I’ve missed blogging too much these past three months, so have decided to come back, well rested and ready to participate in the various discussions around my favorite topics.
Good Morning America has prepared an excellent print article for their web site. The comment section is roaring, and tomorow they plan to play this video during the second hour of the morning broadcast during the turning point section of the show.
Jenny Hatch

I thought it was interesting that we are called a “New Movement”, when if you really think about the six thousand year history of the world, it is the drugs and surgery during birth that is the innovation here, not the historical reality of couples birthing alone. Think about Adam and Eve, did Heavenly Father send down a medical birth team to help while they birthed Cain and Able?
Did they need nurses, doctors, drugs, electronic fetal monitors, knives, forceps, and the host of medical tools and tricks to get the babies born? Or did they put their trust in the Lord and give birth alone?
I would suggest they gave birth alone.
The doctor in the clip made the case that the few hours of labor are the most dangerous for the baby, and I would agree with him, IF someone like him was calling the shots. Inducing with Cytotec and/or Pitocin, making the woman labor on her back, refusing her fluids and food etc etc… The very fact that he believes labor is dangerous is part of the problem.
I also disagree that those of us who have chosen freebirth are “rebelling”. I am not a rebel. I have never thought of myself as rebellious. I am a very obedient person, happily living the laws of morality that have been outlined in the ten commandments, and keep my life in strict accordance with mormon ideals and principles for living.
Rather than a rebel, I am simply a mother who has logically weighed all of the issues in a methodical and practical way, spent many years reading books, statistics, and carefully following the birth controversies, and then, when I felt comfortable with it, made the faith leap to unassisted homebirth.
Some women may be rebelling from the powers that be, but I give birth alone because I believe it is best for the baby. This choice is based on a factual understanding of all of the facets of birth.
My dearest friend Susana Baig is gearing up to give birth to her seventh child in a few weeks. She has had four homebirths, three of them without a midwife present. Interestingly enough, she told me that she probably would have hired a professional in her state to help with a homebirth for this child, but because midwives are outlawed in her state, she feels that freebirth is her only choice.

Susana was one of the speakers at the 2nd International Husband Wife Homebirth Conference, hosted on my web site here. Here is a free copy of her talk.
Here is a video montage of her beautiful family!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mothering Magazines Discussion board talking about this story: Go Here
Free Republic Thread on this topic: Go Here
Amanda Counter Speaks at the 2nd International Husband/Wife Homebirth Conference.
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE Jan 9th:
Chris the mother profiled in the GMA Video had this to say about her interview with the producer for the piece on the Mothering Discussion board: Go here for her quote.
“Delurking, desperate to vent lol!
Well, overall that was a pretty big disappointment for me.
I can’t believe how much they left out of my interview! They didn’t mention WHY I decided to do this – being forced out of my midwifery clinic because of a new hospital policy against VBACs, no homebirthing midwives in our area, etc – nor did they mention that I had already had 2 VBACs; gotta wonder how many people are thinking I had 3 c-sections and then chose to UC lol!
I can’t believe they had a doctor giving an “expert opinion” about the irresponsibility of UC, without giving me a chance to respond – they even specifically asked me in the interview, “What would you say to someone who says you’re being selfish/irresponsible?” (And I had a very rational response of course lol!) By not showing a counterargument, they slanted it against UC – that position solidified by Annie’s (shocking) comments at the end. I can’t believe she told me she agreed with what I was doing and we sat there talking about the evils of hospitals, only for her to turn around and come out so anti-homebirth on air. 🙄
And their little “complications” part was absolutely laughable – breech birth and nuchal cord are NOT “complications” but just variants of normal; they could’ve chosen some REAL complications like shoulder dystocia or cord prolapse at least 🙄 And hemorrhaging in 5 minutes? Um, if you’re going to bleed to death in 5 minutes it doesn’t matter where the heck you are, home or hospital. 😛
Ah well, it could’ve been much worse. It will at least get people thinking.”
