Filed under: birth, homebirth, midwifery, video | Tags: asynclitic, baby's head is asynclitic, easy labor, natural home birth
Beautiful Natural Home Birth of Hudson James attended by a midwife. Katie’s son was asynclitic and needed assistance coming through the birth canal
Midwifery Today published the article by Valerie a while ago that presents very clear instructions on how to turn the baby’s head. IT WORKS. She has taught me the difference between intervention and intercession. We also use visualization, relaxation, talking-to-the-baby, pulsatilla ( for assisting the turn) and gelsemium ( for lips and rings). At a hospital labor support birth this past week, when the doctor announced that it was time for the pit and epidural, to see if we could “get things rolling” - I spoke to my couple. I told them that they had hired me to assist them with a natural birth, and that I was absolutely convinced that they could do this - as long as the baby’s head was lined up well. I told them that in other cultures there is no pitocin or epidurals - women do not have these as options - and yet they have their babies!! I told them that we are mammals - and that mammals have their babies. I told them that I had unwavering faith in a woman’s body’s ability to give birth. We adjusted the baby’s head ( in private) and the baby was born soon after.
At a labor support birth this past week, the midwife who came on call had heard me speak at an MT conference in Oregon a few years ago. She was very warm and friendly, and told me that I could “do this birth” ( by the way, I do not “do” births - I attend them, or assist at them, or help to “receive” the baby with the parent’s permission). I told her that it seemed necessary to adjust the head - she said “By all means please try! I have never done that!” Within a few minutes of the adjustment, the woman began to push and birthed her baby. It had been fifteen years since she had had a baby - the last birth had been a horror show with a “stuck” baby and a resulting forceps delivery - and she was 43 years old.
One last note. One of the women whom I attended had been at 7 centimeters for about four hours when I was called to her birth. Her cervix was swollen and not very giving. She had been told to pant and blow - not to push as it would further swell her cervix. The baby’s head was asynclitic. I adjusted the head, and told her to push - much to the dismay of those around me. This did not come from new-midwife uppity-ness or arrogance - but from my intuition - ” Just push, Kate - just push and lets see what happens.” Within a few moments, she was fully dilated. In some situations, a cervix that has been at 7 for that long probably wants to “go” just as much as the mom wants it too! It just needed the baby’s head more well applied to assist it in its final act of “disappearance”!
Filed under: homebirth | Tags: attacment parenting, birth interventions, hospital birth vs natural childbirth, mothring, safe birth
Contrary to popular belief hospitals are not the safest place for babies to be born. The mortality rate of babies born at home is half that of hospital born babies.
95% of births can be done outside the hospital, intervention does cause problems. Society is bombarded with scare tactics making these mom’s believe that hospitals are safe. Actually these hospitals and their interventions may cause the problems in the first place.
Baby will not be born before he is ready, baby knows when it is time to come into this world.
Birth is safe and shouldn’t be treated as a medical procedure.
Hospitals carry many germs that your home does not.
Hospitals and technology have been known to slow a laboring women down, which in turn may cause medication to be administered to quicken the process.
You will push when you feel the urge, not when told.
The placenta will not be pushed out of you, when you feel the sensation you will do so on your own.
You will be able to experiment through labor with different positions in order to make yourself more comfortable. most women find that lying on your back is the worst, as in most hospitals)
You will also be able to birth your baby in any position you feel is comfortable.
You are in control.
Your baby will not be separated from you at any time, you will have the chance to bond without interference.
Your baby will be born in an environment filled with love, sensitivity. There will be no scrubbing, poking, probing, suctioning, drops in the eyes or any other types of violations.
Baby will feel secure.
This is our birth, the event will have profound effects upon us, we will be able to enjoy this in peace!
