This Morning: Free birthing Part 1

www.itv.com's description of their item on freebirthing:

Free birthing


Free birthing is a growing underground movement of women in Britain who are choosing to give birth at home, alone, with no medical care, no midwife and no pain relief.

Clair MacVean is a 26-year-old mother of two from London. She had a bad experience giving birth to her first child in hospital and had her second child 'unassisted' by accident as the midwife failed to arrive in time.

Following her third pregnancy, Clair planned giving birth alone and succeeded when she gave birth to her little boy, Rory, five months ago without any medical intervention.

Clair admits that un-assisted childbirth isn't for everyone but for her, she felt it was the logical step in her third pregnancy, "I don't want to be scrutinised during my labour and do anything that impedes the process of a natural birth."

However, many healthcare professionals fear that it's only a matter of time before something goes wrong. Midwife Clare Byam Cook, who disagrees with the idea, explains: "I know that in order to deliver a baby safely you need skill and even home births are risky without the life saving equipment that a hospital has."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• birth
• free
• birthing
• unassisted
• mothering
• Phil
• Fern
• This
• Morning

[KWalsh554]

Women are perfectly prepared and suited to give birth. It's called millions of years of evolution and it far surpasses eight years of training. Although it would be stupid to do this with no preparation (you should probably read up on complications, have emergency numbers ready, and CPR classes), it's also stupid to assume that a woman can't give birth without a doctor because up until very recent history (and even still in most parts of the world) that is exactly how people were born.

[amberskyfire]

Women who choose unassisted birth actually act as their own midwives. It's commonly assumed that women who choose unassisted don't know as much about birth as a midwife or doctor, but they actually do usually receive similar training. Most women do not go unassisted and just hope against hope that nothing happens. I trained for 8 years before having mine. ANYONE can be as educated as a midwife or a doctor with the right training. You don't have to have a degree. :)

[mylovesofmylife]

For infants arriving safe with unassisted childbirth as Mom/Dad knew how to handle birth, & was capable of handling infants care at birth, baby meant alot to them. Infants born in Hospital, where parent/s had no control of the situation with Medical Staff in control of birth, & in control of what happened to the infant, What if infant ends up sick/dead from medical interventions with birth & after birth on baby, baby must not mean much to Hospital Staff who caused the infants sickness/death.

[TheYonirn]

this is so dangerous it's stupid. guess their babies don't mean that much to them.

[LilaMae99]

@sharacsmith Do you mean infant mortality rate? They do not have the sixth highest, they are 33rd in the rankings. Lower than most developed countries, but certainly not that high! This high rate has been largely attributed to an unequal distribution in healthcare in the US.

[LilaMae99]

@KWalsh554

Actually, that is not strictly true. Yes, we are evolved, but we are not perfectly prepared and suited to give birth as humans. In order to stand up straight, our hips had to change to be able to keep that posture. Although advantageous overall, it was detrimental to the human ability to give birth easily. Humans find it more difficult to give birth than other mammals.

You are right that women did not have doctors- but they did have assistance from experienced women.

[Empre55]

Wonderful.

[Nine00]

I might do this if I were SURE that both me and the baby are fine and if there were a way to get some pain relief. I just couldn't do the without pain relief thing.

[iamchristaalyssa]

This was awesome to see.. What annoys me is that these people interviewing here are obviously not "okay" with her choice and don't "approve". I lived in England for a couple years and midwives over there are almost just as bad as Dr. over here.

[sharacsmith]

@madamcod America has the 6th highest mortality rate in the world....and that has to do with doctors and giving birth in hospitals around germs. Amazing, huh?

[MrsToddSmith1]

Women had their children in tree's when Africa flooded. She was alone and pushed the baby out while holding on to the tree and the baby. We have been programmed to rely on doctors.

[azaleaviola]

Panic, fear, and modern medicine have caused the vast majority of birth complications and horror stories than anything else. We have been brainwashed into believing that having a baby is a panic situation, it's not. We are built to have babies. Have faith in your body, your instincts, and ignore the histaria.