I have shared my Anti Feminist views on this yearly holiday for the past twenty-six years.
An Anti Feminist Thread of Memes on X!
Here are a few old blasts from the past!
Freebirth, A Story by Blogger Jenny Hatch
In the past few months four obstetrics societies have made public statements about Unassisted Childbirth.
The Canadian Doctors (SOGC):
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC)
The Australian and New Zealand Doctors:
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
The Royal College (RCOG) in the UK:
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)
And in a recent article in the Denver Westword Newspaper
(I was interviewed for this story)
A Spokesperson for ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) claimed freebirth was “dangerous”.
Childbirth goes solo.
By Jared Jacang Maher
Published: May 10, 2007
“According to the guidelines of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the organization “strongly opposes” any birth not performed inside a hospital. A spokesman for the ACOG has a one-word assessment of freebirth: “dangerous.”
I have just one message for these doctors, and it is this:
“Physician, heal thyself“
“The moral of the proverb is counsel to prove your trustworthiness with your own affairs before attempting to tell others what they should do.”
When the various obstetrics societies PROVE that they have the will to reform themselves internally by setting up standards of care that are more about the mother and the baby than they are about the doctor and staff at the hospital, then I will feel more open about listening to any edicts they have about my lifestyle.
Hey Doctors: why don’t you set some goals….
1. No inductions before 41 weeks
2. 10% C-section rate
3. No elective C-sections
4. Full acceptance of Lay and Nurse Midwifery both in the home and at the hospital
5. A Complete and total acceptance of VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean)
6. A willingness to embrace proper prenatal nutrition as the foundation for a healthy pregnancy as outlined by the Brewer Pregnancy Diet
When society stops locking up our midwives for bogus reasons, embrace and promote natural mothering as the IDEAL for a new baby (Natural Childbirth, Attachment Parenting, and Long Term Ecological Breastfeeding), then I will believe you have found your soul as doctors.
Until then? Well, I am going to continue promoting Freebirth and encouraging families to break away from your way of giving birth, because frankly, the way you do it stinks.
Lamaze International has a white paper on Elective cesarean Vs. Vaginal Birth (PDF)
American College of Nurse Midwives:
RISKS OF CESAREAN DELIVERY ARE UNDERREPORTED,
BENEFITS OVERSTATED
Media Briefing Highlights Concerns In Advance of NIH Conference
*This video was taken seconds after my VBAC in the hospital. I endured a 52 hour labor of love to give birth to my son Jeff naturally.
QUOTE:
“Only women themselves can tell us if they are actually demanding cesarean section surgery. With what we are learning from Childbirth Connection today, we now know that women VERY rarely schedule first cesareans by choice without a medical reason,” says Susan Hodges, president of Citizens for Midwifery. “Only women can tell us what kind of informed consent process was provided to them. Citizens for Midwifery believes that women are not being given adequate and unbiased information about all the risks and benefits of cesarean sections. Research is needed to understand who and what are now influencing decisions to perform major abdominal surgery ‘for no medical reason’ despite substantial evidence that all cesareans increase harmful risks for mothers and babies.”
The dirty little secret about elective surgeries is that many of them are in fact coerced by doctors.
“The risks of giving birth without a skilled attendant “outweigh any possible benefits” and practitioners are needlessly endangering themselves and their unborn babies, according to the advisory, which is the strongest public stance against the practice by a group of medical professionals to date.”
(sarcasm implied)
Man, I am so glad these docs took the time to weigh everything and decide that my lifestyle is a threat to my children. I never would have known that giving birth alone was so horrible if they had not taken the time to talk about it and decide to make a public statement. It’s not like the media or two hundred years of fear based victorian ingnorance has ever made it seem like birth was a great mystery only to be guarded by the doctor on his noble steed of protection and heroic interventions.
(And just a leetttle more sarcasm)
And all I have ever heard from Radio, Television, and media in general is what is normal and natural in childbirth. Watch any soap opera today and what you will see is mothers giving birth without drugs or medical interventions, and then breastfeeding for the long haul. “This segment brought to you by La Leche League.”
If those obstetricians in Canada had not told me that what I was doing was dangerous, I may have never even guessed for a minute that husband/wife hombirth was deadly for me and my newborn, because all I have ever been exposed to and watched on television and in the movies was pure natural drug free birth. And all that has ever been promoted by commercials, advertising, and the powers that be is pure natural family living, because we all know chemical free living is best for the child, and all that the government, the medical profession, and advertising want to do is make certain that I welcome a healthy child into my life, because we ALL know that a healthy baby is all that matters.
