Give Women the Right to Birth at Home
Right at this moment, as you are reading this, women all over the world are giving birth. Some are doing it in high tech obstetric units, some are doing it in simple community hospitals, some are doing it with a war going on outside, some are doing it amidst poverty and squalor, some are doing it in a taxi or other vehicle, and some are doing it in the peace and comfort of their own home.
You came from a woman. A woman who cried and groaned, sweated and panted, perhaps cursed or swore, screamed or yelled and worked harder than she'd ever worked in her life. How she birthed you, would have had a profound impact on her life, her perception of herself as a woman and mother and her relationship with you and the rest of your family. The effect of a woman's birth experience carries over into other aspects of her life and also into the future.
Giving birth can be one of the most momentous, life-changing occasions in a woman's life. It's the moment when she crosses the thresh-hold between that of maiden and mother. It's so much more than the physical act of pushing a baby out of her body. It's a rite of passage that deserves to be treated with dignity, care and respect from her community members.
Poverty, ignorance and war can deny women the expertise they need to birth safely.
Rigid government legislation can deny women the choice to birth where it is safe to do so.
In Canberra this week, women are gathering from around Australia, to ask our government to give women the right to birth at home. As is the situation in various states throughout the U.S., midwives in Australia cannot get insurance to offer home birth to their clients.
Where a woman can receive one-on one continuous care from a qualified midwife, we see a wonderful combination of best practice in terms of expertise and quality of care, where a woman is treated with the dignity and respect that she deserves.
Please support women, both in Australia and the U.S., in obtaining the fundamental right, to birth safely at home, if they so choose.
Thank you!
Thanks also to Dierdrie Cullen for the beautiful images.
13 Comments
JiggaJonsonI don't understand why any woman would want to give birth to a child outside of a hospital setting. What would a midwife do if the baby was born and had some kind of medical emergency? Probably go to a hospital or call an ambulance.
The same thing goes for the mother, my mother almost died while giving birth to my youngest sister because of excessive bleeding; and she WOULD HAVE if she was at home.
I'm all for your right to chose, but I've been arguing for healthcare in the US for a while here, if i were in Australia I'd take advantage of the healthcare that you already enjoy.
peggedbeawhat a beautiful lady you are!
my brother spent 8 years as an army intelligence officer. one of his friends got deployed while his wife stayed back home pregnant. she was astranged from her own family, so my brother took on the role of her birth coach and support while her husband was away. she went into the labor a few weeks early. she called my brother, he rushed from work at the base to go and pick her up and head to the hospital they thought they had at least a few hours ahead of them. on the way they got stuck in traffic. jam. stuck. san antonio traffic is a beast. he pulled over, called the ambulance and hopped in the backseat with her. when the ambulance finally arrived the babies head was out. the paramedics took over just in time and my brother who has no children of his own and is terrified of anything medical, literally goes into shock whenever he gets an iv, quietly hyperventilated while they got mommy and baby stablized and into the ambulance. they rode off the hospital mommy and baby were fine and well and my brother accidentally helped deliver a beautiful healthy baby boy in the back of his convertible. yayayayay!!!!
and yeah, id say there is an information vacuum when it comes to what your birthing options are.
both of my children were born at the hospital i worked out and we had excellent care and a fabulous doctor. but i think if i ever do it again id like to have a midwife and a doula with more natural pain control options, especially since neither of my epidurals took and i had a really really bad pain control experience with my first child.
EklekWater lotus birth
http://www.videosift.com/video/Birth-As-We-Know-It-trailer
inflatablevaginaWhere have you been all my life?
Im on board with Bea. There's just not much talk about birthing options when you are pregnant. Things may be mentioned in passing, but when you're as big as a house and about to bring a human being int he world... you don't always have the time/energy/opportunity to do the research involved.
If I got pregnant again I would much rather prefer the doula/mid-wife option. Bless those ladies who perform those duties. It's a super important job...
There's something to be said about comfort. Hospitals are very uncomfortable.
blankfistI agree 100% with this blog. No one should have a place in choosing where a woman should or should not give birth. It should be a choice all women make for themselves. It's your body; it's your choice.
CrushBug>> ^JiggaJonson:
I don't understand why any woman would want to give birth to a child outside of a hospital setting. What would a midwife do if the baby was born and had some kind of medical emergency? Probably go to a hospital or call an ambulance.
