Back to the future: trusting birth.

Research over the past 30 years provides support for once again trusting birth. This is a paradigm shift in thinking about birth and requires a dramatic change in the practice of nursing. Confidence in a woman's ability to give birth, the freedom to find comfort in response to pain, and the support of family, friends, and professionals facilitate normal, natural birth. Hospital policies and routine care practices that decrease confidence, restrict freedom and support, and separate mothers from their infants sabotage natural birth and breastfeeding. The goal of the perinatal nurse is to promote, protect, and support women's efforts to give birth naturally and breastfeed their children.