This past week two sets of twin girls were born to mothers who were planning and hoping for unassisted births.
The Mothering Forum at Mothering.com is one of the only public UC Chat rooms on the web. Most of the chats for Freebirth are private, so it is nice to be able to share some birth stories with a public audience curious about how Freebirthers interact with each other on the web.
I think these twin stories are awesome. And the number one reason is because they illustrate a couple of points.
First and foremost Freebirthers do not reject modern medicine.
If a family feels that they will be served by interacting with a midwife or doctor, they seek out whatever level of prenatal and birth care feels right for them.
Second, the response to both of the mothers was also very indicative of how chat rooms welcome birth stories, no matter how the birth goes. The two birth stories were both greeted with wonderful acceptance and blessings, even though one momma had a section and the other had a freebirth.
Third, the bottom line for most freebirthing families is that the baby arrives safe, no matter where that birth takes place.
Here are the links to the various stories:
Go Here
And here
and Here
May I offer my hearty congrats to both families and pray that as women continue to get educated about proper nutrition for twins and what truly causes preeclampsia, they will be enabled to give birth in the most holistic way possible. The unique nutritional demands of a twin pregnancy can pose serious health risks to the babe if mother is not clued in to what she needs to eat daily to make healthy children. But this mother still built two very large twins and birthed her children in the way that made sense to her family – by c-section.
If you will search around the unassisted childbirth forum on mothering you can get a sense of how the women support and help each other.
Jenny Hatch

My best friend Susan Baig just sent some pictures sharing her life. She gave me permission to share them.
Susan and Robert have six children, four born at home and the last three were born unassisted. They are a homeschooling family and recently purchased some land in Missouri where they are renovating a farm house. Here is a montage of the pictures they shared.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jenny Hatch

Fruit of the womb blog: Why do men have nipples?
Dr. Ken waxed eloquent on his blog after looking at the logo of ACOG

“The first thing that piqued my imagination today was the ACOG logo. I had never looked at it closely, but first thing this morning I had that opportunity as it was flashed up on 6 very large screens at the start of the opening ceremonies and the “President’s Program,” comprised of keynote speakers to kick off the scientific sessions. What I learned was that ACOG was founded the year I was born, in 1951. Well, so what? Being one of those people who truly believes that things really don’t happen by chance, that struck me as bearing some (unexplained) significance at a higher level as to the ‘bass ackwards’ way I ended up in my chosen profession to begin with (read one or two of my earliest posts on this site if you don’t believe me!). ACOG and I are growing old at the same rate, both in our 56th years! Fortunately, I am sure the society will long outlive me.”

I think a better question than asking why do men have nipples is to query why the doctor in the ACOG logo is wearing a Superman Cape.
While the good doctor was musing about male nipples at his recent acog meeting, I wrote him a comment to be posted on his excellent blog. He did not post it, so for my readers pleasure I will post it here.
COMMENT NOT posted on his blog:
Doctor,
Men have nipples because they are fully capable of breastfeeding.
As a freebirthing woman who has completely rejected the goals, agendas, and darwinist philosophies of modern obstetrics, I just put together a montage on my blog, you might want to give it a look!
Freebirthers have realized a couple of things about childbirth that you evolutionary doctors seem to be quite ignorant of. Namely that birth is a sexual event and should be conducted privately in the bedroom of the couple involved in creating the child.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.NaturalFamilyBLOG.com

I participated in this chat at the Tilted Forum Project a couple of weeks ago. Page six of the chat had the most interesting exchange of information.
Go Here to read it
Jenny Hatch

Pregnant Women are second class citizens
Rixa has some interesting insights about birth politics in the US.
QUOTE: (Yes, gun to your head obstetrics is happening in America)
“Ms. P was continuing her labor at home when there was a knock on the door. She opened the door to the local sheriff, who was a friend of hers and a member of her church. The sheriff said, “I’m really terribly sorry, Ms. P, but I have here a warrant for your arrest.” Shocked, Ms. P said, “What on earth for?” The sheriff answered, “I’m terribly sorry. I don’t know what the hell is going on. My orders are to take you to the hospital, in handcuffs if necessary.”
Against her wishes and the repeated objections of her husband, Ms. P was taken to the hospital, taken to the surgery ward, tied down on an operating table, and given a forced C-section. The story doesn’t end here. Ms. P and her husband sued the doctors and the hospital. However, in Florida a judge must decide if a case deserves to go to trial, and another local judge decided that Ms. P’s case was not worthy of proceeding, so her case never went to trial—a shocking miscarriage of justice, given the serious violation of Ms. P’s basic rights. Since then, Ms. P has had another baby, born vaginally at home with no problems. Needless to say, there was no visit to the hospital during the labor.
It is important that women in this country become aware of the danger to birthing women and join the movement to protect them. Ms. P’s fam­ily’s wishes were not honored, and her body was invaded against her will. Her human rights were violated…. Treating pregnant women in this manner goes against the Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Accord, which explicitly state an individual has absolute rights over her or his own body and no medical treat­ment can ever be forced. Cases like this indicate a dangerous trend in U.S. maternity care toward totalitarian control of a woman’s reproductive life by doctors.
Here is a link to the case of Laura Pemberton.
References:
Samuels TA, Minkoff H, Feldman J, Awonuga A, Wilson TE. “Obstetricians, health attorneys, and court-ordered cesarean sections.” Womens Health Issues. 2007 Mar-Apr;17(2): 107-14.
Veronika E.B. Kolder, Janet Gallagher, and Michael T. Parsons. “Court-Ordered Obstetrical Interventions.” NEJM 316.19 (May 7, 1987): 1192-1196.
Patient’s Rights: issues in Risk Management
Marsden Wagner. Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First (University of California Press: 2006).”
Jenny Hatch