Whew, I feel better to be so informed. Thanks. Without you people pointing it out, you know, taking the time to say something out loud, in public, I never would have figured it out!
I guess now I should just dump my 19 years of research and bow down to the medical gods, because hey, they said so. And everyone knows that doctors always practice evidence based medicine, and they know everything, because dangit, they are full fledged SCIENTISTS, and we all know it takes years and years of Big Pharma Brainwashing to get to that level of Credibility!
OK, I’ve had my sarcastic rant. Back to the point of this blog post:
The incoming president of the Candadian equivalent of ACOG, The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), Dr. Guylaine Lefebvre claims that those promoting Freebirth are “tragically misinformed.”
And a Dr. Senikas claims that quote: “Unassisted childbirth is unsafe − period,” says Dr. Vyta Senikas, SOGC’s associate executive vice-president.
“Senikas says the people advocating “freebirthing” are tragically uninformed and are promoting high-risk, dangerous behaviour disguised as sound medical advice.
“You have to look at the source. These are not trained and educated medical professionals,” Senikas says.
“Look at the source”….hmmmm….seems judgemental to me. Sure, I’m a mother who only had two years of schooling beyond high school, in Musical Theatre at that….so I guess I am a know nothing cretin, who has absolutely no right to make health care decisions for and in behalf of my children. The thousands of hours I have spent researching childbirth, teaching childbirth classes, attending births, giving birth to my own five children, writing my three books, all largely about birth, organizing a birth conference, and now this blog, again devoted to the promotion of home birth, all of this leaves me “tragically uninformed” about …..birth.
(just a little more sarcasm)
WOW! Thanks Dr. Senikas. I had no idea I was such a retard when it came to birth. Without you pointing out my deficiencies as an uncredentialed, uninformed, tragic sort of person promoting something that is so dangerous and deadly to me and my child, I may have gone ahead and done something really stupid like get pregnant with my sixth child, and then actually had the gall to do my own prenatal care, and then, (NO, someone stop her before she does it again….we have to SAVE HER FROM HERSELF!!!) I may have given birth in my bedroom as my great grandmothers did for thousands of years before I was born.
My great, great grandmother gave birth to fourteen children in her Michigan Farmhouse. She was just dang lucky to be alive….it was all just a stinkin’ coincidence that she made it through birth number one at home, much less, birth number fourteen because home birth is so deadly and dangerous, as every doctor and enlightened person knows.
The reporters found it necessary to quote the infamous Dr. Crappen in another article found here
“Dr. John Crippen, a doctor in the U.K. who writes an award-winning blog, has reacted angrily to freebirth. saying “giving birth is the most dangerous thing that most woman will do during their life.””
As I have said recently, Dr. C left three little words out of his famously quoted statement.
Doc, you left out: “In the Hospital”
“Giving birth IN THE HOSPITAL is the most dangerous thing that most woman will do during their life”
Yet it appears that the Canadian Nanny state Medical Machine has some issues regarding their own birth practices.
Doctors call for national birthing strategy
While spewing bogus stats on us Free Birthers, the real story is their own carefully collected statistics, which paint a dire picture for birthing women all over Canada.
QUOTES:
“Canada needs a national birthing strategy to combat a poor international record for safe deliveries, says the outgoing president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.”
“Last June, when the most recent OECD statistics were released, Canada had stumbled, ranking 11th for maternal mortality rates; 14th in perinatal mortality and 21st for prevalence of infant mortality.
“Safety for women having babies is something we expect. That we have concerns is worrisome,” said Dr. Don Davis, the society’s outgoing president.
About 80 per cent of births in Canada are attended by an obstetrician.”
Here are some facts for you condemning doctors and your cult of professionalism…..
The most educated women are giving birth at home alone.
The most healthy women are the ones who look at the so called “free” health care you provide, and say “no thanks”.
The most protective parents are the ones who have read the research, which many doctors do not even bother to review, and have decided the Medical Professions own statistics are what make the case for Free Birth. Yeah, its true docs. We have found your statistics and practices WORRISOME for years, and we have bowed out and said NO to your drugs, surgery, and scare “Cover your medical butt” prenatal care.
