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This is the sort of BS that only women in the Western world *who have never seen a woman die in childbirth* can espouse. In South Sudan, a woman is more likely to die in childbirth than to learn to read.

I don’t know if I agree with a completely unassisted birth, seems unnecessarily risky to mom and baby. I did just watch the documentary “The Business of Being Born” and although I had already decided against an epidural, I am now for certain looking into a midwife assisted birth with minimal medical intervention unless absolutely necessary (probably in a birth center or at a nearby hospital that offers a holistic birth option).

More power to them for making that decision. Unassisted birth really isn’t for me. I am quite happy with my decision to have my baby at a Birthing Centre where I can be more relaxed and have the least amount of medical intervention but safely knowing the hospital is 10 minutes away if we need to switch to Plan B.

part of being a good and responsible parent is doing the very best for your child(ren)….if do-it-yourself was the best thing in all situations we’d all do it…..simple fact is that it isn’t.

my placenta detached from the wall of my uterus in the 37th week of pregnancy. if it wasn’t for the doctors and the NICU at the hospital, my child would have died in the womb without an emergency c-section, oxygen, nitric oxide and all the other lifegiving procedures they performed. my son is 11 weeks now and has NO problems or issues.

to brush off the death of your child as, “oh well, he was better off” to me is just criminal. if i hadn’t went to a hospital, and my son died in my womb, and shrugging it off as “well, it was just meant to be!” is to me would have been completely heartless, and i would question my rights to be a mother.

One of my favorite things about being pregnant is going to the appointments with my midwife and hearing my babies heartbeat, it was especially comforting to hear it in the beginning before I could feel her moving around. I did opt out of a few of the prenatal tests, but I did have bloodwork done, ultrasounds to check her growth and I will have the strep B test. I will be giving birth in a hospital with a midwife present so that if medical intervention is necessary it is available immediately. I don’t want to be stuck in a hospital bed hooked up to a monitor and IV unless there is an issue that has to be monitored regularly. I’ve discussed all this with my midwife and she is behind me 100%. Nothing is guaranteed in life but if something does happen during labor and delivery and my little girl needs help I want to make sure that we are in a place where they can give her all the help that is available to her.

I think opting to receive no prenatal care, and chosing to have the baby unassisted is reckless. What if you have a placenta previa or an accreta? What if there is dystocia? What if the baby needs resuscitation? Having a baby unassisted w/ no prenatal care puts the mom and baby at risk unneccassarily. I do think low risk pregnancies should be attended by a midwife and OBs should be there for the high risk patients. I think our c-section, intervention, and maternal mortality rates are disgustingly high, but unassisted birth is just foolish. I think more moms should deliver out of the hospital, WITH the care of a skilled midwife.

(I have 3 children. 1 born in a hospital w/ an OB. 2 born out of hospital w/ a midwife. 1 of which had severe dystocia, but the skilled midwife acted quickly and safely delivered her)

Could you have picked a less colorful example? This “article” stacks the deck against unassisted birth and paints it as something hippie dippie idiots do. That’s just not the case. There are plenty of educated women who chose to birth alone. Many of them have developed skills to listen to fetal heart tones, palpate to check positioning, and have truly invested themselves in their child from conception forward. These mothers are taking complete responsibility for their children rather than handing it all over to some strangers at the hospital.

I just crack up at the ‘anger’ some people get with their reaction to this story. Medicine IS a good thing but currently in the US, it is way overused and relied on. You are not ill when you are pregnant. Birth is what has allowed us all to be here in the first place. Yes some babies and moms have been saved with medicine at birth and I am grateful we have that, but to say you and/or your baby is at a higher risk if you choose an alternative method is just propaganda. All the free birthers I know have a back up plan and a back up care provider if they suspect something is not right with the birth. To each their own. Free birth isn’t for me, but neither is hospital birth.

It really speaks volumes when The US and Australian Freebirth advocates have lost babies. Aren’t they just the epitomy of safety??

Some free birthers do have some prenatal care, some do not. It isn’t up to anyone other than the woman to decide what is best for herself during pregnancy.

I think I can see both sides of this well. I’ve had 2 hospital births, 4 unassisted births, and am presently planning another hospital birth. I think there is room for each choice and that neither is right for every family every time. We have gone into each of our unassisted births well educated and armed with multiple contingency plans. Each time labor and delivery were textbook. This time we are expecting twins and while I love birthing at home, I feel that there are too many risks involved in our situation for it to be a safe choice. Like the rest of life, it’s about risk assessment and knowing what you are comfortable with.

There are a lot of non-sequitors in this article.