The funny thing is, that stats on home birth emergencies point to a fraction of 1% of there being an emergency. Also, if there is any risk to the child or mother, a midwife will not let you have a home birth, because it is at risk. What cracks me up is that hospital births are a relatively recent concept. Women have been birthing on their own for thousands of years. A birth is a natural event, not a medical problem to be solved.
The same thing goes for the mother, my mother almost died while giving birth to my youngest sister because of excessive bleeding; and she WOULD HAVE if she was at home.
Probably not. The midwives would not have let your mother birth at home or they would have recognized the signs early and moved the birth to a hospital. You cannot actually say what would have happened because you already have judged home births, so you cannot come to any other conclusion.
I'm all for your right to chose, but I've been arguing for healthcare in the US for a while here, if i were in Australia I'd take advantage of the healthcare that you already enjoy.
Both of my children were water births at home. In town here, there are many home births each year. In the province, I believe the last home birth death was over 20 years ago and it was revealed that even in a hospital, the baby would have died. So, basically we have been having home births with a 100% "survival" rate (since your view is negative) for a very long time.
I am very sorry to hear that you are not allowed to birth at home. My wife and I and the thousands of other home birthers (and their children!) support you!
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
What's Ron Paul's position on home birth, Blankie? The libertarian position would seem to be at odds with him being a mainstream obstetrician.
>> ^blankfist:
I agree 100% with this blog. No one should have a place in choosing where a woman should or should not give birth. It should be a choice all women make for themselves. It's your body; it's your choice.
Sarzy>> ^CrushBug:
What cracks me up is that hospital births are a relatively recent concept. Women have been birthing on their own for thousands of years. A birth is a natural event, not a medical problem to be solved.
Antibiotics are a relatively recent concept. Before that people died of all kinds of infections we would laugh at today. Modern medicine is a "recent concept." The average life expectancy, a few hundred years ago, was thirty. Should we go back to that, just because it's "natural"?
I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to give birth however they want -- but don't claim that it isn't inherently more risky than giving birth in a hospital. "Natural" doesn't necessarily always mean better.
blankfist>> ^dag:
What's Ron Paul's position on home birth, Blankie? The libertarian position would seem to be at odds with him being a mainstream obstetrician.
I'm not sure, to be honest. He's probably for it. I think the one position where Ron Paul and I don't see eye-to-eye is the abortion issue. He's against it, and I'm for it as an option.
The Libertarian position wouldn't be against an obstetrician, because we believe simply in individual choice over coercion. Whether you choose an obstetrician or home birth is incidental as long as it's your choice and not that of someone else or someone using political influence.
rottenseed
lesserfoolThere will always be a place in my heart for Patton Oswalt's bitter antics and slightly bigoted hippy cliches.
I couldn't watch the emasculating home birth song, but I feel ya babe. My mother found a doctor willing to be on call when she was expecting and birthed all three kids at home surrounded by family in a familiar setting. As an added bonus, the doctor let her eat the placenta to regain her strength... and... um... everything worked out fine.
CrushBug>> ^Sarzy:
>> ^CrushBug:
What cracks me up is that hospital births are a relatively recent concept. Women have been birthing on their own for thousands of years. A birth is a natural event, not a medical problem to be solved.
Antibiotics are a relatively recent concept. Before that people died of all kinds of infections we would laugh at today. Modern medicine is a "recent concept." The average life expectancy, a few hundred years ago, was thirty. Should we go back to that, just because it's "natural"?
I'm not saying people shouldn't be allowed to give birth however they want -- but don't claim that it isn't inherently more risky than giving birth in a hospital. "Natural" doesn't necessarily always mean better.
I totally agree with you and was in no way trying to imply that. My issue is with the approach that birth is a medical problem to be solved, that the mother is in need of being fixed. That part is not the case. We have made many medical advances over the years and I am appreciative of these advances especially when my son was hospitalized for 4 days. Did I think we should have hung out at home and burned incense and hoped for the best? Hell no, we went to peds emergency.
That being said, if all things are equal, and there is no obvious risk to mother and child, why should there be a "No home births" rule/law made based on fear and what might go wrong? The facts don't support it.
blankfistI changed my mind. Women need to shut the fuck up and just have babies wherever the man says they need to have them. We all have to follow arbitrary rules, and women need to learn that and stop thinking they're important unless you want a kick to the groin.
Women are stupid. Vaginas are not a source of power. They're stupid. They should be slapped and/or punched.
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