(Editor’s note: This is a blog post I wrote on April 16th, 2009 at The Skinny On January while nearing the end of my pregnancy.)
Baby Dies in Unassisted Home Birth
When I first read this article, I felt really sad for her. To lose a child and to have to deal with all this criticism. That would be more difficult than I can comprehend. I think the article is crap. It is very, very biased. No where does it state how many babies die in the hospital vs. how many die at home. There is no information what really happened during and after her labor. Also, I want to note that I don’t think most women who suffer the loss of their baby in an unassisted birth (though rare, it happens) normally go through this. It is because of her status and being outspoken about unassisted birth, etc that has made this so.
“But her decision to forgo medical care entirely — even after her labor continued for a week — is tantamount to reckless endangerment of a child.”
This is the fear inducing talk and beliefs that I can’t stand in our society. Many women have long early and even active labors when left to labor on their own without interventions like pitocin. With my last baby, I had prodromal (early) labor for a week with contractions 10 minutes apart. It wasn’t painful, but exhausting. I was in active labor for 48 hours before I went to the hospital! So, a longer labor may have been very normal for this mom.
“In the past century, childbirth has gone from being the single most dangerous event in a woman’s life to something routine. We can thank Western medicine for that.”
This is a ridiculous claim too. Birth was the single most dangerous event in a woman’s life? Are you kidding me? The BIRTH wasn’t the dangerous part, but the conditions surrounding the birth. I do have to say that I have read (just recently in Hypnobirthing) where Western medicine was also responsible for causing a lot of those problems (i.e. deaths). When births started moving from homes to hospitals, there were some places where death rates went up because the hospital staffs were spreading infections among the birthing women!
My goodness, you know why the infant mortality rate is high in our country (it still is people)? Because of all that medical intervention. Because all the premature babies born. NOT because of free birth. There is no mention if the baby would have lived if born in a hospital. There really aren’t any good details or facts in this article in my opinion.
“It doesn’t empower women to take control of their own bodies. It sends them and their babies into the dark ages of medical care – where women give birth with no medical care at all and face the very real possibility of death as a consequence.”
And yes, it can be empowering. No wonder women don’t take responsibility themselves (if they want to). It’s all FEAR, FEAR, FEAR.
This article didn’t make me afraid of my UC, it made me want it even more.
After thinking over it last night and this morning, I also started thinking about Western medicine and how it specifically applies to birth. I have many opinions on how overused it is and how much I dislike interventions and the fear placed on birth in our country. With all that said, I do want to say that I do believe it has its place and can be a good thing.
What it comes down to in my opinion is women need to make informed choices by educating themselves. I would never say that all women should birth unassisted or even at home with a midwife and never in a hospital. Women just need to have the right to choose what is best for them and have the birth she wants!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m digging your blog, very informative.
It is very sad no matter how a baby dies. But while homebirth is wonderful, unassisted birth does have more risk factors than a supervised home birth. I understand wanting to be alone, but sometimes with birth, simple things can go wrong and just having a midwife in the next room to help you with those things can be a wise thing. She does even have to be with you the whole time, but i have seen some disasters. I have actually experienced those disasters….as someone who had 2 unassisted births myself and was so thankful for someone with training my last two. I still enjoy my privacy, I still have wonderful birth experiences, actually, i enjoyed them more as i did not have the complications that I had with my first two that were simple things a little knowledge would have helped.
i delivered my first baby at 17……when the midwife did not make it for my sister’s birth. i love birth! I do not want to be a midwife, but I love seeing uncomplicated home birth. i hate the way western medicine has tampered with birth and made it so complicated, but I don’t think we should shun all of the things we know now.
Great Post! There was a study a few years ago that compared hospital births and home births with certified nurse midwives for normal pregnancies (not high risk). It was safer to birth at home with certified nurse midwife than in a hospital and with less intervention and less cost. Also certified nurse midwives were more skilled in identifying a high risk birth. Midwives should be in every hospital and should be the lead professionals for birth.
We fired both of our medical doctors the first time around then tried out a D.O. and fired him due to how he treated the staff at the hospital and his (later to find out) fascination with cutting people open for c-sections. He actually said how great it was to perform c-sections. Fired! We told him we were going with a midwife and he said he doesn’t work with midwives. I told him we were not asking permission or asking him to work with them but that we were just trying to tell him nicely that we no longer needed his services.
We then hired certified nurse midwives and have loved the experience. I also recommend the Bradley Method classes and good chiropractic care . If you train for birth ‘like the true event it is’ you will have a greater chance to have the birth you desire.
Thanks for the great post!
I have a dear friend whose baby was whisked away to surgery minutes after her birth to fix a rare and severe heart defect that had been found using a sonogram three months before the birth. In all other respects, the baby appeared to be just fine and if they had not been aware of the problem, the baby probably would have experienced heart failure when it began to try to live apart from it’s mother. Fortunately they knew about it and were prepared to give the baby a life-saving surgery. I prefer to give birth at home and I’m angered by the interventionism of western medicine, but isn’t there a place for preventative medical care that can save lives?
Thank you Joshua and Johnathan!!!
Elaine, I could not find a midwife like you describe, so for me it was safer to have an unassisted birth than have midwife attend and bring her fears and possibly have unnecessary interventions. It was the only way for me to let go and have a completely safe, healing birth.
Edi, absolutely there is a place!!! Unfortunately western medicine doesn’t know it’s place! And people haven’t educated themselves to put it in it’s place!
The point is every women should be able to birth where and how she wants. And there can be interference and complications no matter what you choose. I don’t advocate UC (yet), but that every woman birth where and with whom she feels comfortable!