__________________
Chris, 25, mom to: Cade – 2/14/04 (c-section), Parker – 7/30/05 (hospital-medwife VBAC), Macy – 11/12/06 (hospital-midwife VBAC) & Dawson – 12/12/07 (UP as of 18 weeks/UBAC!)
And Gloria Lemay responded to the doctors rediculous claim that a mother could bleed out in five minutes: Also found on the Mothering Discussion board here.
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Dear Women, the above quote is by a physician who was interviewed by Good Morning America for a program about Unassisted Birth on Jan 8, 2008.
http://abcnews. go.com/GMA/ TurningPoints/ story?id= 4098198&page=1
Please feel free to repost what I’m about to tell you. I think it’s very important to address the statement that a woman can hemorrhage and bleed to death in as little as five minutes. This is a very horrifying comment for a dr to make and, for anyone who doesn’t really know birth, it could be enough to send them running for the hospital.
First of all, yes, it’s possible to hemorrhage and bleed to death quickly in birth IF YOU HAVE A SURGICAL WOUNDING. Women die from bleeding in cesareans and with episiotomies. The closest to death that I have ever seen a woman in childbirth was in a hospital birth where the ob/gyn cut an episiotomy, pulled the baby out quickly with forceps and then left the family doctor to repair the poor woman. We were skating in the blood on the floor and desperately trying to get enough I.V. fluids into her to save her life while the family doctor tried to suture as fast as he could. I have never seen anything like that in a home birth setting or a hospital birth that didn’t involve cutting.
Think about it, would any midwife ever go to a homebirth if it was possible for the mother to die from bleeding in five minutes? I know I wouldn’t go if that could happen. We had a visit here in Vancouver BC from an ob/gyn from Holland back in the 1980’s. Dr. Kloosterman was the head of Dutch maternity services for many years and he was a real friend to homebirth and midwifery. He told us that you have AN HOUR after a natural birth before the woman will be in trouble from bleeding. Does this mean that you wait for an hour to take action with a bleeding woman? No, of course not. If there’s more blood than is normal, you need to call 911 and transport to the hospital within the hour, but you’re not going to have a maternal death before an hour is up. I have had 10 transports for hemorrhage in the many homebirths that I have attended (over 1000). Two women have required transfusions. The other 8 recovered with I. V. fluids, rest and iron supplements. Of course, no one wants to see blood transfusions in this day and age. We also don’t like to see a woman anemic after having a baby because it makes the postpartum time very difficult. The most important action after having a baby is to keep the mother and baby skin to skin continuously for at least the first 4 hours.
What doctors won’t tell you is that the most severe cases of postpartum anemia are in women who have had cesareans. Major abdominal surgery results in anemia. I have a friend who is a pharmacist in a hospital. He spends most of his days trying to figure out individual plans to help cesarean moms get their hemoglobin counts up. He finds these cases of severe anemia in post operative mothers very distressing.
I hope this information is helpful to you.
As far as the other nonsense this person is trying to frighten you with:
1. Significant tearing—if you look with a mirror at your vulva after birth and there seems to be skin that “flaps” away from the rest of the vulva structures, you can always go into the emergency ward and have someone suture the wound. Tears do not bleed like cuts do. This should not dissuade anyone from staying away from the place where the scalpels reside.
2. Breech position—you’ ll know if your baby is breech. When the membranes release, you will see black meconium coming out the consistency of toothpaste. With a head first baby, the meconium colours the water green or brown but with a breech, the meconium is being squeezed directly out without mixing with water. The other way that you should suspect a breech presentation is if you have a feeling from about 34 weeks of pregnancy on that you have “a hard ball stuck in your ribs”. Breech presentations are about 3 percent of births.
3. Cord wrapped around the neck—the smart babies put their cords around their necks to keep them out of trouble. If you have a baby with the cord around the neck, it can be unwrapped very easily either during or right after the birth. The most important thing is to keep the cord intact.
Gloria Lemay, Vancouver BC Canada
Advisory Board Member, ICAN
Contributing Ed. Midwifery Today Magazine