www.yourbodyyourbirth.org
Childbirth author Lynn M. Griesemer will be featured on PBS’s TO THE CONTRARY during the week of October 19th. TO THE CONTRARY, carried on 260 stations across the U.S. is viewed by over 1 million people. The topic will be childbirth / unassisted homebirth.
Lynn recently released the first motivational childbirth CD: YOUR BODY, YOUR BIRTH: SECRETS FOR A SATISFYING AND SUCCESSFUL BIRTH. Endorsed by many prominent people in the childbirth field, this CD may prove to be the most important CD for women in their childbearing years.
“I created this CD because women are not happy with their birth experiences and there is very little encouragement and inspiration for pregnant women. Instead, family and friends focus on two superficial questions: ‘When is the due date and do you know what you’re having?'”
Visit her website for testimonies, an important audio message and 2 secrets for a safe and successful childbirth experience.
www.yourbodyyourbirth.org
Here is the link to the To The Contrary PBS Show.
Lynn has been a good friend of mine for the past ten years. Her writing style is clear and concise, and her CD is an exellent preparation for childbirth. She helps you think about and consider many facets of hospital birthing that you may have never thought were important.
I strongly endorse her materials.
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE:
Here is Laura Shanleys blog response to the show on PBS
The Pod Cast of the Freebirth discussion
And Rixa at the True Face of Birth Blog has the transcript: Go Here
Rixas comments are all keepers: Here are my two favorites:
“Megan said…

I think part of the problem was that Lynn did take a “romanticized” tack when entering this “debate.” Doctors don’t want to hear about the spiritual and sexual nature of birth, they never have. Instead if she had focused on safety, rather than adding it as a footnote the debate might have gone differently. She certainly, could have (and should have imo), interjected when they were talking about moms and babies dying in droves about doctors not even washing their hands and being the cause of most of those deaths.

All of that said, I’d really suck in a debate. It is easier to sit back and criticize, so I really do appreciate Lynn having the ovaries to get out there and do it.”

Laura Shanley said…

“As Rixa said, it was heavily edited. Lynn was interviewed by someone who never appeared on camera. Her nearly 30 minute interview was cut to under 3 minutes. She never met the panelists. Lynn was interviewed first and they commented on her interview (I believe) several weeks later. So it wasn’t a debate by any means. She had no chance to respond to their comments. This doesn’t seem fair to me at all, but I’m still pleased to see anyone on American TV dealing with UC.”

