Free Birthing

[Charlavail]

No more babies for me so not something I will ever experience. I wouldn't have minded a home birth with DS2 but PPROM meant I had to be induced. I have just been reading about it on Instagram and wondered if anyone had any experience of it.

I wouldn’t want them to sign a waiver, of course not. But it would be an interesting test of how strong their ‘zero medicalisation’ convictions really are.

We would’ve both died if I’d freebirthed. I originally wanted a home birth but in hindsight I’m so glad I was in hospital. Nothing seemed outwardly wrong and neither I nor my partner would’ve known what to do or when to do it had we been alone. I vividly remember thinking “thank god for the NHS” as I was wheeled down for a c section!

I do know someone who freebirthed and it didn’t end well.

I think some women choose it as a way of regaining control in the midst of inconsistent maternity care or from a (arguably misplaced) fear of the overmedicalisation of birth, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be in the best interests of mother or baby.

@Wouldloveanother Personally, no, I wouldn't agree to induction. If that was recommended or necessary I'd insist on a section instead (which I considered).

But regardless, it's the same problem as a section. If you plan on going to hospital (induction/section/preference) you cannot call a midwife in labour because they will not send one. At best you get an ambulance and how long you wait depends on if it's an emergency (hopefully not but I'd still need to know enough to identify an emergency). And the hospital won't agree (nor would I ask) to deliver sufficiently early to definitely avoid labour because (if healthy) it's not really in the intrests of me or the baby.

If they let women book a homebirth and a hospital birth that would be different, but they don't. And spontaneous maternal request sections aren't a thing (which is reasonable that would cause chaos).

I had a home birth with DC2. Within an hour of my contractions starting I had two midwifes in attendance throughout (and a student midwife there for most of it as well) as well as various checks and babies heart beat was monitored in labour. With DC1 I was induced due to PROM and spent my whole labour until I was 10cm and pushing with no one except my husband. I was ignored as the midwifes were busy and didn’t believe I was in labour so I had no checks and no heartbeat monitoring.

I was having another baby I would opt for another homebirth as long as my pregnancy was straightforward.

I joined a free birth Facebook group when I was having my second. I’d had my first super fast so thought there might be some tips should I accidentally find myself alone. There was a good deal of crazy on there. They were of the mind that everything the baby needed could be provided by its mother even after birth. There was a two day old with an awful rash and when I commented to take it to see a dr I got a warning that they didn’t believe in any medical
interference

I have had all my births in hospital as I have also been classified as high risk. My only vaginal birth was recorded as 1hr and 52 minutes (I was induced but they only started counting labour from when I reached 4cm).

You can't stop women from freebirthing, I would encourage women who are thinking about it to get further advice about what medical support that is available. Calling them names, is very counterproductive.

@OchreLights I guess that's a real downside of rural living. It would terrify me to live that far from a hospital although to be honest I'm 2 miles from a big hospital and with ambulances the way they are at the moment it's taking 2 hours plus to get there by ambulance at the moment. And once you get there you are then waiting hours to be transferred out of the ambulance into the hospital...
Wishing you all the best for the birth, hopefully it won't be as fast this time around.

True. The only person I heard from who freebirthed did it out of a place of fear. She'd had an awful frankly abusive time while giving birth with her first at hospital (including medical staff yelling and belittling her and ending with painful interventions) that she was terrified to go through anything like that again and really was scared of medical staff in general after that. (Possibly ptsd in my unqualified opinion).

Freebirthing is not the safe option, but figuring out why various people want to freebirth in order to hopefully steer them to safer methods might be a better tact than dismissing all of them as just idiots.

Yes, true. I think it's important to understand. The stereotype of "caring more about whale music than safety" is not realistic, people always take a course of action that makes sense to them, even if those reasons are not immediately obvious, they will exist.

Also I suppose that actually we have always "freebirthed". So there is really no increase in risk compared to the natural risk of childbirth... it's just that we know that the risks of childbirth pre medicine were higher than today. I don't know personally if I would be OK with that - I would rather have the backup of the emergency options. I would definitely have a homebirth if I was guaranteed midwife care and was a reasonable distance from hospital, though. (And low risk obviously).