Photo by Kristin Hayes
Filed under: birth, empowered childbirth, homebirth, unassisted birth | Tags: birth, birth kit, bith blog, motherworth, natural chilbirth, unassisted birth
- Small bottle of almond, olive or other natural massage-type oil. (For lubrication of any body part, if desired)
- Underpaddings. Large plastic drop cloths, shower curtains or even trash bags to protect surfaces, covered in old towels, sheets or blankets that can be washed (or thrown away). Some women prefer disposable “chux” pads, they can be purchased in the adult diapering section of your local shop.
- A copy of the book Emergency Childbirth: A Manual by Dr.Gregory White
- Some people like to have a stethoscope
- A camera or video recorder (with film)
- A pen and paper to jot down times and anything of interest
- Foods, drinks, teas or tonics for the laboring mama and her support team
- Videos, toys, art supplies, puzzles, etc. for anxious siblings to discover
An “emergence” kit can be constructed with items that could be grabbed in a hurry or not at all.
- A pair of scissors, rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide and gauze swabs (or alcohol prep pads) for cleansing them.
- 2 industrial strength cord clamps (for emergency use only) and a set of gentler cord ties for normal cord procedures. Umbilical tape or dental tape (not floss, the ribbon-like stuff) works well. Braided embroidery floss is a popular choice too.
- Any bleed stopping remedy the mother has chosen. (Mango Mama posted: Shepherd’s Purse and/or Motherwort tinctures and Bayberry Bark, Cayenne, Shepherd’s Purse and Mistletoe herbs for teas as options)
- Natural fiber hat for a newborn head (remembering that hir tiny head could be very sore from the molding, those tightly knit “hospital caps” made two of my babies scream in pain). Patterns for creating your own baby hat are here for knitting and crocheting and here for sewing
- I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the rubber ball suction device as an “emergency item” but I think they are a bad idea for birth, personally. I’d probably stick one in a drawer so no one would think I was negligent for not having it. I can’t imagine ever using it though…
- Warm towels, blankets, receiving blankets or robes. Some families put towels in a dryer, on a heater, folded around a warm heating pad or in a barely warm oven during labor so they’ll be cozy after birth.
- A large pan, bowl or bucket for catching the placenta (those ice cream buckets work well).
- Maxi pads (cloth ones or even towels can work well)
- Arnica 30x for bruising or pain (mama and perhaps even baby)
- Pain reliever for after-pains (herbal tinctures, teas or commercial)
- Eldon card, vaccutainers and syringe for testing baby’s cord blood (once baby is done with it)
- Calendula tincture, honey for tears or skid marks
- Diapers and baby clothes
- A tape measure
- A scale (if desired. Some families rig up fish scales with a baby blanket or towel and subtract the towel’s weight, some subtract their weight from the reading on the bathroom scale while they hold their infant)
- Celebratory foods, drinks or items for baby’s very first Birth-day party
Filed under: birth, homebirth | Tags: giving birth at home, happy baby, home birth, homebirth, homebirth blog, homebirth information, natural birth vs hospital birth, natural childbirth
Studies Indicate That Homebirths Are Safe
Myth #1 — Hospital births are statistically safer than homebirths. 
Safety in childbirth is measured by how many mothers and babies die and how many survive childbirth in less than perfect health.
Studies done comparing hospital and out-of-hospital births indicate fewer deaths, injuries and infections for homebirths supervised by a trained attendant than for hospital births. No such studies indicate that hospitals have better outcomes than homebirths.
Respiratory distress among newborns was 17 times higher in the hospital than in the home.
The U.S. has the highest obstetrical intervention rates as well as a serious problem with malpractice suits.
While maternal death rates have vastly improved since the turn of the century, factors like proper nutrition and cleanliness have played a big part in the change.
