Women who have "freebirths". Are they brave or just mad?

Question

There was a discussion on telly this morning about "freebirthing". I hadn't heard of it before but apparently it means having a baby at home with no midwife or medical professional present and no pain relief whatsoever (not even gas & air). Now call me a quivering coward but I could NEVER do this!!!! I am all for homebirths with a midwife present but to actually choose to give birth without one.... well I just can't get my head around that at all. I chose a hospital birth and I can assure you I was yelling for that epidural after a few hours, lol! I think women who choose to freebirth must be very brave but maybe a bit naive to assume that nothing will go wrong that requires medical intervention. What do you think?

Answer 1

Imagine all those poor teenage mothers who do it all alone.  

Answer 2

my brother n law and his wife are doing that and i personally think they are nuts.  well she is nuts but thats besides the point.  i think it's stupid.  midwife should be there.  they are not medical professionals and someone medically should be there.  i realize we have been doing it for a long time, before hospitals and such, but there was always a wise woman who helped the birthing along or would have the baby checked by someone afterwards.

Answer 3

There are many misconceptions not only about childbirth, but about freebirths as well. The medical community has made childbirth into some dangerous medical process, instead of a natural one.

I am having an attended home birth, where I will have the midwife there, but she will just be there if I need her, hands off, letting me birth my baby myself. If all goes well, my next will be unassisted/freebirth. Most women who freebirth are very educated on childbirth and are very in tune with their bodies. They know what to do during the normal course of childbirth, and if there are signs of complications, then they call an ambulance for a transfer. Having medical hands in childbirth can mess with the natural process and cause complications, sometimes even with midwives. It is not being naive, as they will know what to do if medical attention is needed, it is trusting their body.

** Uh, you are aware that the US has the second worst newborn and maternal death rate, right? Have you research into what happened when childbirth became medicalized? The death rates SKYROCKETED! Women HAVE been doing this for years, and the medical community has damaged the natural course of childbirth. It is wonderful that we now have the technology for high risk pregnancies and situation, but we cannot fool ouselves to believing they have done any good for the natural course of birth.

Answer 4

I agree with parts of a "free birth".  I did have my son with no pain relief and no incisions.  Completely natural.  But I did it at a hospital just in case there were complications.  There were not and the recovery process was a snap because of it.  Yes, it was extremely painful but also a sort of relief. It is hard to explain.  But if anything had gone wrong, there were doctors near by.

I tried the same thing with my daughter and there were many complications and they ended up having to do an emergency C Section to save her.  So natural child birth is good, if you can withstand the pain, but I think you should always be prepared for the worst.  I'm glad I was.    

Answer 5

Well, women used to have babies all the time without medical intervention......but a lot of things also went wrong.

I agree with mother's who choose a home birth, but for safety's sake I would think there should be a midwife or trained proffesional standing by just in case.

Fine if you want to do it all naturally, but what if nature puts up a fight?  It's better to be safe than sorry!

Answer 6

I would call them educated....

Chances are, they have researched and researched until they can't research anymore.  Women who do this are usually very intelligent women who feel they have no other option, especially if they are in the US.  Maybe there aren't midwives in their area, maybe homebirths aren't allowed, maybe, to them, an unassisted birth is the best option.  

You would find, if you talked to women who have had or are having an unassisted birth, that they do have the baby's health as their foremost concern.  

Some women have 36 hour labours without ever asking for an epidural!  Can you believe that - not all women want to be drugged up during childbirth! Oh my goodness, they must be crazy!

I wouldn't personally be comfortable with an unassisted birth, but I won't pass judgment either.

Answer 7

Meh, I would do an unassisted birth, but my husband has the heebie jeebies about it.

So to make him happy we're going to a birthing center, where there will be no pain medications available, or any more technology than you would have at home.

I think that there is a risk for everything, and that it's up to the mother to decide if she's comfortable with the way her body works, and the possibility of risk.  There's risks in going to a hospital as well.  And an epidural is certainly not without risk.

Even digestion carries an amount of risk.  There's the possibility of bowel torsion (which can be fatal very quickly), appendicitis, food poisoning, etc. etc.  But we don't go to a doctor to oversee that process.  I feel it's the same for childbirth, something my body is designed to do, a natural process.

When you think about it, if you have a homebirth, what's a midwife going to do that a well-educated mother couldn't?  You're not going to have the technology at home that you would at a hospital.  So the very best a midwife could do is administer a pitocin shot in the case of hemmorhage (which a mother can curb by uterine compression and nursing immediately, and even putting a piece of the placenta in between her cheek and gum) and then go to the hospital.

