CTV-Med News Express: Do-it-yourself birthing

Jenny Marie Hatch

Do-it-yourself birthing by Elizabeth St. Philip

“When I told my friends that I was working on a story about a phenomenon called “free birth” aka “unassisted births,” the response was always the same.

“Whassat??”

When I explained that it’s when a woman decides to give birth at home unassisted …without the help of a doctor or midwife… and directed them to the videos of woman “birthing” on the Web (Freebirth.com), they almost always recoil in shock.

The reaction was overwhelming negative — and in some cases, hostile. Typically, someone will say that women are putting their babies in danger. One UK doctor has gone as far as stating these women should be charged with manslaughter if anything goes wrong.

But unassisted birthing is not illegal. And what I found intriguing about this story was the number of pregnant women who are ready to do it themselves.

After just one phonecall, I found three women prepared to talk about their experiences on camera (Ultimately, we only interviewed two for the CTV story).

One free birth advocate in Lethbridge told me she knows of ten women who are planning to have their children this way. She had three of her own children without assistance.

Another woman I interviewed mentioned her mother-in-law had all six of her children at home. It was her husband who first introduced her to the concept.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada estimates that only 1% of children born annually are born at home. Usually that is with the help of an experienced midwife, so only a tiny fraction of that 1% are “freebirthers.”

Then again, there’s no one compiling statistics, so who knows for sure. The number of women freebirthing may be higher than doctors think. Which means we may be hearing more about this issue in the future.

Question: What do you think of “freebirthing?” If anything goes wrong, should charges be laid?”</blockquote>
This is what I wrote on Elizabeths blog in the comment section (just in case it gets pulled as so many of my blog posts seem to be of late)
Good Question Elizabeth.
As a loud proponent of freebirth and organizer of our second conference, I agree that few people are aware of how many of us are birthing alone at home.
As for your question…
We freebirthers understand that this choice makes some professionals uncomfortable but as to litigation?
Dr. Crippen is calling for us moms who have a babe die during a freebirth to be charged with manslaughter. (Or at least be prosecuted by brain damaged children later on)
I think he is really on to something in his call for criminal charges for dangerous parental decisions around birth.
We freebirthers will gladly accept the responsibility for our birth outcomes WHEN and IF mothers who are choosing elective C-sections are held under the same law.
Nobody is above the law…Right?
So, as long as moms who choose a medical intervention without true medical cause are being prosecuted and locked up for their dangerous and deadly choice for baby, we will gladly bow down to the law and allow ourselves to also be prosecuted and charged for a supposedly dangerous birth choice if baby dies during the birth.
See, we have nature and the lack of chemicals on our side, and I can promise you that the mothers from the medical side will be prosecuted ten to one more often than we mothers who are giving birth alone. Toxic, “blue” chemical laden babies have a much harder time recovering from birth than our beautiful natural babes who are born at home with proper hormonal interactions and lack of deadly drugs like Cytotec raging through their livers and brains.
It seems to me that if poor parental choices are being thrown into the mix of who gets prosecuted and who does not, those babies who are brain damaged from too many drugs at birth, those babies who never reach full genetic brain potential cause Momma didn’t want to breastfeed, and those children who are permanently maimed and disabled by never being fed whole organic foods, should also be enabled to have cause to sue parents for damages.”
Sound fair? Reasonable?
It does to me.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.naturalfamilyBLOG.com