To think free birthing should be entirely banned

Hmm I had the hospital trying to bully me into a CS. Telling me was emergency etc. strangely my ," emergency" is a fit and healthy woman in her 30s. If I'd listened to them I'd have had an unnecessary operation

I believe "free birthing" is the intentional, planned avoidance of medical assistance during birth.

Accidental home births or "BBA's" (Born Before Arrival) as they're often known, are completely different, because the intention was to have the baby at a hospital, birth centre, or at home with a midwife. I wouldn't term these accidental births away from medical assistance "free births".

My second baby came quickly, I called up the birth centre attached to the hospital twice and said I’d like to come in as I think the baby is imminent. They kept telling me I didn’t sound like I was in labour 🙄 and to take a paracetamol and to go back to bed even though I kept saying it was my second baby. Luckily we didn’t listen the second time and got in the car to get there, they kept me waiting outside the birth centre in agony only to find the baby was coming once they got me into triage so I had no time for the water birth or anything and the baby wasn’t far off being born in the car!

I’m now pregnant with my third and know that they are likely to come much quicker. Surely it’s safer for me to plan for a home birth with a midwife who will take me more seriously and come straight to my home this time around and avoid all the panic of being ignored, a stressful drive or being left outside the birth centre while the baby is coming. I do fear that they are putting an end to homebirth services though as there’s been a lot of negativity from one specific case which would likely mean I wouldn’t make it to hospital in time and be free birthing which I really don’t want but how can you ban it in this situation?!

I absolutely believe a planned homebirth in certain situations is the safest option and many don’t understand just how much equipment these midwives bring with them (resus stations for mother and baby, injections when haemorrhaging etc). If anything looked wrong the hospital would at least take a call much more seriously from a midwife than they would from me!

It’s a bit like how plastic surgery isn’t offered on the NHS, or some procedures that would improve quality of life but aren’t 100% medically necessary.

This exactly.

I had 2 home births. My first baby was expected to be born at home but after a non consensual “sweep” by the consultant he was born in hospital. One intervention led ti
another and the birth experience was everything I expected from a hospital birth. Midwives didn’t listen etc etc. Had that experience been better I probably would have considered a hospital birth for subsequent deliveries (and had the unit not had such a dreadful reputation). I did live with a mile of the hospital and I may have made a different choice if going to hospital would have been a 40 minute + journey

My second baby (at home) had shoulder dystocia so a “free birth” would have been pretty catastrophic!

Someone once said it’s fine if you have no health conditions, bmi and age are under 25 and you’ve given birth before with no problems.

Well with my second child I was all those things and still needed an emergency c section thank god I was in a hospital

@crazylizardsss I agree, the current state of maternity care is awful.
I strongly feel that a free birth is a dreadful idea, and I say that as someone who had a joyous and happy home birth for my second child. But I was supported by a very experienced independent midwife and fully ready to go to hospital if she or I felt it necessary. I had a home birth, NOT a free birth, because the birth of my first child in hospital was traumatic and I wanted to avoid a repeat of that. But I did lots of research about safety and was confident in my midwife.
It's worth thinking about why women chose to opt out of hospital care for a second birth ...

Edited to add @RubySquid we're not rich, the money for the IM came out of hard earned savings, DH said afterwards that it was worth every penny and I agree with him.

So only the rich are able to have a home birth? Hmmm

Nobody is making you do either. I have done both. Hospital birth was absolutely awful. Loads of intervention without enough pain relief. Baby rushed to NICU. Extremely traumatising. I had flashbacks for months afterwards. Almost all of the problems were a direct result of medical interference. It's been almost twenty years and I still struggle to talk about it. Second was born at home because the hospital experience had been so awful, and it was straightforward and easy with zero intervention.

Why are you furious at homebirthing instead of being furious that giving birth in hospital is so dangerous and traumatic?

You pay for a private midwife and healthcare team.

That is such an annoying argument. Birth doesn't need medical intervention if you are discussing the success of a species. You're completely right, we won't go extinct if an avoidable number of women and babies die in childbirth.

But most people have a lower tolerance of loss than nature does. Most people want their loved ones to survive labour and birth, even if humanity would carry on fine without them.

Humans also don't 'need' cancer treatment, vaccines, or any of the treatment offered at A&E departments. We wouldn't go extinct as a species if we started leaving victims of road traffic accidents at the side of the road, or shrugged when someone with asthma struggled to breath.

