Posted on 10/21/2008 3:04:54 PM PDT by Jenny Hatch
I am thrilled to announce that the Discovery Health Channel is going to show the Freebirth Documentary tonight at 7pm mountain time.
Since 1989 I have been working diligently to learn everything I could about home birth. Giving birth to my own five children, and teaching childbirth class in my home for eight years was the stepping stone to my online birth activism that began in 1997.
The goal was simple, mainstream homebirth and make it possible for any woman to give birth in whatever setting she felt was appropriate for her child.
Unassisted Childbirth was and is the answer for any couple that honestly wants to have a peak experience welcoming their own children into their lives.
Wether McCain or Obama win the presidency, the fact is that we as a nation are moving towards socialized medicine, and when we get socialized fully in America, childbirth is going to be about a million times more dangerous in the hospital than it already is, for mothers and babies.
Learning these skills for myself has been the key to ultimate female empowerment and fulfillment. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ that gentle, ecstatic birth will heal women of all that ails them, physically, emotional, and spiritually. I have experienced it and I know this is the JOY that our Heavenly Parents want us to feel when we are welcoming our children into our homes.
Laura Shanley has a new blog post sharing the details around the new Discovery Health Documentary Freebirth.
And a new web site titled Freebirthing that Laura Shanley put together has some video clips and still pictures from the Documentary.
QUOTE:
"While this is not brought out in the program, nine pregnant women were actually interviewed for the documentary, and all nine went on to successfully give birth at home unassisted. None of the women sought medical care during the births, and only two sought non-emergency care after the births - one for a slow placenta (that came out easily, on its own in the hospital), and another for stitches.
For more information about this program please contact Laura Shanley. To learn more about unassisted childbirth visit:
Bornfree! The Unassisted Childbirth Page.
Tune In: Freebirthing
A growing movement of women in the US and in the UK are defying medical advice and choosing to give birth with no drugs, no midwife and absolutely no medical support. Supporters claim it's how having a baby was always meant to be. Doctors say this new 'freebirthing' craze carries great risks.
In this program, we chart the stories of three pregnant women who have decided to go against the advice of their doctors and go it alone. With intimate access, we follow the challenges they have to overcome from negative family opinions and medics, to their own fears and through to the eventual and extraordinary births.
Watch the premiere, Tuesday, October 21 at 9 pm on Discovery Health!
Freebirth: A Message to Obstetricians from Jenny Hatch
Here is my own Joyful Freebirth Movie:
Do freebirthing mothers forgo ultrasounds as well?
I have a niece who delivered her last child at home. But then, she’s an RN.
The Canadian Doctors (SOGC):
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC)
The Australian and New Zealand Doctors:
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
The Royal College (RCOG) in the UK:
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)
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".
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:
"The moral of the proverb is counsel to prove your trustworthiness with your own affairs before attempting to tell others what they should do."
Break out of the Matrix!
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.
Until then? Well, I am going to continue promoting freebirth and encouraging families to break away from your way of giving birth, because frankly, the way you do it stinks.
Lamaze International has a white paper on Elective cesarean Vs. Vaginal Birth (PDF)
American College of Nurse Midwives: RISKS OF CESAREAN DELIVERY ARE UNDERREPORTED, BENEFITS OVERSTATED
Media Briefing Highlights Concerns In Advance of NIH Conference
QUOTE:
"Only women themselves can tell us if they are actually demanding cesarean section surgery. With what we are learning from Childbirth Connection today, we now know that women VERY rarely schedule first cesareans by choice without a medical reason," says Susan Hodges, president of Citizens for Midwifery. "Only women can tell us what kind of informed consent process was provided to them. Citizens for Midwifery believes that women are not being given adequate and unbiased information about all the risks and benefits of cesarean sections. Research is needed to understand who and what are now influencing decisions to perform major abdominal surgery 'for no medical reason' despite substantial evidence that all cesareans increase harmful risks for mothers and babies."
Free yourself from the Matrix~!
Hm. With all due respect, if I had ‘freebirthed’ my daughter and I would have died. What precautions, if any, are taken in ‘freebirth’?
My daughter delivered with only the assistance of her husband. The mid-wife showed up about 5 minutes after the birth. Both were fine and healthy. Her husband however still doesn’t want to discuss the experience.
“Do freebirthing mothers forgo ultrasounds as well?”
I did not have any medical prenatal care with my last two pregnancies, so no, I did not have an ultrasound, but many women use various forms of prenantal care, including scans to help them prepare for the home birth.
Freebirth is all about taking personal responsibility, but hiring whatever professional a mother feels is important for her and her baby.