The article ends with these sobering words:
“Fewer and fewer family doctors are willing to live the lifestyle of obstetrics,” said Black. “The traditional way – where the doctors is the only one who can deliver a baby – is going to have to change. Nurses and midwives are very capable of delivering low-risk babies.”
I would add that parents themselves are highly capable of delivering their own children. To me it would be the height of irony for the Cult of Professionals backed up by government and the courts to outlaw Unassisted Birth, fully knowing and accepting that the birth machine is murdering and maiming healthy mothers and babies all over the world.
All we are asking for is the freedom to give birth where we feel comfortable.
What do you care how we give birth? Obviously the health of the family is not a concern or you would have changed your birth machine to cater to the real needs of mothers years ago. But a monopoly is so fun…makes one feel so powerful….And those credentials….That big name plate on the wall, with all of those signatures declaring doctor so and so worthy to cut and drug willy nilly.
Well guess what?
The jig is up.
We parents have called your bluff.
Giving birth is no longer the medical mystery of our grandmothers day when grandma took her gas like a lady and spread her legs for the forceps and the knives. And then thanked the doc for the thrill of having him yank the baby out while she soundly slept.
We Freebirthers demand to give birth privately, in the sanctity of our own homes.
Awake, aware, and ready to welcome our babes alone.
Would you deny me my rights of self determination as a mother?
If you do, I will fight you to the highest courts in the land.
Doesn’t it seem just a tad insane for our society to allow mothers to murder their own children during pregnancy with abortion, protected by the courts and screaming feminists in the streets and yet if we desire to give birth privately, we become worthy of the highest scorn and condemnation of the medical profession?
Crazy!
Media Centre
Media Advisories
SOGC Annual Clinical Meeting, Ottawa, June 21 to 26, 2007
The Dangers of Unassisted Childbirth
Jenny Hatch
DIY birthing:
“DO-IT-YOURSELF home birth websites are putting women at risk by encouraging them to have babies without medical help, doctors have warned.”
But yesterday, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists warned women that “free birth” was the least safe way to have a child.
President of the college, obstetrician Christine Tippett, said women should be grateful for Australia’s high standards of maternity services.
“We have an incredibly safe system,” she said. “I think we should acknowledge that luxury, because there are women around the world who are very envious of us.
“Women getting information about ‘free births’ from the web need to make sure they don’t just access the sites that are very enthusiastic about this.
“If something goes wrong, it could end up in a very sad outcome.”
I loved the comments attached to this article, our Australian and New Zealand sisters definitely have the issues down pat.
This was my favorite comment:
“I’m so sick of reading narrowminded views on birth. I read a GOOD article recently where the author stated that it seems as far as birth goes, choice is a one way street.
So we are allowed to choose a medically unnecessary caesarean (and the hospitals are allowed to inflict enough interventions on us to guarantee an unnecessary caesarean – been there done that!) but we are irresponsible to choose to take on the responsibility of birthing our babies by ourselves?
I know of NO women who have chosen to freebirth due to it being “free” – believe me it’s not, my first child was born completely free in the public system (well the cost of it cannot be measured in monetary terms anyway) and this birth is going to cost me considerably more, even without a midwife. I certainly don’t just consult websites either.
Perhaps the College of Midwives needs to point out how the Queensland Nursing Council has an agenda against QLD homebirth midwives, making it virtually impossible for QLD homebirthers to find a suitable midwife.
Personally, I would rather have no midwife than an unsuitable midwife as my first birth was destroyed by my (Birth Centre) midwife breaching the trust I placed in her – so although I did choose a midwife at the start of this pregnancy, when she pulled out on me due to HER issues I decided I had to trust myself instead.
I think most women are intelligent enough to transfer to hospital if trouble arises (and women who plan freebirth are usually well-researched, not following a stupid trend like this article implies).
Oh and Christine Tippett – safe by whose standards? Typical that an obstetrician would speak out against something that takes the power away from them and puts it back in the hands of birthing women.”
Posted by: Gollum of Gold Coast 5:14pm June 03, 2007
Royal College Of Obstetricians And Gynaecologists’ Statement On Unassisted Childbirth Or “freebirth”
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists(RCOG) is aware of the small number of women choosing unassisted childbirth or “freebirth”.
“Whilst the RCOG fully supports normal birth and believes that every woman should have the right to give birth in an environment in which she feels comfortable, the safety and wellbeing of the mother and baby is paramount.