Overall neonatal death rates have also improved since the 30s, but homebirths appeared to be safer even then. In 1939, Baylor Hospital Charity Service in Dallas, Texas, published a study that revealed a perinatal mortality rate of 26.6 per 1,000 live births in homes compared to a hospital birth mortality rate of 50.4 per 1,000.[1]
Since the 1970s, research done in northern California, Arizona, England and Tennessee all point to the relative safety of homebirth.[2] The only matched population study, comparing 1,046 homebirths with 1,046 hospital births, was published in 1977 by Dr. Lewis Mehl, a family physician and medical statistician.[3]
While neonatal and perinatal death rates were statistically the same in Mehl’s report, morbidity was higher in the hospital group: 3.7 times as many babies born in the hospital required resuscitation. Infection rates of newborns were four times higher in the hospital, and the incidence of respiratory distress among newborns was 17 times higher in the hospital than in the home.
A six-year study done by the Texas Department of Health for the years 1983-1989 revealed that the infant mortality rate for non-nurse midwives attending homebirths was 1.9 per 1,000 compared with the doctors’ rate of 5.7 per 1,000.[4] Certified nurse midwives’ mortality rate was 1 per 1,000 and “other” attendants accounted for 10.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.[5]
A study of 3,257 out-of-hospital births attended by Arizona licensed midwives between 1978-85 shows a perinatal mortality rate of 2.2 per 1,000 and a neonatal mortality rate of 1.1 per 1,000 live births.
In testimony before the U.S. Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality, Marsden Wagner MD, European Director of the World Health Organization, suggested the need in the U.S. for a “strong independent midwifery profession as a counterbalance to the obstetrical profession in preventing excessive interventions in the normal birth process.”[6]
Wagner states that in Europe midwives far outnumber physicians: “In no European country do obstetricians provide the primary health care for most women with normal pregnancy and birth.” He states that the U.S. has the highest obstetrical intervention rates as well as a serious problem with malpractice suits and concludes that a strong, independent midwifery service in the U.S. would be a most important counterbalance to the present situation.
Read more about homebirth at gentlebirth.org
Photo by Kuan-Jian Foo
Filed under: birth, gallery, homebirth | Tags: homebirth photo gallery, homebirth pictures, photos of a waterbirth, water birth gallery, waterbirth gallery, Waterbirth photo gallery, waterbirth photps, waterbirth picture gallery, waterbirth pictures
PHOTOS BY B. BALTIMORE BROWN
Filed under: birth, homebirth, labour, video, waterbirth | Tags: birth in water, birth video, free waterbirth information, free waterbirth video, laboring in water, labour in water, labouring in water, water birth, water birth blog, water labour, waterbirth, waterbirth at home, waterbirth blog, waterbirth video, woman gives birth in water
Lyle:
Our second son’s welcome into this world.
This is the mommy in this birth video. I’m giving background info for viewers understanding. My husband posted this but I’m glad to share this wonderful exp. This was our 2nd birth (1st was Taylor now 5 born at home in tub too after 12 hours of labor). If mom and baby are healthy and you have all the necessary pre-natal care and are fully educated on labor/birth and what to expect and really want a homebirth exp. (no fear) than this is the way to go man! It was the most empowering exp. of my life.
The reason midwife is not here is my husband told her it would be 1 hr. when she called to check on us at 4am. what does he know—he’s just a man and I couldn’t really verbalize that is would be sooner. The call you see in the video (where my husband has the head in his hands)at 5am is midwife again, @ 30 min. away still. Well, she’s gonna be late,huh? My sister, best friend & my mom who is tending to our 22 month (Taylor—now 5) were there. He was crying because its 4:45am, he just woke up & wanted Mommy like all kids do at 5am-he also wanted to get in the pool. He was not traumatized by seeing me give birth. I was having a baby–one of the most nautural things in the world.
