Posted on 05/09/2007 6:29:59 AM PDT by Jenny Hatch
As a christian, I believe strongly that we are in the end times before Jesus Christ returns to the earth, and as a mother, I wanted to know that should I be pregnant while experiencing one of the woe's predicted by Jesus Christ in Matthew 24, we wanted to be absolutely certain that we had the skills needed to give birth without any professional help.
The author chose to instead focus on the other sides to the Free Birthing movement, and that is fine, but in sharing this article with fellow freepers, I just wanted to clarify up front that we walked down this path 18 years ago in order to master the skills of self sufficiency and provident living.
With the successful birth of our fifth child almost five years ago, a great peacefullness entered our hearts that "come what may" we would know what to do in an emergency situation, even if living through terrorism, natural disaster, or plagues.
Jenny Hatch
A Mother Thinks about Nuclear Survival
To my way of thinking any mothering who is not thinking preparedness is todays climate of terror and natural disasters is not clued in to reality.
Interview on Provident Living and Family Preparedness
As I said above, having these skills comforts my heart. I know without a doubt that should anything happen while I am pregnant, and for whatever reason, cannot get to the hospital or even get a midwife to my home, that the baby and I will be just fine during a home birthing situation.
Jenny Hatch
Thank you for sharing that. I ended up having a c-section with my first after being induced. I fought it the 1st two times they suggested it, only several hours into labor. I knew about the rising rate of c-sections and doctors eagerness to do them (thank you John Edwards), so I was going to be stubborn. But when the baby’s heartbeat dropped suddenly and 2 doctors and 2 nurses came rushing to my side, it didn’t take much convincing (but a lot of tears).
Even while I was still in recovery I vowed to myself that at a minimum I would be switching to a midwife for the next baby and praying to be able to do a VBAC. Since then (1 year ago), I’ve thrown around the idea of a homebirth for the next. But it will take a lot of convincing for Mr. elc.
I love to read stories like this. They give me up that I’m not
You could also lose your life or your baby’s while you were preparing for the end times. Why not learn to give birth unassisted with a hands-off midwife standing by? How much midwifery did you and your husband study beforehand?
Mrs VS
I’m a strong supporter of natural childbirth. But unassisted? I’ve no problem with birthing at home; but someone should be there other than the husband in case something goes wrong.
My husband feels the same way, that he is the appropriate person to learn the simple skills of natural childbirth to help me deliver our child. Giving birth to our fifth baby, alone, in our own home was one of the most empowering, sacred moments of our life together.
Here is the birth story if you would like to give it a read.
Jenny
I see you’ve written extensively - but how would you deal with a prolapsed cord, nuchal cord, hemorrhage, complete dystocia, premature birth? Are you willing to go to the hospital for those? What about monitoring for incompetent cervix, gestational diabetes or preeclampsia?
Mrs VS
“Even while I was still in recovery I vowed to myself that at a minimum I would be switching to a midwife for the next baby and praying to be able to do a VBAC. Since then (1 year ago), I’ve thrown around the idea of a homebirth for the next. But it will take a lot of convincing for Mr. elc.
I love to read stories like this.”
Unfortunately, as I said in the article, VBAC is being banned in many places, and it leaves the women little options. Here in Colorado it is illegal for a mother to give birth at home with a midwife while attempting a VBAC.
But perhaps before your next babe is due all hell will break loose and you won’t have to worry about going to the hospital!
Jenny
Interesting reads.
are VBACs really resisted? i had an emergency C-Section with my first, but had vaginal births with the following two. it wsan’t an issue that i had to fight for in the slightest. a Csection was not necessary, so they didn’t do them with the second two.
It drives me nuts when people like a doc here cite a stat like 10-20%. In other words, he doesn’t know. He could be off by 100%.
Ok as a BA Christian I am just not getting the connection between birthing and end times.
Mrs VS"
We worked as Bradley Childbirth educators for eight years and I had my first three in the hospital. It was after tons of research, prayer, and putting our faith on the line that we attempted it with our fourth baby at home alone and we both almost died. As stated in the article:
"Jenny Hatch, who runs a website devoted to unassisted childbirth, blames the medical community for pushing mothers to the fringe. As a Mormon, she hoped to have a big family with as many as twelve children -- but had a C-section for her second child. "It left me feeling very demoralized and afraid and concerned about having any more vaginal babies," Jenny says. Since most hospitals have policies against allowing VBACs -- sticking to the adage "once a Cesarean, always a Cesarean" -- she was looking at ten more surgeries.
"For those women who were not very educated with their first births, they kind of got railroaded into surgery with their first, and with their next baby, they are hitting this wall of opposition," she explains. "Unless you're highly educated and willing to take on the risk of an unassisted birth, you have no choice."
After fighting with doctors and nurses to allow her third child to be born vaginally, Jenny vowed that she would never deliver in the hospital again. Her husband, Paul, wasn't against the idea of a home birth, but his wife's insistence that they do it without even a doula or a midwife made him very uncomfortable.
"And that debate almost killed my marriage," Jenny says. "The birth issue has really taken us to the depths of our relationship. What Paul eventually came to was that it was my body and I was the one who had to give birth, and he supports my rights of self-determination to give birth how, where and when I feel comfortable."
So in 1996, they chose the upstairs bedroom of their townhome in Louisville as the site for the birth of their fourth child. The three-hour labor was so quick, and the eleven-pound boy arrived with such force, that the umbilical cord snapped and the baby wasn't breathing. Jenny was also hemorrhaging deep in her uterus. Emergency personnel were called, and baby and mother were taken away in separate ambulances. Both survived, but the family was shaken.