Here are the three letters I wrote to Bonnie Erbe.
One was written before the show aired, the second was written after watching it five times, and the third was written three days later after I had more time to think about it.
Third Letter:
To Bonnie Erbe,
I have been thinking about a couple more things related to your unassisted childbirth segment and wanted to share these thoughts in one final email.
First, Dr. Healey made the claim that only experienced mothers who have given birth many times before are having UCs. Here is a thread on Mothering where several women share birth stories about first births that were planned freebirths.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=771592
One of my dear friends up in Canada, Mary Seiver, gave birth to all three of her children unassisted, even her first baby.
http://www.hotpepper.ca/family/mary/
Second, on the mothering UC discussion board http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=306
(one of the only public uc chat rooms on the web), the moms basically thought your panel stunk.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=774609
I don’t participate on that board because as a neo-con politically, I was heckling the liberals too much and was permanently banned.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=175142
This midwife also thought your panel was clueless about birthing politics:
http://sagefemme.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-contrary.html
In July I wrote a blog post to doctors telling them to mind their own business. Four obstetrics societies had made public statements condemning Unassisted Birth.
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/000944.html
These pompous elites sent out their edicts to the press, yet show no willingness to reform themselves or the practice of obstetrics.
I said in that post:
“And in a recent article in the Denver Westword Newspaper (I was interviewed for this story)
A Spokesperson for ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) claimed freebirth was “dangerous”.
Baby’s Day Out
Childbirth goes solo.
By Jared Jacang Maher
Published: May 10, 2007
“According to the guidelines of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the organization “strongly opposes” any birth not performed inside a hospital. A spokesman for the ACOG has a one-word assessment of freebirth: “dangerous.”
I have just one message for these doctors, and it is this:
Physician, heal thyself
“The moral of the proverb is counsel to prove your trustworthiness with your own affairs before attempting to tell others what they should do.”
When the various obstetrics societies PROVE that they have the will to reform themselves internally by setting up standards of care that are more about the mother and the baby than they are about the doctor and staff at the hospital, then I will feel more open about listening to any edicts they have about my lifestyle.
Hey Doctors: why don’t you set some goals….
1. No inductions before 41 weeks
2. 10% C-section rate
3. No elective C-sections
4. Full acceptance of Lay and Nurse Midwifery both in the home and at the hospital
5. A Complete and total acceptance of VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean)
6. A willingness to embrace proper prenatal nutrition as the foundation for a healthy pregnancy as outlined by the Brewer Pregnancy Diet
When society stops locking up our midwives for bogus reasons, embrace and promote natural mothering as the IDEAL for a new baby (Natural Childbirth, Attachment Parenting, and Long Term Ecological Breastfeeding), then I will believe you have found your soul as doctors.”
Now Bonnie, over the next ten years while you watch the infant mortality rate continue to climb, and the prematurity rate skyrocket, and the maternal morbidity rate read like a horror story http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/MaternalInfantHealth/ManageCare.htm
And everyone is standing around scratching their heads wondering what is going on with all these deaths, disfigurements, and sickness around birth, just remember these three emails and how I tried to share WHY we mothers have completely divorced ourselves from the birth machine.
Some investigations have shown that the c-section rate is grossly under reported:
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/001194.html
And so is the maternal mortality rate:
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/001109.html
If as a woman you are concerned about mothers and womans issues, this topic HAS to be covered in much more depth.
Several recent changes have made birth in American Hospitals MUCH more dangerous to the mother and the baby.
First is the banning of VBAC all over the country. http://www.vbac.com/pdfs/ICANrecordhughcesareanrates.pdf
Second, Cytotec has been made the standard of care for inductions:
http://womenshealthnews.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/ina-may-gaskin-speaks-out-on-cytotec-induction-of-birth/
Third, hospitals are opening up larger and larger NICUs in hospitals all over the world.
Instead of promoting proper prenatal nutrition as the ideal way to PREVENT preemie and low birth weight babies, all of the money and focus is going into these NICU’s where dollar is king and the baby is tortured for weeks and months on end, while it would have done so much better in a properly hydrated and nourished womb.
http://www.blueribbonbaby.org/
I really don’t have anything else to say. I pray though that you will take the time to do some in depth research and then allow us to make our case on your show.
As a society we could prevent many of the problems and financial difficulties that families face if holistic mothering was adopted and promoted as the ideal for family life. But dangit, nobody would make any money off of that!
Thanks again for doing the segment, overall we are very grateful to have any television coverage, even if your panel was clueless about us and our goals and intentions for family life.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.NaturalFamilyBLOG.com
First Letter:
To Bonnie Erbe:
I have been so grateful that To the Contrary is going to discuss the subject of Unassisted Homebirth.
As a mother interested in this type of birth since 1989, I worked for eight years as a Bradley Childbirth teacher, wrote three books on natural mothering, and organized our second homebirth conference held in Boulder Colorado in 2001. (Lynn Griesemer who was interviewed for your segment organized the first conference).
My question is, what sort of natural mothering credentials do your panelists this week have to intelligently discuss our movement?
I would be willing to appear on your show so that someone who is completely vested in this type of mothering is heard. Those of us actively promoting home birth on the internet have been somwhat frustrated that the media has largely ignored the great success of this type of birth. Recent print stories have tended to hype potential risks, but most women living this lifestyle are happily giving birth to baby after baby with no problems whatsoever.
My best friend Susan Baig is expecting her seventh child in a few months, and is planning an unassisted birth after doing her own prenatal care. http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/000781.html