Answer 8

how do you think people had babies in the old days..

nowadays so long as a woman has had a trouble free pregnancy and there is no risk to the baby then that is surely the mothers choice..

i would prefer to have  midwife present should i have ever decided to birth at home, you know just incase..

and as for no pain relief.. i have done it 3 times natural and its painful.. but i havent wanted to have the effects of drugs on myself or my baby.. personal choice.. and i would do it again!!

Answer 9

I don't know about the bravery aspect. I'm a big sissy about pain, but I delivered a 10 pound 3 ounce baby without pain medication, and I wasn't suffering in agony or anything. After all, it's only in the last 100 years or so that women had any pain relief in childbirth. Women had babies without it for thousands of years.

What I would never even consider is the deliberate choice to have no medical stand-by in the event that something went wrong. To me, that's unconscionable, and a terrible decision which could cost the life of baby and/or mother, entirely needlessly.

Answer 10

straight up nuts!!

Answer 11

Unassisted birth is not a good idea.  While many women DO opt to have a home birth (or hospital birth) without medication or MEDICAL intervention -- giving birth without a skilled attendent present is dangerous.  

The odds of something going wrong is pretty low ... but if something DOES go wrong, you need to have someone there to deal with it.  

Answer 12

studies show that less problems happen during l abor when a woman is actually at home though. so me, i would love to have a homebirth but i would also like to have a midwife there to assist in case of any complications. But you also have to realize that a lot of the world gives birth at home with just their family there to help and in most cases everything goes well. Most of the family is experienced and knows whent hings go wrong though. Also, i don't thiink anyone would be jumping into this without educating themselves first about risks and benefits and what to do in different situation. Most women died back then from infection not from complications of birth, they died when doctors delivered to because they didn't wash their hands or wear gloves. Pain relief is not needed and not everyone who goes to the hospital gets pain relief either. my mother had pain relief with only one of her five children and that was the longest labor because of it.

I wanted to agree with mystice- i had an epidural which caused me to labor for 19 hours after i was already 6 cm when i got the hospital.

My sister was induced and given pitocin- after se left the hospital she started pouring blood and when she got there she was still 10 cm dilated which was most likely the result of the pitocin still in her system which was given in large doses.



My mother gave birth to me in a hospital but she had jsut got there and tehre were no doctors midwives or nurses present for my birth- just my mother and father and i was her largest baby. i am certainly just fine and my mother healed quickly

Answer 13

I'm with you, I tink they're very brave, but what if something did go wrong at the last minute?  Hospitals are the reason why maternal mortality has gone so low the last 100 years.

Answer 14

Yeah, they are pretty mad.  I know I wouldn't do it.

Answer 15

I dont think its crazy... Its natural. Some people are really for the uncivilized world... There is no right or wrong... We tend to forget as a society that its not OUR place to judge others. If something happens to either the mother or child, believe me the burden alone is enough for the person to deal with, without others judging.

So many people complain and judge others and those are usually the same people that do nothing but TALK, instead of act on the things they think should change or happen.

I am all about pro-choice.  

Answer 16

I Think It is A Little Selfish Because They Are Not Putting The Baby First.Home Births With Midwifes Are Fine and I could see why People would Want One But Doing It By Yourself with no Medical staff there if Anything Goes Wrong Is Just Selfish And Wrong Of The Mother.She should Put the Health of her baby Over Everything else.Even in perfectly Healthy women And Pregnancy's things can go wrong at the very end They should consider that And think about It Instead of being so careless with both Of Their life's The Baby And Their own.

Answer 17

Giving birth in a hospital increases the risks that something will go wrong.  Even the simple "dilation check" can cause infection and long labour.  Epidurals can stall labour and have long term side effects for mom, they may impact breastfeeding for months.  Pitocin/Syntocin has a lot of negative effects and at LEAST 66% of women who give birth in hospital will be given it (not including the shot after birth to "prevent bleeding").  Normal long first labours are likely to end in a c-section.

In many places midwives are as bad or worse than OBs.

And of course having an observer at the birth causes a woman not to listen to her own body, this effects some women worse than others.  Not listening to your own body is the way to miss problems.

Brave is birthing in a hospital when you know there is a 30-75% chance (depending on where you live) that they will slice you open.

http://empoweredchildbirth.com/

"Only about 15% of medical interventions are supported by solid scientific evidence...This is partly because only 1% of the studies in medical journals are scientifically sound and partly because many treatments have not been assessed at all."

