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Thread: Freebirthing

  1. #1
    Hemlock's Avatar
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    Default Freebirthing

    If I was of child bearing age still I would totally do this! I've been watching the birth vid on You tube and it is so much better than hospital births.
    I'll never forget how terrified I was giving birth in hospital and the way the staff just totally took over treating me like I was a medical emergencyand spoiling the whole experience.
    This looks totally natural and great. Look up "Freebirthing" on the tube and see what I mean. Would any other mums or expectant parents be prepared to do this?
    I'm sure medicalisation of birth is responsible for the rise in caesarians.
    I would have one scan though to check for placenta praevia just to be on the safe side.
    Silent but deadly :p

  2. #2
    Maisiepaisie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    Eeek no thanks Giving birth was a terrifying experience so I was grateful for the peace of mind of knowing I had a bunch trained medical experts with all equipment on hand should anything go wrong.
    The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well

  3. #3

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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    I'm done having kids but with my 3rd and last I labored easily at home and was doing great managing the pain using methods I read in the Bradley books. I walked around, I let my body relax during a contraction, etc.

    ............and then I went to the hospital. Once I was flat on my back I could no longer tolerate the pain so off course I got an epidural. Looking back I see that hospitals actually set you to fail.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Freebirthing

    My wife and one of her best friends are really into natural birthing. We had both our kids in hospitals with Midwives, but that was because we COULDN'T afford a homebirth. Ironic that our insurance covered a more expensive hospital stay, but not a cheaper, (often safer) home birth.

    Either way, my wife had her births without any pain medication and with minimal intervention. I haven't seen the link, but I think that there's a place for medicalized births. Complicated births do need some serious medical support. But for the majority of births, overmedicalizing is a problem instead of a real solution. Birthing shouldn't be a one size fits all model. Unfortunately, our dealings with our rather excellent team of midwives still demonstrated that a wonderful unmedicated birth was an exception rather than the rule in top notch US hospitals.

    If we had the $$$ (and the inclination to have another child), we'd have it at home.
    context is everything

  5. #5

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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    Hi

    I had my first son, Jacob in hospital and it was not a very pleasant experience. As I was only 19 the midwives were very patronising and cold.

    When I fell pregnant with my Noah my second son I decided to have a home birth. My doctor and midwife were not happy and tried to talk me out of it. They used scare tactics but I held strong to my belief that childbirth is a natural process that women's bodies are designed for.

    I had the most beautiful experience. It was delightful being in my own home with candles burning and my choice of music playing. Although it obviously hurt I felt so much more in control of the labour and birth which allowed me to listen to my body.

    Noah was born without any drugs entering his body and was alert from the moment he left me. An hour after he entered the world the midwife had left and we were snuggled up on the sofa getting to know each other.

    If I ever have another baby I would have another home birth.

    Alison x

  6. #6
    Abe Froman Risker's Avatar
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    Sounds risky to me, so it's the option I'd go for.

    Really though, I think I'd be too worried that something would go wrong and you wouldn't be able to get to the hospital in time...
    "I don't want to live on this planet any more" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth

  7. #7

    Default Re: Freebirthing

    We had BassPixie in a trailer in a field in the middle of nowhere. Could have been a disaster, but wasn't.
    ..but what would they do with all the cows?..

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    I saw those home births on Youtube and frankly they scared the crap out of me. I'm only 19 and I don't ever plan on having children anyway, but if I should ever change my mind I'd definitely choose to be surrounded by trained professionals who can assist me if something were to go wrong. I'd feel a bit too much like someone's cat if I were to pop out a child in the living room. I saw one where a woman sat in a kiddie pool in the living room and pooped it out. When it was all over, the pool was full of blood and afterbirth and whatnot. I couldn't help thinking "What are they going to do with a pool of blood and guts? Dump it out in the front yard?"
    Also, I'm a hypochondriac so the stress of thinking something fatal happening would probably kill me, lol.
    To each his own, but I'd definitely want my child born in a hospital.
    Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.

  9. #9
    hydrophilic tipsy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    i can honestly say that IF i ever decide to have biological children, this would be a very very tough descision for me.

    i work i a hospital and have done countless, countless c-sections. i can count on one hand the times that i have expirenced someone come in from a failed homebirth and needed a c-section. but just a couple of months ago i saw a woman who was planning on homebirth came in and delivered an almost term stillborn fetus. she had had no medical treatment during pregnancy... and of course the doctors badmouthed her and her choices behind her back, as they do all the women who choose natural labor.

    i have also seen babies come out fine and mothers come close to loosing thier lives from extraordinary circumstances...

    i think that labor is a natural process, and i entirely belive in relying on nature. i even would say that its natural selection that some babies or mothers dont make it thru.

    but i would maybe feel different if it were me and my babies' life i was talking about...
    the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, dunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
    -henry miller

  10. #10

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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    Well babies are far bigger than they really should be, hence the need for medical intervention a lot of the time. It's gone far beyond natural.