First, the connection of “there are so many women clamoring for care!” is not connected to how/why/whether a woman may choose to freebirth. Yes, there are major issues of medical resource allocation across the world. There are also major issues of food and water resource allocation, access to education, various technology, even hygiene. None of these realities necessarily are a reason for someone to do something that they don’t feel is necessary for them.

For example, I do not eat grains. I follow a paleolithic diet for many reasons. But, I’m not allergic to grains. I would do fine if I ate them (and did for years). The argument that you espouse would be “Why would you give up grains, when so many people in the world are starving?” It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not an inditement against grains, or the hungry, or an issue of resource allocation.

So. it’s a straw man argument, and entirely unnecessary to the conversation.

The second argument you bring forth is the inditement that women are choosing this birth for them selves but not considering the risks to their infant (which have not been enumerated, and are, therefore, only assumptive).

In actuality, the opposite is true for freebirthing mothers — if you read their writings and the materials that they spend a lot of time discussing in blogs, message boards, and other information. They are choosing this mode of birth *for* their babies — as well as themselves — because they believe it to be the safest way to birth them.

With this, freebirthers espouse that if a woman feels she needs medical care at any time, she should seek it out, get the help she needs. It is not anti-medical care; it’s saying only use medical care when it is necessary. For freebirthers, pregnancy and birth are not necessarily medical events, they are normal, natural processes.

Another poster above mentions that this is only a decision for western women, as women in the sudan die in childbirth more frequently than they would be educated to read. While this is very true, there are so many cultural factors involved as to why it is true, it creates another non-sequitor.

First, Sudan is a country where women are rarely educated in general, and in particular, the people who live traditionally are unlikely to be literate at all — in particular the women. In addition, Sudan is in a state of civil unrest and ethnic cleansing. A woman is more likely to be raped and murdered than be taught to read, among many other things that women in the West enjoy. Many people are dying there — due to this unrest, due to desertification and starvation. True, they do not have adequate access to medical care, or food, or even clean water, or basic sanitary conditions. Women are subject to the stress of the constant spectre of violence, rape, and death.

WHO research has demonstrated that women in extreme circumstances such as these are more likely to go into labor prematurely — due usually to violence upon them. Those women who do manage to make it to full term tend to birth normally more often than not.

Infant mortality rates, as well as maternal death rates, usually also include the first year of the child’s life (in some statistics up to year two) — so it’s not necessarily birth that killed one or both. Again, hygeine, nutrition, disease (and access to health care under threat of disease), and violence are the common culprits — not birth inherently.

And, so again, we are comparing apples and oranges. The fact is, it *is* a choice a woman in the western world *can* make — and I’m thankful for that.

I do hope and pray (and act as I can) that women throughout the world have access to the medical care that they want and need, that they are free from violence, that they are free to care for their children and provided and education for themselves and their children. I do wish that, across the board, infant and maternal mortality rates continue to decrease as we better allocate resources across our global community.

Nevertheless, the truth remains that freebirthing is a choice, and for low risk women in modern nations at low risk for violence, it’s arguably less risk than going to a hospital.

So, now I bring it to an ethos argument. I am a freebirther. I chose to freebirth our first son. I chose this path 5 years before I got pregnant, and spent those 5 years in the freebirthing community learning about pregnancy, birth, and infant care. I had many resources at my disposal. And I always knew that if — at any time — I felt or believed that I needed care, I should, could, and would get medical care.

I knew that I was immensely blessed with my reproductive and overall health, my location in the world, the access to clean water, nourishing food, and health care should I require it. I knew that Freebirthing would be safe for me — and safer for my infant.

In my area (before moving to where I live now), about 40% of first time mothers were forced into c-sections.

Research shows that infants and mothers are more likely to be injured or die due to c-sections or their complications, than if the birth was allowed to progress normally. The WHO asserts that the average for a developed nation — emergency/health-based c-sections should be within 3 and 5% of first-time births. They advocate against “elective” c-sections.

Most women in my area report that their c-section was not elective, but instead that they were told they had to have it for emergency reasons (or health reasons). How could our developed nation, middle/upper-middle class, quality health care and good hygeine and nutrition, low violence area require 40% c-section rates?

The answer is “follow the money.” First, a hospital vaginal birth costs about $18k (via insurance), whereas a c-section around $40k. The hospitals make a greater profit on c-sections than vaginal births. Second, “once a c-section, always a c-section” tends to apply. While research is showing this is not necessarily true, it has been common practice for several years now, and most doctors will not attend a “VBAC” (vaginal birth after c-section). This means that instead of $36k for two births, a hospital gets $80k for two births. THere are some reports that truly the only way hospitals manage to stay afloat at all is through maternity care — it is their cash cow. If it’s a for-profit hospital, then that is where they are meeting their profit margins to keep investors happy.

This isn’t a reason for choosing a freebirth, btw, less that get confused. It is not a non-sequitor.