Still, that experience didn't stop the stay-at-home mom from continuing her freebirth activism. In 2001, she organized the second International Husband/Wife Homebirth Conference, with Shanley as the keynote speaker. The event drew about thirty families from as far away as Utah and California to Louisville, where they attended workshops and exchanged tips on unassisted birth. Having another freebirth themselves was still a tender subject for Jenny and Paul, but by the time Jenny got pregnant in 2002, her heart was settled.
"I decided I would rather die than go back to the hospital," she says. "If I end up dying during home birth, great, then it's my time to go. But I will not cave."
Their fifth child, Ben, was born at home successfully. Instead of lying on her back, Hatch chose to give birth standing in the yoga Goddess position, a kind of warrior squat with her arms raised at right angles."
One of the biggest struggles for my husband was that if the baby or I died everyone would be pointing the finger of scorn at him, like, you idiot, what were you thinking? etc etc and perhaps hold him responsible. Fact is I gave him an ultimatum after our third hospital birth where I clawed my way to a VBAC. I told him that if he wanted to have any more children with me we were going to do it at home and alone.
This almost ruined our marriage.
I felt like I had given birth in the hospital three times because of HIS fear, and even though I was the one who had to be in that "flat on your back, doctors digging around my cervix" position, which like it or not leaves many women feeling violated, it was unfair to expect me to continue to cave to medical dogma just because he was afraid.
He tucked his fear away to a place where I could not see it as much, and we proceeded to give birth to our next two sons at home alone after doing our own prenatals. As stated the first required transfer after the birth. But I don't regret the education that resulted from that experience. I spent the next six years researching bleeding issues and how to resuscitate a baby, and we gave birth triumphantly to Ben in 2002 with no problems.
I am not advocating an ignorance is bliss attitude. Many practical skills can be mastered by the mother and father, and my feeling is that NOW is the time to begin to learn them, not when society is on the brink and momma goes into labor in an emergency situation.
Jenny
My wife so hates hospitals that we had our first in a stand-alone birthing center (in California). We went in at 2:30 am. The baby was born at 3:30. We cleaned up, had breakfast, and went home at 7:30.
Texas didn’t have birth centers, so our second was at home, assisted by a midwife and my wife’s mother. Great experience, although we almost missed out on the midwife. She had three moms due around about the same time and, naturally, all three happened the same night.
I could be wrong; but I think it is just directing the move to be more independent.
The whole point of this, at least from my perspective is to "practice" knowing that you have a hospital, emt's etc...minutes away with the current infrastructures in place to help.
When and if all of that birth machinery is gone, or incapable of helping for whatever reason, it will probably be a husband attended or solo birth anyway.
I know that the "practicing" we have done these past 12 years that I have actively prepared for and then accomplished two unassisted births have greatly upped my confidence in my ability to produce a healthy child without any professional help.
Jenny
I don’t even think the hospital has to be in close proximity if there is someone like a midwife, nurse, et al.
If a mother needs to be cut (even vaginally) or a cord is wrapped, or baby is feet first...someone with some knowledge needs to be there to assist.
Mrs VS"
This is not an "ignorance" movement. We are a group of mothers, largely supporting each other on the web in various chat rooms and web discussion boards, that is actively looking to MITIGATE those problems that you just outlined. Mitigation is the key to Provident Living.
Mitigation What I have done is systematically looked at everything that can possibly be mitigated by knowledge and then put it into practice. At some point you have to say enough is enough, women have been giving birth for thousands of years and the species has survived and let it go and get into a faithful place. But for me my mitigating efforts have largely focused on nutrition and deep tissue cleansing of my liver to prepare for childbirth.
Gestational Diabetes is the red headed step child of modern medicine - Emperor has no clothes
And toxemia is a disease of malnutrition. Preventing eclampsia : an interview with Tom Brewer, MD
Not every women would feel comfortable giving birth at home, not to mention doing her own prenatal care, but I do, and I have tried to come up with a model of living that will ensure to the greatest extent possible a beautiful outcome.
And no, I am not willing to go to the hospital for those things. I feel that most of prenatal care is fear based cover your butt type of testing, and barring a justified c-section situation like a prolapsed cord or placental abruption, I would not go to the hospital to give birth. I have two women in my aquaintance who gave birth with an abrupted placenta and a nuchal cord however, and despite some hairy moments and a bloody mess during the placental detachment, both mother and child did fine in those two unassisted birthing situations. I also am intimately aquainted with moms who have given birth to 12 pound babies at home no problem, and one gave birth to an eleven pound footling breech.
Prematurity? that would be the biggest baby killer of them all with an emergency situation because prematurity can be caused by dehydration and too much adrenaline in the mothers body and both of those situations would be present for everyone during a huge terror or natural disaster event.
However, some of the most damning studies that have been done regarding prematurity have been those countries where NICUs do not exist and the mother is encouraged to put her preemie to breast in a kangaroo care incubator and those babies have just as good outcomes as our american babies without all the bells and whistles of our NICUs and the million dollar price tag for the family and society.
I don't claim to have everything figured out, but I have spent the past 18 years thinking about emergency childbirth and putting into practice what I have learned in my own family life.
I'm grateful for a paper's willingness to share more about our lives, even if they don't tell all of the reasons why we traveled down this path.
Here is a UK Guardian article that showed up this week as well on this topic Going it alone
Jenny
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