The Guardian tells us: "The Free Birth Society (FBS) is a business run from North Carolina that promotes the idea of women giving birth without midwives or doctors present. It is led by Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark, ex-doulas turned social media influences...."
Here's the rest of the FBS statement, on Instagram. Highlights:
When you challenge the status quo, it pushes back.
Peddling propaganda on mainstream news channels is nothing new....
The [Free Birth Society] message is simple:
• We make our own decisions.
• Birth is a normal biological process.
• We have the right to enact our own biology, even in a culture that shames it.
• Freebirth is ours to choose or not choose....
This moment is not a battle; it’s a mirror. A collective reckoning about birth, power, and spirituality.
The eternal dance of darkness and light continues in infinite forms.
I am not afraid of the shadows. They reveal what needs to be seen.
And so, we continue because the work is meaningful. Because it is needed. Because women deserve better than the narrative they’ve inherited....
पोस्ट्स
५० टिप्पण्या:
In China women give birth while marching.
The John Birth society was banned from conservatism by Buckley.
"Birth is a normal biological process."
What could possibly go wrong?
Now do abortion clinics, "Guardian " Holy shit. You investigate women giving birth on their on, but the billion dollar infanticide industry gets a free pass?
"We're worried about your health unless you are terminating your baby, in which case everything is fine."
Autonomy!
You mean, that was rhetoric that you used to protect the abortion industry, and you didn't really mean it?
Why not investigate "doctors" castrating 6-year-olds or murdering babies with Down's? Or killing old people? Medicine in the 21st century is corrupt as fuck. And you want to investigate the people trying to avoid it?
There's no such thing as an ex-doula or an ex-Marine.
this is A GREAT IDEA!
what could POSSIBLY go wrong during child birth?
just squat and let the baby drop out.. EASY PEASY!
These women sound like rebellious teenagers. Have we coddled our children so much that they are stuck in adolescence?
One of the better veterinary heroics is when James reaches in and holds onto the foal as the menfolk roll Candy over to untwist the uterus.
I don't recall how he figured out it was one way and not the other.
Um. Okay.
And Emilee Saldaya had a stillbirth during her “free birth.”
of course, IF a woman is worried about possible complications..
she could/SHOULD! exercise Her CHOICE, and Abort the clump of cells.
IF we can just get All women, to exercise their Correct Choice,
and abort ALL pregnancys.. Global Warming will be OVER!!
I disagree with their concept, but I fully agree with their right to practice it and talk about it.
This reminds me of something out of a Monty Python movie.
Okay. So. Birth is a natural process. So is appendicitis. Or perhaps a better analogy is cell division - 100% natural, positive most of the time - but when it goes awry, medical intervention might save your life but your own principles absolutely will not
I agree with the now-venerable movement to demedicalize birth and gave birth to my three kids with a midwife (for all three) and doula (for two of them, as my husband DOES NOT ENJOY blood) in attendance rather than an OB. But all were in a setting where medical intervention was available if needed, and it was for my first - my midwife called in an OB to get another opinion when my baby was stuck at my pelvic bones; he did some pretty aggressive internal manipulation and gave me 15 more minutes of pushing before he said he'd recommend calling it and doing a C. This was after my water broke almost four weeks early but I didn't go into spontaneous labor and had to be induced (once your water breaks, you get about 24 hours before the risk of infection becomes too high to let labor start on its own).
In other words, my sweet, peaceful birth plan did not survive contact with the... birth. I had toyed with the idea of home birth (my husband proving to be a formidable opponent), but for that first child was fortunate to have access to a birthing center separate from but adjacent to the hospital - hence less germy and set up to be less hospital-y, but with the advantages of modern technology minutes or seconds away.
All I can say about this freebirth thing is, women, you may have regrets that last forever, in a way that they could not in the days when interventions were not possible and readily available.
Free birth is one of those things that are able to maintain support through the power of cognitive dissonance. The horrible outcomes that occur all too frequently cause true believers to become more fervent, as they would otherwise need to accept their status as reckless dopes.
“Birth is a normal biological process.”
So is dying in childbirth.
3 deaths per 100 births was the approximate rate before modern medicine, although it varied at different times and in different sub-groups.
