Growing ‘freebirth’ trend alarms doctors

“Dr. David Stronge, a retired physician from Lantzville, said he can think of multiple reasons why freebirth is a bad idea.

“You will have no method of dealing with an obstructed labour,” he said. “I’ve delivered babies at home. It’s pretty gruesome.”

Stronge said if a woman starts to hemorrhage, the situation becomes very serious.

“You just bleed out. You can’t deal with a ruptured uterus,” he said.

“It is inappropriate in a modern society to deliver at home.”

Angela Flegel works as a doula, still a relatively unknown profession, in Nanaimo.

“I’m a professional support person,” said Flegel.

Flegel also helps fathers provide support to the mother and works in conjunction with a doctor or midwife.

“I can offer suggestions that will help with comfort,” she said.

“But I don’t attend the births alone, that’s a big no-no. Doulas are strictly for emotional support.”

This line was the kicker for me:
“It is inappropriate in a modern society to deliver at home”
I really believe these doctors are suffering from a complete failure of imagination about our society. They have spent two hundred years convincing mothers that birth is dangerous and only a professional can attend a birth, yet they believe our society is just going to continue as is with no major infrastructure disruptions to make it impossible to birth with a professional.
I believe those disruptions are just around the corner and it is going to be interesting to watch our civilization contort and twist to adjust to the realities that may smack and hit the innocent most painfully. The last time we had a pandemic, most babies in america were being born at home. The vast migration from home to hospital did not happen until the 40’s and 50’s.
When hospitals are overun with disease, mommas are going to want to stay home. Bringing hospital birth to home is what is deadly and dangerous. And the first problem crops up with the positioning of the mother. My own religion, which is so focused on Provident Living, must have had a doctor write a primer on Emergency Childbirth contained in the churchs preparedness manual. Because it tells the support person to help the mother lie down on her back to “assist” her with the delivery. This immediately puts the baby into distress and makes the contractions more painful for the mother.
Teaching parents practical information about natural childbirth, which the doctors themselves don’t know and are in no position to teach, is the best step our society could take to help mitigate the deadly childbirth situations that will immediately present once a virus starts raging around the planet.
But no, the medicos have nothing but scorn for those of us who are seeking to learn for ourselves the facts of birth.
Doctor Stronge, what is inappropriate is for you to live in your la la land of “modern” unreality and believe that everything is going to stay as is for the duration of my birthing life.
Jenny Hatch