Freebirthing

I watched a show last night on Discovery Health called "Freebirthing." Apparently there is actually a movement of women who choose to give birth completely without the assistance of any midwives or doctors.

It seems too extreme for me. I am not one that is opposed to home births, provided certain standard precautionary measures are taken ("low risk" uncomplicated pregnancy, certified nurse midwife present with some emergency equipment, close proximity to a hospital in case of emergency...etc). I can completely understand why women choose home births within this criteria. I understand wanting a natural birth with the comforts of home, and not wanting birth to be a "medical event." I get all of that. I myself would not try it being that I am group B positive and am 20+ minutes from a hospital even with no traffic, but I digress.

Freebirthing is more extreme than a carefully planned home birth with a certified nurse midwife though. It is giving birth without that assistance from an expert - without their presence even. Some of these women don't even get any formal pre-natal care. That is just plain crazy, if you ask me - not getting any pre-natal care as a purposeful choice. So many life-threatening conditions can be easily seen and monitored with basic, non-invasive medical care. Some conditions are so risky that even the most "natural" of birthers would agree a c-section would be wise - such as placenta-previa that is still present at full term. Only pre-natal care can diagnose these kinds of things.

Yes I understand that women having given birth since the beginning of time and only in more modern times were there such things as certified nurse midwives and obstetricians. I also understand that the maternal and infant mortality rates were much, much higher than they are today. Women bled to death. Women had their heart stop in the throws of pushing. Women had babies stuck inside them. Women faced infections and died from them. This is reality people. There are many, many dangers for both mom's and babies when birth is concerned.

Why take that risk all on by yourself, when you can have an expert, of your choosing, with you? Why? We have choices today. In this country, we can choose a home birth, a hospital birth, or a birth-center. We can choose to use a CNM or an OB. You can have a natural birth plan and have a practitioner that helps you attain it, but offers back-up security for those very possible emergencies that you cannot control.

I will say, I do wish more of these wonderful options were more widely available. We don't have a free-standing birthing center here in this area, which would be my birthplace of choice. We do have a natural birthing center inside a local hospital though, and there are CNM's available that deliver in at least two local hospitals. I realize for some women, they might have to really think how far are they willing to go to get these types of options (location, location, location) but they are available in most larger cities, and even in some smaller and more rural areas too.

I am fairly certain that if we are blessed with another child, I will seek out the care of a CNM, and if at all possible, deliver naturally with her assistance in the hospital. While my birth last time was a vaginal birth, without pain medication, I did have more intervention than I had hoped for. Next time around, I would like to avoid an episiotomy and use of the vaccum. I know I'll need IV antibiotics for group B strep, but I'd like to avoid any other IV use. (Last time I was given pitocin, AFTER B was born, to help my uterus contract back, as they said it would be more likely to be "boggy" due to me pushing for over 3.5 hours - whatever that means.) I really did feel pressured into some of those choices, which may or may not have been necessary. Ultimately though, B and I were both healthy and safe, and overall, my experience with birth was a good one.