Filed under: aqua midwife, baby care, birth, empowered childbirth, homebirth, midwifery | Tags: waterbirth, midwife, waterbirth at home, waterbirth midwife, waterbirth Europe, waterbirth Germany, Cornelia Enning, waterbirth contact, aqua midwife
It is a great pleasure and honor for me to announce my new series of translations from the website of aqua-midwife Cornelia Enning from Germany. Her work is admirable. If you have any questions or are interested in her services, feel free to contact me:
For direct contact with aqua-midwife Cornelia Enning:
Keplerstr. 16, D-75417 Mühlacker
Telefon: 011-49 (07042) 15536 FAX : 011-49 (07042) 950945
Cornelia Enning has been a licensed midwife in Muehlacker, Germany since 1972. She has been doing homebirths/waterbirths since 1975. She received a B.E. in psychology and pedagogy in 1972 from the University of Berlin. She has been doing homebirths and waterbirths since 1975 and is the founder of the German parents association “Wasserbabies.”
Cornelia is editor of the quarterly Wasserbaby-Post and author of several books about waterbirth at home and in hospitals. She directs the German Federation of Aquapaedagogik and instructs parents in water training for newborns. In addition, she has taught waterbirth midwifery to more than 4000 midwives and obstetricians. Cornelia has two adult children and one granddaughter.
Filed under: homebirth, video | Tags: homebirth video, videos, homebirth videos, natural birth video, natural childbirth video, natural birth video sharing, free homebirth video, see woman giving birth at home, twin homebirth
Filed under: birth, birthstories, empowered childbirth, homebirth | Tags: birth stories, birth story, birthstories, birthstory, empowered birth, free birth, homebirth, labour, natural childbirth blog, safe birthnatural birth vs medical birth, unassisted birth
Article from ‘Marie Claire’ magazine:
I gave birth completely alone
If you thought a homebirth was radical, prepare yourself for freebirthing - where there’s not even a midwife on hand. Allison Tait investigates the growing trend of pregnant women going solo.
Rixa Freeze, 29, a doula from Iowa in the US, endured a 10-hour labour with no medical assistance. She gave birth to daughter Zari on October 31, 2006.
“I was sitting on the edge of the toilet, supporting my baby’s crowning head with one hand, when it occurred to me that my husband, Eric, might like to witness the birth of our first child. Having spent the entire 10 hours of labour almost completely alone, I now wanted to share her arrival.
“Eric came in from our bedroom as I half-squatted on the floor, a pile of towels underneath me. Zari arrived with a swoosh and I gently lowered her onto the nest of towels. Her initial crying subsided as soon as I scooped her up to my chest.
“A few moments later, Eric took a photograph of Zari and me - and when I look at it today I realise what a raw and beautiful moment this was. It was just us - no strangers and no unnecessary noise.
“Two and a half hours later, when the placenta came out, Eric cut me off a small piece to eat; the mild taste was surprising. Later that afternoon, as the three of us relaxed together in our bed, a family for the first time, Eric told me I was right to give birth this way. Initially, he had expressed doubts, out of concern for the baby and me, but now he too realised it was the right choice.
“For me, it was the only decision. When I first heard about freebirthing, or unassisted birth as it’s also known, it was as an academic, in 2003. I was in the first year of a postgraduate degree in American Studies, researching birth-related issues, and a midwife I met mentioned it to me.
At first, I reacted like most people. The idea of giving birth without any medical assistance on hand sounded scary and a bit radical, especially for someone like me who didn’t exactly grow up in a particularly alternative family.
“My curiosity piqued, I read as much as I could on the subject and grew to really respect the women who had chosen this path. I discovered that we have such a culture of fear when it comes to birth. Look at how films portray it - a woman on her back screaming as a doctor comes to save her and deliver the baby. That makes it hard for people to imagine any other way than a medical birth.”
Photo by Chris and Jenni
Filed under: birth, empowered childbirth, homebirth, labour, video, waterbirth | Tags: waterbirth, birth in water, water birth, waterbirth at home, waterbirth video sharing, water births, water birth video, free water birth movies, water birth videos, woman giving water birth, natural childbirth blog
Josie’s Birth in the back yard hot tub surounded by family and friends filmed by her parents.