  11. #11
    hydrophilic tipsy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    probably because of all the freakin hormones in everything the preggie mothers eat
    the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, dunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
    -henry miller

  12. #12
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    even though i reject a lot of medical achievement in our human history... technically assisted births are sth i value a lot. i even hope it will be possible to make complicated births even more controllable by technology.

    i might think that every being in this world has a right to live an independent life without being harmed for no reason..... BUT that doesn't mean that i volutarily enslave myself to nature. i actually even hate nature to a large extend

    i will never understand why some vegans are so obsessed with it. in the end.. nature is the place where all the carnivore (= NON-VEGAN) creatures come from (alligators, dogs, cats, bats, snakes... tarantulas.......)



    ps: it's a bit off topic.. but here's a mildly entertaining article called:
    6 Terrifying Things They Don't Tell You About Childbirth

  13. #13
    sugarmouse
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    That article!Nothing surprises me though to be honest , I am just glad I am childfree and staying such!

    Birth is a lot less 'natural' as Brzee said, due to larger babies plus birthing canals are today much smaller than in the past.

    I guess freebirthing can work for some.. but there can be too many nasty surprises possible. Then again I don't trust hospitals either
    !

  14. #14

    Default Re: Freebirthing

    Quote horselesspaul View Post
    We had BassPixie in a trailer in a field in the middle of nowhere. Could have been a disaster, but wasn't.
    Fwiw we had two of our own dedicated midwives for the whole 14 hour labour. Joy Larby was great. It was her last delivery after 45 years of midwifery.
    I have heard several nightmare stories of neglect and inattention by care professionals during hospital births.
    ..but what would they do with all the cows?..

  15. #15
    baffled harpy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    A friend of mine had her two children at home with no problems, but she did have medical attention through the pregnancies and the first time (even though her son was in the breech position) was advised it should be OK by a doc who examined her pelvis and apparently said "you could drive a bus through this" She had a couple of midwives who specialise in home births who she thought were great.

    This was about 20 years ago so I don't know if it's got easier or harder to organise those things. Also I suppose where you live may make a difference: if you're in the middle of a town you may have a hospital handy if something does go wrong mid-labour.

  16. #16
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    We have birthing rooms in the hospital - set up like a bedroom with music or tv, candles, spas, baths whatever you want - you can set up the room how you like. But still at the hospital. Not a bad option and I don't think they ever give you drugs if you say no, unless it's an emergency situation.

  17. #17
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    I was a home birth, and if I DID give birth (I never will) I would do a home water birth with a midwife. Luckily, it's something I never have to worry about.

  18. #18

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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    4 homebirths here! But I had a midwife there to help catch the baby and check us and clean up. Best of both worlds IMO. I've never had an ultrasound either, though if there was a real medical need to do so I would have, but usually it's unnecessary.

  19. #19
    Edeline's Avatar
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    Freebirthing is something that MrW and I have been discussing recently, as we are both feeling a bit broody at the moment! Personally speaking, I am a huge believer in home births. My local hospital has a really bad requtation for ignoring the mother's birthing plans, administering unnecissary drugs, and generally being dirty and unhygenic. One friend of mine who gave birth recently was so high on the drugs that the nurses gave her that she cannot even remember giving birth to her daughter!

    That is NOT what I want!

    Giving birth should be the most private, natural thing in the world, and unless there is a valid medical reason why it would be unsafe for me to deliver my baby outside of the hospital enviroment, I intend to give birth in the comfort of my own home. Ideally, I'd like a birthing pool and an independant midwife (pricey, I know, but I'd like to put them both on my wedding present list to help cover the cost). As far as I'm concerned, the way that a hospital birth is origanised is only good for the doctors - not mum or baby. It's probably not going to happen for another few years yet, but I am definitly going to homebirth!

    (sorry for the sp. My spellchecker is down )

  20. #20
    pathologist
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    one of the things i do in my job is analysing why babies die around the time of birth. Of course, birth is a natural process and in the majority of cases all goes well without intervention or -more usually- with very little intervention. However - there are the cases where things do not go according to plan and in these - I think that there is a better chance of a live baby and mother if the hospital facilities are close by - though sometimes babies are lost even then. The great problem is selecting the group of mothers for whom no intervention is needed from those who will need all the facilities. As yet this is not entirely perfect. I have certainly encountered tragic losses in both home and hospital deliveries.

  21. #21
    cookey's Avatar
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    Default Re: Freebirthing

    I had both my girls on the 12th floor of a block of council flats, on top of a high hill! I used entinox(sp?) both times. It was very painful but went without problems and I didn't need any stitches. Me and the girls joke that if the flats are pulled down, they will be able to point to a place in the sky where they were born!
    I had physically healthy pregnancies, was fairly young (25 and 27) and didn't see why I should go into hospital. But if I had needed to go, we would have been there within 5 minutes. My mum also had her last two children at home without any problems.

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