The key stat is not dying in first childbirth. If a mother survived her first, she was much more likely to survive subsequent ones. And women had a lot more babies than today, especially with the high child/infant mortality rates. So that 3% rate was far lower than the percentage of women who died giving birth.
All the nice clean birthing rooms, with a specialized c-section mini-OR mere steps away are there because the overwhelming demand for them by soon to be mothers. Igna, back me up on this one. Oh, and by the way the majority of OB doctors, nurses and medical assistants are women. Let’s listen to them, shall we?
And lefties wonder why "my body, my choice" is rightly seen as pro-abortion propaganda.
Birth is a normal biological process.
So is dying during childbirth. So is the child dying during childbirth. And the child has no say in all of this.
Should transwomen be allowed to practice free birth?
There was a reason why so many men had a succession of wives back in the days before anti-biotics and modern medicine.
Giving birth really is a normal biological process — until something goes wrong and then there’s the risk of losing the mother or the baby or both. Having a trained healthcare professional to watch over the process is something you don’t expect to need, but if you do need that professional then you will need her (or him) very badly.
Our current birth rate is below what is necessary to sustain our species. We need that baby — alive. And the baby needs its mother, also alive.
If you really wanted to give birth alone - what would stop you?
You're alone.
Sounds nuts tho.
Science how does it work?
There are wackos everywhere, making impractical ideas sound wonderful, and oh yes, they might also make money on their idealisms. But the medical establishment is hardly the body to throw stones. There is a massive financial squeeze coming, if it has not already arrived.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/a-retired-doctor-explains-the-us
"It's not a happy picture. But we all have to face what's happening."
And two more, related.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/why-a-seven-story-glass-building
.... caused the government to shut down.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/ralph-baric-the-worlds-top-coronavirus
More on the satanic covid cover-up. Much of it reported at the time, but denied and those reporting canceled; though a fair amount repeated here at Althouse by a few.
Prison for every one of them, especially the truly evil women who are pushing this for money. What despicable people.
I understand not wanting the medicalization of birth. I understand wanting an intervention-free experience. Birth is a natural process, not an illness, and too many medical professionals have failed to recognize that over the years. But this, this is gross negligence, if not actual malice, on the part of every person who participates in it.
And a quick PS: The financial squeeze is hardly limited to medicine, although it is a large contributor.
---- Essen’s Mayor Thomas Kufen (CDU), who is also a member of the CDU federal executive board, is sounding the alarm: “Almost every German city is now on the verge of bankruptcy.”
https://rmx.news/article/almost-every-german-city-is-now-on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy/
This is idiotic. I did some medmal defense and giving birth is a dangerous and complicated thing.
If something goes wrong - and it frequently does - you want a real doctor with modern tools. Otherwise, dead baby and maybe dead mom.
Funny that the people who support “science” think “natural” birth is a good idea.
You're never truly free unless you're also free to be stupid.
Dave Begley - let's troll Candace with this! Fun fun fun!
You think there is a level of stupid but its dead cats straight down
We can accept this, or we can go full Prussian Pregnancy Police--All Your Fetus Are Belong To Us.
Y'all choose. I'll go on, either way.
“Across whole populations, going through labour and birth without professional support is associated with higher levels of risk for mother and baby,” said Prof Soo Downe, a senior British midwife at the University of Lancashire.
So like Tylenol, then.
I wouldn't recommend it, but the absence of any actual statistical information in the Guardian piece suggests that the risks are very low.
What if Tatiana had spent the hours after her daughter's birth with her daughter, not worrying about the low white blood cell count. She felt find, and was strong then... swimming before she gave birth.
Beware modern medicine. It can kill you too, the cures are sometimes not worth having ... whatever and learning to live with it as long as you can.
I would bet anything she'd be in better shape today than putting her trust in modern medicine. "Maybe your white blood cells are low b/c you've just given birth. Bond with your baby, and come back for a CBC in three weeks..."
What if?
If something goes wrong - and it frequently does - you want a real doctor with modern tools. Otherwise, dead baby and maybe dead mom.
Funny that the people who support “science” think “natural” birth is a good idea.