Filed under: birth, empowered childbirth, homebirth, labour, pregnancy | Tags: advantages homebith, cesarean section, convincing relatives about homebirth, dutch birth statistic, health, homebirth, Michel Odent, midwife, midwifery, mothering, natural childbirth, natural childbirth vs hospital birth, oxycotin, painfree labor, painfree labour, parenting, pregnancy, safe birth choice, social life, uterine contractions
Question: My sister and I were discussing childbirth. She is very influenced by her friend, a nurse, to have an intrusive, medicalized birth. What kind of resources can I share with her to show her that a natural childbirth is a wonderful and safe birth choice?
Dr. Michel Odent: You might first explain to your sister and her friend that a natural childbirth is not a choice. This term can only be used in retrospect, when a woman has given birth without any drug and without any intervention. The environment where you give birth is the real choice. You must explain that your main objective is safety and that according to common sense an easy birth is safer than a difficult birth. So your priority is to make the birth as easy as possible thanks to an environment that can satisfy your basic needs when you are in labor.
Your basic needs are easy to explain in the current scientific context. Physiologists, scientists who study the body functions, tell us that adrenaline (the emergency hormone we release in particular when we are scared or when we are cold) makes difficult the release of oxytocin, the hormone necessary for effective uterine contractions. You can explain that you release a lot of adrenaline when you are in an unfamiliar and clinical environment. You can add that, in contrast, you can imagine yourself giving birth in a familiar environment, with - for example - nobody else around than an experienced, motherly, low profile and silent midwife knitting in a corner. It is probable that in such an environment your body will work well.
The second aspect of the safety preoccupation is: what to do if there is something wrong? In the age of the safe c-section and widespread cell-phones, there is usually an easy answer to this question, which should always be the second one.
Many health professionals need to learn to think in terms of ‘ratio of benefits to risks’. Where out of hospital births are concerned, they immediately ask: ‘what will you do if…’ instead of asking first: ‘how to make the birth as easy as possible’.
You are asking what kind of resources you can share. You might share data about the Dutch birth statistics. In Holland, where 82% of the midwives are independent primary care givers, about 31% of the births occur at home, and an autonomous midwife attends many of the hospital births. The rates of c-sections are around 10% for the whole country and more than 90% of the laboring women do not need an epidural anesthesia. The birth outcomes are much better than in the USA (number of babies alive and healthy at birth).
Do not recommend books about ‘natural childbirth’ because they are usually written for the converted. Instead you might suggest updated books focusing on one of the main aspects of industrialized childbirth, such as ‘The Caesarean. Free Association Books 2004′. In order to help your sister and friend to learn to think long term, you might indicate the ‘Primal Health Research Data Base‘ that is specialized in studies exploring the long term consequences of what happened at the beginning of our life. It appears that the way we are born has life long consequences and that, today, in spite of the safe caesarean, we have good reasons to try to rediscover the basic needs of women in labor and of newborn babies.
Michel Odent, M.D.
For several decades Michel Odent has been instrumental in influencing the history of childbirth and health research. As a practitioner he developed the maternity unit at Pithiviers Hospital in France in the 1960s and ’70s. He is familiarly known as the obstetrician who introduced the concept of birthing pools and home-like birthing rooms. His approach has been featured in eminent medical journals such as Lancet, and in TV documentaries such as the BBC film Birth Reborn. With six midwives he was in charge of about one thousand births a year and could achieve ideal statistics with low rates of intervention. After his hospital career he practiced home birth.
As a researcher he founded the Primal Health Research Center in London (UK), which focuses upon the long term consequences of early experiences. An overview of the Primal Health Research Data Bank clearly indicates that health is shaped during the primal period (from conception until the first birthday). It also suggests that the way we are born has long term consequences in terms of sociability, aggressiveness or, otherwise speaking, capacity to love.