She has also written extensively and this will be her fourth unassisted birth.
It is easy to dismiss us as a bunch of extremist nuts, but we have intelligently scrutinized what is happening in American Hospitals and thoughtfully said to the medical machine, “No Thanks!”.
My fifth child was born perfectly at home after I did my own prenatal care. Here is a link to my birth story, http://www.compleatmother.com/homebirth/jennyhatch.htm
Again, why not have one or two of us on to discuss this with your panel. Do any of them know a woman who has given birth this way? Do any of them understand the many dimensions of this movement and what is fueling it? I have known dozens and dozens of families who have given birth at home alone.
And I have been carefully keeping track of all of the online debates on my blog:
http://www.naturalfamilyblog.com/archives/cat_diy_homebirth_debate.html
Please, take the time to do the story justice. Mothers and babies are needlessly dying in the hospital because of current medical dogma. The maternal mortality rate went up for the first time in decades. I was NOT surprised.
Freebirth is the answer for so many of the families who are completely frustrated by a lack of choice for birth.
Jenny Hatch Mother of five and Birth Activist
Second letter:
To Bonnie Erbe,
I watched the Unassisted Homebirth segment early this morning (It’s on in Denver at 3:30 am every monday morning????), and rewound it four times just to make sure I heard all of the discussion clearly.
Your panel had absolutely no idea what they were talking about in responding to us and our movement, and I was highly distressed that we were summed up as wanting to move backwards to the 1800’s, were selfish, and not good mothers because we obviously were not thinking about the well being of our children.
Each point deserves a full rebuttal and if you really want to go in depth with this topic, and understand WHY our movement is growing by leaps and bounds all over the world, PLEASE do another segment and give it some real depth by having one of us on as a panelist so we can answer the charges as stated.
Husband/Wife homebirth is a quantum leap forward in terms of understanding the facts of childbirth.
Fact is, childbirth is orgasmic, and is greatly enhanced by the same situations that allow women to experience orgasm while having sex. Privacy and being alone with a lover enable the child to be easily born.
http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/sensual/orgasmic.html
Fact is that hospital birth disrupts proper hormonal connectedness between mother and baby at every juncture.
I wrote this post in a debate held at the tilted forum project. It covers all of the hormonal realities as documented by science:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpost.php?p=2274831&postcount=206
Fact is that when the hormonal realities are honored and even encouraged, babies are born easily in ecstatic orgasmic joy, are able to latch on to the breast, which helps to expel the placenta in the most efficient way, and the sucking action of the baby nursing clamps down the uterus (far superior to any drug), and the possibility of post partum hemorhage is greatly reduced by these hormonal realities being supported.
After I gave birth to my third child in the hospital, I vowed “never again”.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8707919814887329861&q=jenny+hatch&total=165&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
I had to fight for the right to give birth holistically, even going so far as to fire my female doctor who was threatening me and bullying me to let her break my water and speed my son out. Shortly after nursing him for a few minutes they took him away from me for that first crucial hour, and I had to beg to be allowed to hold him and nurse him for the 24 hours we stayed in the hospital after the birth. The emotional draining that took place during that whole experience taught me that certain hospital protocols are damaging to the mother/child bond, and it has only gotten worse in the thirteen years since he was born.
With certain OB’s calling for a 100% c-section rate, I think we can safely say the profession has collectively lost its mind.
And for your panelists who would call freebirthers selfish, does anything believe that a mother who uses as many drugs as the docs will allow is thinking about what is best for her child, or is she selfishly thinking only of her own discomfort?
And for those few women who choose to have an elective c-section, for whatever reason, (most common reason is the ease of scheduling a surgery as opposed to patiently waiting for the child to finish properly gestating), again, is the mother making that decision based on what is best for the child, or what is best for her? The selfishness claims can be fully flung back at those mothers tisk tisking about freebirth.
I give birth alone because my education has taught me that it is BEST FOR THE BABY!!!
Please take the time to do another show and let our voices be heard!
We have been so thrilled that you took on the topic. But give us equal time to defend our positions. As far as I know, you are the first television show to do a segment on us and I have to praise and thank you for that. But again, please let us properly defend ourselves to these charges.
The maternal mortality rate is going UP, and there is a logical, even predictable reason for why that is the case. Please, for the sake of women and babies who would be just fine at home, take the time to do this story right.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=47116
More surgery means more dead mothers and babys. We are the backlash to all of that cutting and drugging, and if we don’t take the time to educate our young mothers with the facts of birth, the profession of obstetrics will take away all of our rights of self determination, and no one will be able to stop them. They have way too much power, money, and public support.
I gave birth to my fifth child standing up in the Yoga Goddess position, and it was the most empowering moment of my life. When I think about the women who are being cut up and then stapled back together and never get to even see the babe until it is hours or days old, and juxtipose that with the potential of an orgasmic couples birth taking place in the sanctity of their little home, I just feel nauseated by the reality of where we are as a society.
There is a reason why we call that abomination birth rape.
We are on a trajectory as a society, and until we pull back and really analyze what is happening to mothers and children, until we fix the birth machine and make it more holistic, the trauma and shock that happens during birth is going to ripple out into our society like a tidal wave of dysfunction and fragmentation.
I have spent the past 18 years talking to women. The trauma just continues to increase. I believe we have some real answers for horrible realities around birth.
Jenny Hatch
WWW.NaturalFamilyco.com
And a nice response from To the Contrary:
October 23, 2007
Dear Jenny,
Thank you for you response to our show. I have forwarded your email to Bonnie Erbe and to the producer of our show.
Michelle Anderson
To The Contrary
And FYI: Here is a synopsis of Rikki Lake on the View sharing the details of her homebirth and the documentary she made about it.