After my last birth I hired a post partum doula to care for me, and asked my chiropractor to come to our home for post birth adjustments for me and my son.
Jenny
I liked being drugged myself. I’m not big into pain.
“I have a niece who delivered her last child at home. But then, she’s an RN.”
Some of the most passionate homebirthers are former labor and delivery nurses. They know what happens in the hospital, and don’t want any part of it for their own children.
Some doctors have also had freebirths, including Sarah Buckley in Australia.
Jenny
PS I’m not a doctor, a midwife, or a nurse, but I was determined to learn the skills of natural mothering and then put those skills into practice with my last two pregnancies.
I gave birth to my son at home 30 years ago this election day. I hope I am as happy this November 4th as I was 30 years ago.
YAY Jenny! - I’m a postpartum doula (and a registered nurse).
“What precautions, if any, are taken in ‘freebirth’?”
All sort of different precautions are invovled in preaparing for a home birth. First and foremost is education about the birth process itself, and huge online chat rooms exist to help women with peer education. Mothering Magazine has perhaps the most popular chat room.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=306
Here is the chat for the women talking about this documentary tonight:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=979184
For me focusing on spiritural as well as physical preparation was the key to my successful home birth. Here is the link to my birth video (not graphic!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXuZs1PvkB0
Jenny
I had two home births with midwives and one hospital birth (also with a midwife)due to a higher risk pregnancy with some bleeding following a car wreck. My hospital midwife congratulated me on the most peaceful “professional” birth he’d ever attended. He successfully ejected all of the uninvited medical pros from my room, reminding them to knock and ask- and not touch me unless my permission was given.
My daughter had two c-sections and I would have lost her or one of my grand babies if she had delivered at home.
Pre-natal screening and a hospital back up plan are vital.
Same with my son. Over 24 hours of labor, after my water broke (he was not induced) and I was still only dilated a few centimeters. The fetal monitor started showing signs of distress and so he was delivered immediately via c-section. He turned out to be a big boy (9 lbs) who had wedged his head against one of my hip bones, and if not for the c-section he probably wouldn’t be here today.
Thank you for the links, I’ll check them out.
What about emergency medical need?
I had severe toxemia and my organs were shutting down. Only way to stop it was an emergency c-section. I was in ICU for 3 days post birth and on anti-seizure meds for 6 months. My daughter’s alive - and a lovely young woman, sophomore in college and voting republican in her first election.
Jenny —
I am *so* glad that you had safe births at home. And I do believe that women *should* take more control of their health. AND...
I cannot recommend having a home birth. Women are misled by a statistic that says home births are safer. What this actually means is that there are fewer complications in home births because the hospital births include the high-risk cases.
Now, any respectable mid-wife will not allow a home birth if there is a high risk. But this does not mean that if there is no foreseeable risks, that nothing will go wrong in a home birth.
In fact, many things can go wrong that a mid-wife in your home will not be prepared to deal with that can result in the death of your baby, yourself, or both.
I thought that the most important aspect of birth is a safe delivery for both mother and child — not a “peak experience.”
When there are so many options in birthing centers that have the necessary care for emergency situations, why would you compromise your child’s safety, and perhaps endanger her or his very life?
Colette Moran
vegetarian,”green” Christian mom of 7
That’s funny November 4th must be a good day for people who have kids at home.
I had my daughter at home 19 years ago November 4th. No one promoted it too me, my husband & I sought a Nurse Midwife & had her in our apartment with my mom there & his brother in the other room.
Alternative birth methods weren’t as popular then, in the hospital or otherwise.
I would not have survived my first delivery, and the same is true for my daughter who has two children. The mortality rate was high in long past years because of medically unassisted births, for both mothers and babies.
Why take the chance?
In my case, not having any prenatal care would have killed my beautiful son. He was not growing well and had to be delivered by emergency c-section at 31 weeks when he went into distress. If I had chosen to forgo ultrasounds during my pregnancy, we wouldn’t have known there was a problem and Noah would have died before birth.
I also had a miscarriage called a partial molar. The placenta continued to grow after my baby had died. I thought I was pregnant for 12 weeks even though the baby died at 8 weeks. A D&C was required. If I had not had medical treatment I’m not sure what would have happened, but that type of miscarriage can actually cause cancer. Medical care probably saved my life.
People may argue that freebirthing has been around ever since people were on this earth, but I would argue that there have been multitudes of still births and dead women due to childbirth. Foregoing medical care during pregnancy and birth is dangerous, IMHO.
**Why take the chance?**
I’m in full agreement.
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