Photo by Pierre-Olivier Mazoyer
Filed under: birth, birthstories, empowered childbirth, homebirth, labour, midwifery | Tags: birth stories, birthstories, birthstory, easy labor, easy labour, empowered childbirth, homebirth, homebirth stories, labor, labour, laughter in labour, midwifery, natural childbirth, natural childbirth stories, natural childbirth story, painfree labor, painfree labour, unmedicated birth, womencare
“She danced and danced throughout her labor. No noise, no fuss, just intense concentration and dancing. After many hours she looked up at me with a puzzled expression and said: ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ I asked if I could check her, and when she opened her legs, the baby’s head was crowning.
I told her that was why she felt that way, and she began to laugh, and laughing, birthed the baby into my surprised hands. Her partner took pictures: a baby born en caul to a laughing VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) mother. We must witness, talk story, tell the good stories to counteract our culture’s horror of birth. It is possible to birth in peace and joy.”
-Anne Stohrer, M.D. in Compleat Mother magazine, Winter, 2000
“I noticed that whenever Judith would laugh at something, she’d have a very good rush [contraction] right afterward, which would dilate her cervix a bunch more. So we all sat around and had a good time talking with each other, and after a few more rushes I checked Judith again and found that she was fully dilated and ready to push the baby out.”
-From Spiritual Midwifery, by Ina May Gaskin
“Even though I was still on my hands and knees, my hearing suddenly became very acute. I could hear Gordon on the phone in the next room: Glenn? This is Gord. Could you ask Elly to come over. I think the baby’s coming. You think the baby’s coming? I echoed to myself.
And suddenly, I laughed. I could not help it - the man’s hesitation struck me as funny. I laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.Suddenly, I was looking down a tunnel the long way around, as if a telescope inside me - that was somehow outside me - was turned backwards. As I laughed, the baby’s head popped out. I tightened my pelvic floor muscles and, turning my head, noticed Gordon at the doorway.
Imagining how ludicrous I must have looked, reared up on my haunches with a baby’s head sticking out of me, I laughed again. This time, the baby simply fell out into Gordon’s out-stretched hands.”
-From “They Don’t Call it a Peak Experience for Nothing,” by Ruth Claire (Mothering, Fall 1989)
[unassistedchildbirth.com ; Photo by John Carleton]
Filed under: homebirth, labour, midwifery, video | Tags: homebirth, homebirth video, homebirth video sharing, midwife, watch woman giving birth at home, woman giving homebirth
The mother from the vdieo shares her thoughts on natural childbirth:
This is the birth of my third child, Sage Darian on Christmas morning (the other two were also homebirths, vids in the way!)
My midwife, Susan Lees, delivered all my babies and her presence during my Christmas Eve labour and Christmas Morning birth was awe-inspiring. Thank you, Sue!!!!
No mother would ever put her unborn child at risk.
As a homebirther of 3 myself, it was imperative to me that my pregnancies were monitored very closely by my midwife and my OB. Only once all physical birthing conditions were right and we were all confident that the births would run smoothly, did we finalise our decisions to homebirth.
Once labour commences, the midwife is called and she in turn calls the OB to put him or her on stand by. Initial communication with the midwife is telephonic until such time that you feel you need to have her there. For some people it’s in the early stages of labour, for some it’s later. That is entirely a personal choice.
Throughout the labour the midwife is doing cervical checks and monitors the heartrate of the baby with a doppler RELIGIOUSLY. If the midwife AT ANY STAGE feels that you are not dilating and that in turn could place stress on the foetus, then she will call the OB and tell him/her that you are on the way to the hospital STILL IN EARLY STAGES OF LABOUR BEFORE THE BABY IS IN DISTRESS. This often ends in a C-section if the mother was not dilating.
Back to homebirths: Once you are 10cm dilated, and the baby is on the way down, there is no turning back. A C-Section (hospital) is no longer an option. The baby is now in the birth canal and it is now you and your primitive instinct that is going to push this baby out. Your body knows EXACTLY what it needs to do (even if your mind doesn’t) and once again the baby’s heart rate is monitored closely.