As a freebirther, I’m all about freedom to choose the birth that *you* think is safest and best — not what others think is right or better. I bring this up because *mothers need to know what is going on so that they can choose carefully*.

Most of my friends birthed in hospitals. Many of them had vaginal births (roughly 60% or so). Many of them enjoyed their births. Many were happy with their care. Those who were happiest with their care *knew* this information and thoroughly vetted their doctors, advocated for the care that they wanted for themselves and their babies, and had the births that they wanted (yes, THEY wanted — for themselves AND for their babies).

Also, as a Freebirther, I teach people about birth. I’m also a yoga teacher, and together with a CBE, a midwife, and a hypnotherapist, we co-teach a course on labor and childbirth. I teach “emergency childbirth” with the midwife — how to have the confidence to birth on your own if the child comes more quickly than you expect. It’s important to know what normal birth is, and whether or not you need to call the paramedics or just give your midwife or doctor a ring and say “wow, ok, the baby came *really fast* and we’re all fine here, so we’ll come by on Monday for the check up, ok?” Only one of my clients had this happen to her, and she said that the information on freebirthing made her confident that she and her daughter were ok. She then called her midwife who came over about an hour later to check on them. All was well.

And for my own part, I was blessed. I had a great unassisted pregnancy and childbirth. My son was posterior, and he took 24 hrs to get out (from first contractions to birth). Under hospital care, he might have been taken via c-section (common practice in my area for breech, posterior, and twin births) — it is unlikely that i would have been “allowed” to labor. Midwives had to, by law, pass off non-turning posterior babies to the hospital within X hours, and then we would be prepped for c-section.

I’m blessed that both my son and I avoided this needless and risky surgery. It was safer for both of us that he was born at home, under no law, and in a safe environment. We knew what to do, we’d prepared, and we were healthy, safe, and strong.

It was a great birth — pleasurable at every level (including, btw, being painless, which is rare for posterior births).

So, in short, your article needs a bit more research.

People really believe that women make this choice because they have a birth “fantasy”?
This choice is made by women who take the time to learn the facts about the care offered by doctors….and the facts are clear!

Please take the time to gather facts before posting……Every freebirther makes this choice because it is what tey know to be safest for their pregnancy! Dont assume that these women have ni clue……often it is those who follow a doctir blindly who die…..search cyctotec, which is used by doctors because it is cost effective…but the manufacturer clearly says Do not use on pregnant women.

I’ve had 2 children unassisted. I think one thing that most ppl do not consider is that most free birthers do a ton of research and study before they decide to have that child on their own. There is research out there that proves you can find any problem out there on your own….and you can get the equipment (stethoscope, ect) without being a medical professional too. I am very glad there are hospitals near by that we can go to in time of real need. I just do not consider every birth a medical emergency. I’ve observed hospital births and if you are looking at it from the stand point of the baby there is no way in the world I’d want to be born there. Why?
1. They’d cut my life supply, the cord, off right away.
2. I’d be taken from my mother the only person I’ve known for 9 months.
3. I’d be put under bright lights when I have never had to look at bright lights before.
4. I’d yanked and pulled at just to be measured and just for them to get footprints. As if it needed to be done as soon as I was born when I’d be better off resting on my mothers chest and getting to know her.

I could could go on and on with this list. The thought of having my baby go through all the trauma makes me shiver.

Like I said before I am glad they hospitals and doctors are near by if needed.

I was already a homebirther, but now planning a UC and doing my own prenatal care. My last birth was a semi-accidental UC. I was considering not calling our midwife until after the birth, and a very fast labor made that a reality. It was our most wonderful birth. Although I had the most wonderful hands off midwife, bringing your child into the world with the intimacy of your husband is like the intimacy of the conception. The birth is the completion of the conception. For those who think I am endangering my child, I have spent many years reading much information on pregnancy, labor, birth, and newborn care. I take pregnancy care very seriously and nourish my body accordingly. I also study what to do in the event of a complication, and I would go to the hospital if needed. My baby and I would be in much greater danger to birth in a hospital in a non-emergency. Incidentally, why would anyone be concerned about a handful of freebirthers potentially endangering their babies’ lives when 3,500 babies are already being legally killed in the womb every day in America? It seems we have a far greater problem going on than the parents who are exercising their freedom to live life as they choose, which includes where and with whom to give birth. I don’t have the moral right to kill my baby, despite my legal right to do so, but I most certainly will decide where to birth. Do people really want to live in communist country in which pregnant women are dragged to the hospital against their will? Live and let live. I won’t condemn someone for getting an elective c-section or induction, as it is none of my business. Why condemn me for wanting to give my baby a gentle homebirth with only mom and dad there to welcome him or her into the world?