OP, I don't think we should criminalise free-birthing (though I personally think it's an incredibly stupid choice to make). Women shouldn't lose the autonomy to make decisions over their own bodies when pregnant, and it might prevent women seeking help if things go wrong. I do think we should put free-birthing advocates under tight scrutiny and bring legal action if their influence is found to cause injury or death though.

And what about the people wanting home births ( with midwives present) if you send all midwives to the hospital?

You should not ban any type of birth. Ridiculous idea. You do know that in majority of cases pregnancy and birth are not illnesses

My DD had an unattended birth as she went from 15 mins contractions ( husband had phoned hospital and they told him to wait until 5 mins apart) to constant contractions, 2 pushes and baby out. Wouldn't have been able to get anywhere in that 10 mins. Strangely enough DD herself was born 12 mins after first bad pain I had

If you read the article you will understand how far the Free Birthing movement is from the birthing emergencies you describe, and how it has been very successfully monetised by cynical women playing on other women’s hopes, dreams and ignorance.

So you had 3 children before you were 19? As if you had died with the first then you couldn't have had the others

I dont think it should be banned though. In the article the issues that lead to women ending up joining this cult were clearly explained - medicalisation of births, unnecessary severe trauma and unavailability of free healthcare in some instances. I think these issues should be addressed, as well as how future mums can be educated and supported in their choices.

If anyone should be banned its people like the influencer, or another nutter who caused her daughter to die from cancer, or any number of anti-vax nutters - all these people who cause unimaginable harm, very often while profiting from it. They should be banned for sure.

Tell me you know absolutely nothing about birth 🙄🤣

Why not google the statistics on maternal and infant mortality before you spout such utter nonsense.

Why is your instinct to ban something that you think is dangerous but which is voluntary?

You may think you're being nice or kind but you're not. You're being demanding and controlling when you reach for legislation to ban something only a few people do (unwisely in my view but...)

Skiing is dangerous
Rock climbing, trampolining , crossing the road, swimming ... all these dangerous too and kill small numbers.

Better to address why some people can't get midwifery when they need it at a price they can afford...

This is already happening, at least where I live (and I have had a home birth). But there a mother and baby died recently with a home birth with community midwives present - who were inexperienced, over tired, and had turned up with broken equipment. She wanted to give birth at home because of an awful experience with a hospital birth.

The problem is that the medical care women get at the moment is so poor that birthing alone seems like a better option.

The medical care is the problem.

I don’t agree with free births or home births.
My fourth baby would have died, and possibly me too, had I had him at home.

If you can’t put your baby first during birth, then that’s not a great start is it?
Your want to have “your own bed and some candles” doesn’t trump your baby’s safety.

Feel free to come at me with your “HoME bIrThs aRE SaFEr” bullcrap that home birthers like to trot out religiously, I won’t be seeing it.

Won’t be reading or responding further as it’s too sore a subject for me and I’m likely to get personal.

First of all, if you have a standard pregnancy and there are no complications you already can give birth at home or in a hotel-like unit at the hospital where you will have minimal medical intervention. However, I cant imagine why anyone deliberately refuse medical help to be on stand by or at least would not allow for an intervention when things go wrong.

I was told I will have an issue-free birth but if I was not at the hospital both me and my DC would be dead. Giving birth is still a massive gamble, sometimes its easy, sometimes its not. I agree that women can gamble their own lives if they feel like it - but not children's life and health.

I have no idea how these free-birthers explain massive number of women dying in childbirth for the most of the human existence.

absolutely not to ban any form of birth. Let’s not criminalise women here. Besides it is a human right to decline any and all medical intervention EVEN IF that cause of action might result in your or your baby’s death. (Have a look at BirthRights to understand human rights in relation to birth)

Women deserve choice over where, when and with whom to give birth.

The women making money out of misinformation should be held to account.

We also need to look at the policies and practices that push unnecessary medical interventions as well. Quite a bit of fear mongering and misinformation there too.

When it comes to birth, informed is best alongside individualised care.

That would really improve the safety of those who can't travel to hospital!

Plenty of reading here after a few inquests

https://www.abc.net.au/news/search?query=freebirth

One way would be to have the “community midwives” who are sent out to home births working in the hospital.

Surely the conversation should be about how we improve hospital birthing, which based on the quality of maternity units in the UK at the moment, isn't exactly risk free either. Mothers and babies are dying during hospital births, and suffering long term harm due to medical intervention.

Fewer women will want to free birth or birth at home if giving birth in hospital isn't frequently absolutely awful.