The birthing position is also one of personal choice. The body adopts a position it feels most comfortable in.
The midwife at hand (all midwive’s are registered nurses and have done many many hours in labour wards)has all the necessary equipment with her should she need to intervene with the birth. Some midwive’s at homebirths also have another midwife to assist them.
All instruments etc are sterilised in the same manner in which they would be in a hospital and NOTHING is left to chance. We choose to birth our children at home, not because we are ANTI-DOCTOR, stubborn and stupid, we choose to birth them at home because it is very important to us that our children arrive onto this planet NATURALLY as intended, into an environment that is calm and overflowing with love.
The labour process is also one that requires TREMENDOUS focus and will power, so you should be in an environment where you feel most comfortable and at ease. For some this is a hospital and for some it is at home, surrounded by one’s loved ones.
“In a sincere effort to catch complications early and produce healthier babies, medical science has changed the atmosphere surrounding birth from one of a circle of loving support around laboring women to one of space age technology in a laboratory setting.
Though technology can save lives in a crisis, the routine use of technology can interfere with the normal birth process”
Hospitals are for people who are very ill, why would you want to birth your precious child into an environment like that if you don’t have to ??
Filed under: empowered childbirth, homebirth, labour, pregnancy | Tags: childbirth without fear, complications in birth, empowered birth, empowered childbirth, healing through childbirth, homebirth, labor, labour, natural childbirth, painfree labor, painfree labour
This is a wonderful website I really appreciate. It talks about empowering woman to give birth naturally, to trust in the ability of their female bodies to give birth and to make childbirth a joyous, empowering and healing event.
You can find great information on homebirth and thought-provoking birth-stories from women in different settings. Great assistance for making an informed choice for childbirth.
From the website:
Empowered Childbirth.com was created out of a deep and abiding love for women, men, children and the sacred healing powers of childbirth. Here, we share our experiences with each other in hopes of restoring our faith in our own birthing power and encouraging our sisters to restore theirs.
What is an “Empowered Birth”?
Filed under: homebirth | Tags: birth, conception, homebirth, medicated vs natural childbirth, natural childbirth, natural childbirth vs medical childbirth, pregnancy, sheila kitzinger
Whether birth is difficult or easy, painful or pain-free, long-drawn-out or brief, it need not be a medical event. It should never be conducted as if it were no more than a tooth extraction.
For childbirth has much deeper significance than the removal of a baby like a decaying molar from a woman’s body. The dawning of consciousness in a human being who is opening eyes for the first time on our world is packed with meaning for the mother and father, and can be also for everyone who shares in this greatest adventure of all.
There are many women who hope for childbirth in which they, not the doctors, are in control. They want to have the information that will enable them to make their own decisions, to prepare themselves for an experience in which they participate fully, and do not wish labour and birth to be taken over by managers.
They know that it is easier to do this on their own ground, in a place to which the doctors and midwives who are their care givers come as guests. They would like to give birth outside a hospital. This may be either in their own home, or in a birth centre in which the rhythms of a labouring woman’s body are honoured and waited on, and where birth is non- interventionist and centered on people instead of on mechanical processes.
Hospitals exist where all members of staff share this attitude, but they are few and far between. You need only one person who is out of tune with such ideas, who believes in the aggressive management of labour, who, instead of being client- oriented, sees a woman as a patient who must obey hospital protocols, one person who is anxious and afraid, and who cannot trust women’s bodies, for the environment in which birth takes place to be poisoned, and completely unsuitable for the focused concentration and inner confidence that is needed for a good birth.
Extract from “Homebirth” by Sheila Kitzinger
A fully revised and updated version of this book became available under the title Birth Your Way in Feb 2002
Filed under: homebirth, video, waterbirth | Tags: birth in water, homebirth, natural childbirth, water birth, waterbirth
A woman giving birth at home in a tub, helped by a midwife.
