s “natural,” and what isn’t. ALL BIRTH IS NATURAL. It doesn’t matter how your baby came out of you. For 9 months you grew an entire human being from your blood and your bones. Why should the way they came earthside have the final say on whether it was “natural” or not. “But women gave birth naturally for hundreds of years before c-sections and epidurals, it’s the easy way out.” Yeah, okay Brenda, women also died for hundreds of years because they didn’t have access to c-sections and pain management. Also, I don’t know ANY situation where getting cut into is EASY?? Birth is complicated.Sh*t happens. Sometimes birth doesn’t always go according to your birth plan. And if it doesn’t, the last thing you should feel is guilt, shame or embarrassment. Maybe you planned for an unmedicated birth, but after 16+ hours of labor your body needed help relaxing, so you got the epidural. Still a natural birth. Maybe you decided to schedule an induction, or maybe even a planned c-section. Still natural birth. Language matters. It can either bring us together and unite us, or separate and isolate us. And the last thing a new mom needs is to feel isolated or feeling less-than because of the way her baby was delivered. Stop calling unmedicated, vaginal births “natural births.” Call them what they are. Vaginal Births. Unmedicated Births. One way of birth is not inherently “more natural” than the other.