Before choosing a place of birth all women should be fully informed of the potential risks, which may include the need for intervention, transfer to hospital and/or pain relief. Obstetricians and midwives are concerned with the safety of both patients, mother and child.
The RCOG would like to stress that at present, the practice of freebirth is new to the UK and little research exists regarding its safety and success.”
PING!!!
Interpretation of this little epistle from on high:
“OK Ladies, we are not quite sure what to do with you, although we do know that we need to say something….or other, about what you are doing. Although the press keeps quoting one of our award winning bloggin’ docs, we realize that he is an anonymous blogger who thinks moms should be prosecuted for manslaughter if something were to go wrong during a free birth, but as for us? Well, we know we have painted ourselves in a corner with our birth practices and the drugging and cutting of women. We also know that we have no moral authority because of the baby killing side of our profession in terms of abortion and birth control. Yet we feel absolutely compelled to make a public statement about you people because frankly, you are creeping us out and we can’t quite put our finger on why that is the case…..but….ahh….well…..we just had to say something or other until we figure out what to do….because really, this simply cannot stand….you mothers are all SMILING in your birth pictures, and really, and one of your birth stories actually show a woman laughing while she gives birth, and some of those birth videos, well, they are just grotesque….nobody is wearing gloves and their is no little machine that goes PING, and, well, we just don’t know what to do with you. But we are going to do something because, well….we are not quite sure what we are going to do…..but WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE DYING IN THE THIRD WORLD……and you all think you can just go ahead and give birth willy nilly without a problem…..are you actually suggesting that how we deliver babies might be the problem??!!??….well that would mean, uh….well…that would mean that we are doing it bad….wrong….my piece of paper saying I am a medical doctor means nothing…..I’m just a legalized drug pusher???who is knife happy???and babies and mothers are dying who would have done just fine at home??!!?? gag..blush…arrrghhhhh….”this must be stopped…..you women must be STOPPED”. Someone has to save your from yourselves!! Or…uh…we….”gulp”….might be out of a job…and I have student loans to pay off, and what else am I supposed to do for a living????”
Hey Docs, why don’t 90% of you become organic farmers and welcome your own little ones into your own hands at home and just leave us families alone???
AND IF (AND BIRTH STATS BEING WHAT THEY ARE, THIS IS A MIGHTY BIG IF), IF, ONE OF THE MOTHERS OR BABIES WHO ARE A PART OF THE FREEBIRTH MOVEMENT SHOULD HAPPEN TO DIE, LET US BURY OUR DEAD IN PEACE AND LIVE AND LET LIVE.My son Andrew and I were almost that mother/baby team who died during birth. We could not get him to breathe and I bled out most of my blood volume after the birth. My crit was 4.7, (that is 4 point 7). I felt my spirit leaving my body, and my baby was not able to take a breath. And it would have been so nice if instead of trying to prove to me what a loser I was as a parent, and instead of trying to check my cervix for tears after birthing an eleven pound child, or yanking out my placenta, or tsk tsking away at how evil and stupid and irresponsible I was as a parent just after giving birth to that amazingly huge baby, if someone in that ER had thought to themselves…”you know? she looks a little pale, maybe we should check her crit to see how much blood she has in her body”.
No, the docs and nurses were so determined to “set me straight”, big bad home birthing momma….you simply suck….”, that I lay dying before their eyes, my spirit started to leave my body and I heard a voice say “you wimp, get back in your body”.
And then my competent doctor showed up. Dr. H, our beloved family doctor, who had no idea I was pregnant because I did my own prenatal care. And he asked the vital question. “anyone checked her crit?”
And that saved my life.
You know docs? We understand that you have something vital to offer to those FEW mothers who may need your drugs and surgery. We even understand that some of us may have to transfer during labor or even after birth to help with various complications.
How would it be if instead of flinging poo at each other if we agreed to work together to birth the babies. You show just a little respect for the effort we put out as mothers to get educated and then give birth alone, and when and if we show up at your hospital looking for help…just give us the help. We don’t need the lectures, we have already heard it a thousand times from our own families and friends. We don’t need laws and we sure as heck don’t need litigation.
We families just want to live in peace and birth our young at home, alone, in our own beds, with just our lovers and loved ones present. Could you live with that? Could you just take one step back from the calls for a whole new set of laws and regulations and rules around birth and realize that we are good parents who want what is best for our babies.
