EP 216: A Critical Look at Childbirth Standards With Nathan Riley - Cup of Nurses

The Failure of Modern Medicine: A Critical Look at Childbirth Standards

We would like to introduce you to Nathan Riley. Nathan is a board-certified OB-GYN and fellow of ACOG who left the medical industrial complex due to his disillusionment with the “standard of care” within the conventional maternity care model. He advocates for home birth and still attends births for those in need. He boasts a c-section rate of <5%, which is one of the best in the U.S. His mission is to uphold midwifery as the art that it is and to honor birth as a sacred process and the transition to parenthood as a spiritual transformation.

Questions and Topics

Can you give us a little background about yourself? Why did you choose the OB-GYN route? Is it something you were always interested in?

What do you do as an OB-GYN? What does your day-to-day look like? Do you do home visits?
What are some of your responsibilities?

What pushed you away from the typical OB-GYN career path?

What was it missing? When did you realize the flaw in patient birthing or the typical hospital birthing process?

How is it being a male working as an OB-GYN?

Did people or your colleagues look at you differently because you were a male going into this field?

How does your practice differ, and how have you achieved such a low C-section rate? (Average rate was about 30% in 2021)

Can you walk us through the whole birthing process, the actions you and the future mother take, and some of the emotions that come with it?

What do you think physicians in your field need to understand? Where is the lack of education, or even where does medical school fail its students?

What is man’s role in childbirth, and how do you balance the masculine and feminine roles?
Infertility is starting to become a problem; where do you think it stems from? Is it because people choose to get pregnant later in life, or is diet and lifestyle an issue? Is it multifactorial?