Copyright Newsweek
Podcaster and influencer Alec Zeck has made waves by sharing his view on medical intervention during childbirth. Posting on X on November 2, he wrote: "Birth is not an 'emergency' requiring the presence of a white-coated pharmaceutical salesman cosplaying as a health expert; Birth is a natural, normal physiological process in which the woman’s body expresses the intelligence, beauty and co-creative capacity of nature, set forth by the God of all creation. The medical establishment has conditioned women to believe they’re broken and incapable, and that birth is something to fear. Birth is a sacred ceremony of creation to revere." Zeck has over 90,000 followers on X, and hosts a podcast called The Way Forward With Alec Zeck. The website describes the podcast's remit as exploring "a range of life-affirming topics—including terrain-based and metaphysical health, voluntaryist and common law principles, the nature of reality, panentheist concepts, permaculture and homesteading, hidden history, and more." Zeck is often joined by guests for conversations on polarizing topics such as the conflict in the Middle East and alternative medicine. In 2021, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on an episode titled "The State of Health Freedom," in which the now-health secretary referenced advising parents not to vaccinate their children. Kennedy, who rejects the label "anti-vaccine" and describes himself as "provaccine," has long expressed opposition to vaccination mandates and skepticism surrounding their safety, counter to scientific evidence. Zeck's post about childbirth received over 544,000 views on X, and sharp pushback. Of hundreds of replies and quotes, the vast majority opposed his view. Many were from women who highlighted their lived experience of childbirth where medical intervention was crucial. Newsweek has contacted Zeck for comment via a form on his website and will update this article if he responds. Many critics of Zeck's take also pointed to the drastic drop in maternal mortality in the past century. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the maternal mortality rate dropped almost 99 percent between 1900 and 1997. The CDC attributes this to "environmental interventions, improvements in nutrition, advances in clinical medicine, improvements in access to health care, improvements in surveillance and monitoring of disease, increases in education levels, and improvements in standards of living." People pointed out that Zeck's argument that childbirth is "natural" is technically accurate, but it still carries significant risk. The U.S. has the highest rate of maternal deaths of all high-income countries, with Black women facing by far the highest risk. To Zeck's point, there is a school of thought that the medicalization of childbirth in the U.S. has pushed out the role of midwives and other traditional forms of birth care, which could negatively impact birthing women's experiences. However, hospitals and accredited birth centers are the safest place to give birth, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Many emergencies during childbirth lead to C-sections, which can save lives, but also carry a higher risk of complications than vaginal births, Scientific American reported. Zeck did not appear to respond publicly to any post criticizing his view. The next post on his X account was about an "annual health & freedom festival," which he appears to organize.