More recent articles about FreeBirth:
C-section triple threat
Increased heart, clot, infection risk“Women who undergo elective caesarean sectionssuffer more than three times the number of cardiac arrests, blood clots and major infections than those who deliver vaginally, new Canadian research reveals.”
HMMMMMMmmmmm
I’ve been participating on a couple of blogs chatting about FreeBirth and before they started pulling my stuffand shutting down my posting privledges (can’t debate that meanie Jenny Hatch, she just thinks she knows everything, and all she ever does is make Medicated Mommies feel bad), I said this in regards to the legality of UCBirth in one of the posts that is still on that blog:
“Dr. Crippen is calling for us moms who have a babe die during a freebirth to be charged with manslaughter. (Or at least be prosecuted by brain damaged children later on)
I think he is really on to something in his call for criminal charges for dangerous parental decisions around birth.
We freebirthers will gladly accept the responsibility for our birth outcomes WHEN and IF mothers who are choosing elective C-sections are held under the same law.
Nobody is above the law…Right?
So, as long as moms who choose a medical intervention without true medical cause are being prosecuted and locked up for their dangerous and deadly choice for baby, we will gladly bow down to the law and allow ourselves to also be prosecuted and charged for a supposedly dangerous birth choice.
See, we have nature and the lack of chemicals on our side, and I can promise you that the mothers from the medical side will be prosecuted ten to one more often than we mothers who are giving birth alone. Toxic, “blue” chemical laden babies have a much harder time recovering from birth than our beautiful natural babes who are born at home with proper hormonal interactions and lack of deadly drugs like Cytotec raging through their livers and brains.
It seems to me that if poor parental choices are being thrown into the mix of who gets prosecuted and who does not, those babies who are brain damaged from too many drugs at birth, those babies who never reach full genetic brain potential cause Momma didn’t want to breastfeed, and those children who are permanently maimed and disabled by never being fed whole organic foods, should also be enabled to have cause to sue parents for damages.”
I think the title of this latest Canadian Article should read: Obstetricians increasingly feeling threatened by those demmed Freebirthers”
Obstetricians alarmed over ‘freebirthing’
Quotes from article: (My responses are in italics)
“A British National Health Service physician who writes a popular blog under name “Dr. Crippen” responded to The Guardian article in his blog, pointing out that a mother owes a duty of care to her baby.”
They keep quoting the famous Dr. C like he is Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the ten commandments. Thus sayeth the Anonymous Blogging Doctor: “Thou shalt not give birth at home. If you do, umm….well…..uh….we will think you really stink.”
“Dr. Don Davis, the outgoing president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, said the society has no difficulties with women who want to give birth at home with the help of a midwife, as long as emergency back-up is available and the mother knows the risks.”
And this is a steaming pile of horse manure. Why doc do you dudes keep locking our midwives up in prison on bogus and frivilous charges. Why was Gloria Lemay locked away, and midwives all over north america being increasingly harrassed and litigated against if you docs did not want to have a complete monopoly over birth.
And I loved the message, tone, and articulation of the whole debate found in this article:
Home births not as risky as perceived
(You’ll have to click on the link to get to the “Buck Naked Bacon-Making” quote)
“Home birth is dirty, we are told, dangerous for mother and baby, you’ll have to sterilize the house, boil the cats in bleach, etc., and even then you’re taking a huge risk. It hurts too much to do it without drugs. Plus you’ll annoy the neighbours. You’re a crazy hippie, global warming is a myth and your mother dresses you funny.
A year-long study in 1999 (reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal) comparing outcomes between home and hospital births among B.C. women able to choose between the two found: nothing.
Fewer interventions during labour for home birthers, fewer maternal infections, fewer episiotomies and no significant differences in perinatal mortality. Oh, and because women who are able to birth at home typically stay there, homestyling is cheaper, too.
The study concludes: “There was no increased maternal or neonatal risk associated with planned home birth under the care of a regulated midwife.”
Studies in New Zealand, the U.K., U.S., Switzerland and the Netherlands have made similar conclusions — home birth with qualified caregivers is as safe as birthing in a hospital. Last week, a study indicated women who choose caesarean section without medical necessity face a five-fold risk of postpartum cardiac arrest over natural birth; wound infection rates were five times higher.
Pregnancy is not an illness and we are not going to treat it as such. If we need to go to hospital to safeguard mother or baby’s health then we will go and do whatever is needed.
In the meantime, the coffee is on and the curtains are drawn at home — where women gave birth long before there were hospitals.”
Peace
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