[Jenny Hatch]

Taking personal responsibility for our health: including prenatal care, birth, and postpartum infant care is the key to families being able to weather whatever storms may blow in our nation.

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.

Go Here to read the post.

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.

Discovery Health

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:

Jenny Hatch

[frogjerk]

Do freebirthing mothers forgo ultrasounds as well?

[anniegetyourgun]

I have a niece who delivered her last child at home. But then, she’s an RN.

[Jenny Hatch]

In the past few months four obstetrics societies have made public statements about Unassisted Childbirth.

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".

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."

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.

Jenny Hatch

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."

The dirty little secret about elective surgeries is that many of them are in fact coerced by doctors.

Free yourself from the Matrix~!

[mrs tiggywinkle]

Hm. With all due respect, if I had ‘freebirthed’ my daughter and I would have died. What precautions, if any, are taken in ‘freebirth’?

[muggs]

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.

[Dutchgirl]

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.

[CMoran325]

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

[Evie Munchkin]

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.

[MissyPrissy]

Please understand that I respect your choice and admire the courage and strength that it must take to birth a baby in this way, but I've got to side with modern medicine on this one. Having every feasible advantage on my baby's side by making sure that we both had the best health care possible was what I considered to be my utmost responsibility as a mom-to-be. Medicine is not a perfect science...some mistakes are made, but there are many, many more happy endings and miracles than mistakes. I just don't get the concept of going back to the stone age with childbirth. Seems a little like driving without those new-fangled seatbelt things.

[informavoracious]

A few years ago I would have been a proponent of home birth. Then a relative gave birth to a child with severe breathing problems and the mother had severe bleeding. That baby and its mother would not have lived long enough to make it to the hospital 15 minutes away, and the father would have been guilt ridden his whole life. The child is doing fine now.

Sorry, it needs to be a hospital or birthing center, for the sake and rights of the CHILD.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Supporters claim it's how having a baby was always meant to be.

Some people like the idea of dead babies and dead mothers I guess.

I have seen a lot of "Freebirthing" and I have seen dead babies and dead mommies that need not have been. I always thought of all the wonders of America the fact that there simple act of having a baby did not mean a high chance of dying was one of the greatest.

But you are free to choose to squat and give birth on to a dirt floor if you like. Me I am going to stick with the way that protects the health of my child and use a hospital.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

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 testify that you are a nut.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

If I had freebirthed my first born, he would have possibly died.

With my second child, we barely made it to the hospital in time and she could have been delivered by her father in the backseat of the car.

Each pregnancy is different and deliveries can vary wildly.

To not avail yourself to all medical precautions in case of an emergency is foolhardy.

Years ago women would die frequently in childbirth. That is rare today because medical intervention is possible.

If a obstetrician is not deemed necessary during birth, how can one rightly advocate for prenatal care? The argument could turn to just letting nature take its course during the development of the baby. In my view, that is irresponsible.

[dutchieu]

How beautiful it was too! I am past child bearing years and are reaping the consequences physically connected to hospital decisions in my child bearing experiences. Briefly, I would like to bring up a couple points that happened to me.

1)induced without as much as an ultrasound to be sure I could safely pass my child. After 36 plus hours of hard labor, she was quite literally pulled out of me. My back was injured from my baby bouncing from spine to pelvic bone and came out with her head ripped up..quite literally. I ended up with caged fusion on lower spine later in life that I attribute to the situation because it was in the exact area that I felt deep burning with labor pounding back and forth. I guess, nobody is perfect but you would think common sense would have played a part to prohibit this kind of thing.

2)I lost a full term baby simply because they told me it was “commonly called pregnancy” when I told them my baby was convulsing inside me. She died within 6 hours of them sending me home.

3)I allowed no intervention, drugs or evaluations and had a healthy little girl. BTW, not once has a doctor delivered me..they always seem to leave when that time comes.

You mentioned that your body knows what to do and I cannot agree with you more. Of course as in all things, there are exceptions and things may not turn out the way you wanted but I bet that happens more in hospital than home. This is my analogy although not so pretty. When you go through transition (time just before the birth) the process is taken over by your body. It is like what your body does when it needs to expel something you consumed like bad food and you bring it right back up and fast. You cannot prevent it...slow it down...speed it up or stop. Your body takes over.
I was so surprised how quiet it was when you gave birth through this transition. I have never screamed but the strong muscles at work was like a bearing down, pushing without me so I sounded like I was pushing on my own but was not. How on earth did you get around that? (again like heaving from expelling bad food..do you do that without a sound too?)
I have watched on t.v. the hours of required pushing that by the time the baby came, the mother was out of it. That benefits no one but the hospital in most cases.
Your a beautiful person and I feel strongly that God placing you here at this time is no mistake. Your family is beautiful as well.