Richard Smith

editor of the British Medical Journal

http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/t...

More than a third of American women were induced in 1999, and another third had labors augmented with Pitocin. (The FDA says that this is the lowest estimate and that the true incidence of induction is "widely under-reported.")

Top Ten reasons for birthing without paid attendants

http://empoweredchildbirth.com/articles/...

http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/uc/w...

        Many women who support home birth have asked me why I and other unassisted birthers object to having a midwife at our births "just in case." Modern physics has proven that the very act of observing something changes it. Birth is essentially an emotional/spiritual/sexual act. And just as most couples would find it hard to relax and have s*x with others in the room, many of them feel the same way about birth. Actually, some couples do choose to have s*x in labor. When a woman is sexually stimulated, oxytocin pours through her system, stimulating the contractions. Pitocin, which is often administered in the hospital to speed up contractions, is artificial oxytocin.

        Not only, however, do some couples find a the presence of a midwife or doctor inhibiting, they also find it unnecessary. Women's bodies were designed to give birth. When a woman is physically and psychologically healthy (free from fear, shame, and guilt), babies can often be born easily. As Grantly d**k-Read, author of Childbirth without Fear writes, "If left alone in labor, the body of a woman produces most easily the baby that is not interfered with by its mother's mind or the assistant's hand. If left alone, just courage and patience are required. Faith, if she is a believer, is the secret to having a healthy baby and being a happy mother."

        Some women actually prefer to give birth completely alone. Of course, most of them would say they weren't alone - God, their innerself, or the larger consciousness, was with them, guiding them each step of the way.

        Unassisted childbirth is empowering for the woman, her partner, and her baby. Women who have given birth with little or no assistance often describe it as the most fulfilling experience of their lives. With no one around to tell them what to do, when to push, or which position to be in, many women find they know how to give birth.

        Unassisted childbirth is free!

        Although some women find the presence of midwives or doctors comforting, others find it inhibiting. It is up to each one of us to decide for ourselves who we want to be with us in birth.

Unassisted Birth

http://www.birthjunkie.com/homebirth/

Answer 18

crazy. i really think you got to be crazy to even want to do that. what are you trying to prove.

Answer 19

Both.

Brave for wanting to do so naturally.

Mad for not thinking about their child's well being.

It's better to be safe than sorry. The whole nine months can go by without any complications, but you can't say the same when it comes to delivering the child and any immediate medical attention the child might need.  

Answer 20

If you choose to do a free birth I think that you need to way the positives and negatives of it. Positives is that you have complete control over the situation... the negative is that just because you have a positive attitude about it doesn't mean you are not going to have complications. How many babies die due to complications during birth or have brain damage due to lack of oxygen from the cord being pinched during birth? Sure they used to do it way back when there wasn't hospitals or a midwife near by... but how many babies and moms died due to the lack of medical attention. I think it's as stupid as woman who don't get medical attention throughout their pregnancy. You are risky your health and the health of the baby by doing it at home with no medical personal present. I'm all for natural birth but in a hospital or at home with a midwife just in case something does go wrong.

Oh and Keeve... a midwife would notice something is wrong and make you go to the hospital. What if you started bleeding out due to a ruptured placenta would you know what to do?

Answer 21

I think its irresponsible and stupid...I think home births with a midwife or other professional is fine but to have it alone with no help is stupid...my babys cord was tied in a knot and wrapped around his neck, I could not deliver him vaginally NO MATTER WHAT...he would have died if they did not do an emergency c section because his heart rate was rapidly declining, I dont even want to imagine what would have happened if they hadnt acted quickly.

Answer 22

I think that women do have the right to choose their ideal birth setting. I also believe they have to be responsible about the choices they make. To have no one trained in any way in case of an emergency is responsible. It wasn't that long ago when a significant number of women and their new born died during the birthing process. Having a baby is just as risky today as it was in the times of our great-grandmothers. It is only due to the advances in the medical fields that the number of deaths has been decreased so significantly. If you want to have your child at home, with out drugs, outside of the sterile feeling of a hospital setting the more power to you. You are defiantly a braver woman that I. Just have someone trained on call in case of an emergency. That person can be as uninvolved as you wish, but be ready to step in if the life of the baby or mother is in dangered. The life that you are bringing into the world is fragile. Why not have a solid back up plan in place?