-----------
So long as they accept the risk, and the consequences for their decision, who cares? People all have different risk threshholds. Just... no lawsuits or complaining if things go wrong. Sure, risk it. You might lose, but you might win...
This is just a reprise of the old hippie movement of natural birth when the chicks would lounge around the commune squeezing out the kids in harmony with Gaia.
… but the absence of any actual statistical information in the Guardian piece suggests that the risks are very low.
@boatbuilder, “low” or “very low” does not equal zero, does it? The presence of a trained, well equipped healthcare professional can put the risks closer to zero, and that is a good thing I think.
Three and a half years ago I’d have lost a lovely daughter-in-law and the world’s prettiest and most intelligent granddaughter if that daughter-in-law had listened to Emilee Saldaya, or to you.
I thought the norm before the advent of the birth-industrial complex was for women to give birth around other women? Mothers, grandmothers, aunts... eperienced folks who had successfully birth children before and were in the postion to help and encourage a woman during what was a painful and intially shocking new experience. I'm actually all for independence and women birthing however seems best to them, but simple prudence dictates that you have net when your working on a high wire. There are very few women from history who wouldn't have blessed the technology the Free Birth Society so blithely discards.
Anyway, "shadows" do not reveal, by their very nature they conceal or confuse what is revealed by the light. You never hear someone say, "I saw a house cat, but then, when it moved into shadows, I could perceive it was actually a mountain lion."
There is a reason why malpractice insurance for obstetrical practice is sky high. And since when have the Guardian and its minions been concerned about the well being of unborn or new born babies and opposed to choice for women.
I can't really blame these women for their desire to give birth "naturally." "Naturally" and "natural" have been pushed as synonyms for "good for you" or "beneficial" for so long that the mistake is quite easy to make. "Nature" has been transmogrified from the potentially and all too frequently terrifying entity it truly is into something warm, soft and cuddly, like a little baby polar bear who seems so appealing and lovable. But nature in the raw is quite the opposite. It's all well and good to observe the raging blizzard from the comfort of one's heated livingroom and quite another to be out in the teeth of it, especially without the availability of adequate clothing or shelter. Thus, giving birth by oneself, bereft of the possibility of medical attention is analogous to hiking in the woods, in deep winter, alone and naked. Depending on circumstances, one might emerge unscathed, but the odds are not favorable.
Nature favors the viability of both mother and child. However, risk management, where it is reasonable, advises at least standby assistance. This is why abortionists are required to have hospital access when and where human lives matter.
"I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" features so many women giving birth in bathrooms they might as well be called the John Birth Society.
"Birth is a normal biological process."
So is Diphtheria and Sepsis. Just because something is natural doesn't make it safe. It is true that majority of births are without problems, but when you need medical care, you need it medical care.
My youngest daughter's birth required medical intervention. I hesitate to think what might have happened if my wife was not in a hospital at the time.
@boatbuilder, “low” or “very low” does not equal zero, does it? The presence of a trained, well equipped healthcare professional can put the risks closer to zero, and that is a good thing I think.
I agree, 100 percent. And I have a very precious 6-month old grandson: if my daughter had subscribed to anything like this I would have gone nuts.
But the Guardian piece was attacking this group. Using anecdote and "associated with higher risks" is lazy and unconvincing. Are there no actual statistics?
Of course the grauniad is known for 'cherry picking. Comments
They were the major venue for the Russia hoax the attack on ken starr the defense of islamic state (even though they carried water for the iraq invasion
Big Mike said…
“Our current birth rate is below what is necessary to sustain our species.”
Our species is fine; it has a Total Fertility Rate of 2.3. It the developed and much of the developing world where we are dying out.
For some people, it can’t be healthcare if the government’s not involved.
My daughter was an emergency birth. She was finally born, by c-section, with no pulse and not breathing. The doctors saved her life. With no medical intervention we both would have died. I suppose that is what nature intended, but we defied mother nature.
Life preservers on boats. Medical or auto insurance. Carrying a pistol. Bandages. Criminal defense lawyers. Doctors.
You will never need any of these things, so long as everything goes well for you.
It’s natural, so it must be good! Then again, nature abhors a vacuum, and yet they use those in abortions all the time, so…
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