All of my births would have been absolutely fine without medical intervention but I think I was just lucky to have straightforward births. DS2 might not have been fine without medical intervention - he had quite low oxygen after birth but to me he looked perfect. I wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong with him.

So there is really no increase in risk compared to the natural risk of childbirth..

the natural risk of childbirth is pretty freaking high.

That's not what people mean by medicalisation though. They aren't saying that they don't want response to an emergency if one happens. It's more of a reaction to a lot of the monitoring and procedures that happen at a lot of hospitals, particularly in the US. Some of those procedures are designed to alert you to an emergency that wouldn't otherwise be apparent, for example monitoring the baby's heart rate.

IMO it is beneficial for there to be a balance here. I've had babies in the UK and Germany. The UK is much more hands off. I only ever had 20 mins on the monitor when I came into hospital and then intermittent monitoring with a Doppler. That was sufficient and seemed to do the job perfectly well. Then they want to do vaginal examinations, which don't really have any purpose except for measuring the progress of labour which could arguably be done in other ways.

I didn't really mind these interventions and was quite happy to have them as I didn't find them too intrusive, but in Germany I was given an IV line into my hand when I arrived at hospital, despite the fact they never even used it. I had a scan, which I actually wanted on that occasion because DS3 had been playing games and turning breech and I really didn't want to give birth to a breech baby so I would have had an emergency caesarean. They insisted on an hour of monitoring on a machine and I had to have mobile monitors strapped to me even in the pool which made me cross. And then before I was allowed gas and air they insisted on putting a stupid clippy thing on my finger and they wouldn't let me have it in the pool.

The thing is that we are mammals, we know that birth is dangerous, we're evolved for it and so anything that is experienced by the body as a threat is likely to shut the birth process down or at the very least stall it. You try giving a vaginal exam or strapping a monitor to any other labouring mammal and see what happens.

I personally think any intervention should be very low threshold, as low as possible and linked to the overall risk level. We think these interventions are harmless but they are really not. Even the process of moving from home to hospital is disturbing. It's all tricky. Covid policies didn't help. I remember just overwhelmingly wanting to be in a private room/space where I knew it was safe and I wouldn't have to move and they wouldn't give me that one thing.

It's really hard to argue against these processes in a hospital setting and I do understand why some women would see birthing alone as a preferable option but it would be too risky for me. I don't want the monitors on me at all times but I want them there. I don't want people prodding and poking but I do want someone who has seen dozens of labours to be able to say hang on a moment, something isn't quite right (if it's not).

I work in theatres and have seen first hand the sheer speed that can be needed when things go wrong - they call a Category 1 c section and that patient arrives in theatres about 1 minute later, baby out within minutes. A whole range of staff there working incredibly hard to save the life of the mother and the baby. I've seen new dads sitting in the corner holding the baby sobbing quietly while their partner nearly bleeds to death on the table, or the baby being resuscitated and rushed off to NICU - and these haven't necessarily been tricky pregnancies at all, things can just go very wrong. The unexpected really can happen. From a personal perspective when giving birth myself, the first was straightforward but I haemorrhaged after the second because the placenta didn't come away properly, if I'd been on my own I'd have bled to death. People who freebirth really are taking massive risks that they can't comprehend.

We already know they’re not completely committed to non-medicalised birth, because if it goes wrong they call ambulances and expect hospitals to save them and their baby.

There’s no joy to be gained from any birth going wrong and no matter what choices you’ve made you are welcome to seek help from mainstream evidence-based health care workers and we will always help you.

I once met a fundamentalist Christian freebirther who lived rurally. She was expecting her 6th baby and planned to freebirth. I asked her how she would cope if it all went wrong (I wasn't feeling tactful) and she said it would be God's will if the baby died. Oooooookay then.

Google Janet Fraser in Australia. Such an unavoidable tragedy.

Thsts so sad, that poor baby!!

Having had one low risk (singleton, homebirth, unplanned unassisted delivery) and one high risk (twin pregnancy, induction, delivery in hospital) I can totally empathise with a lot of women who choose to homebirth to avoid hospital based trauma for themselves. I chose to have my babies in hospital in case anything went wrong, and in doing so ended up with a horrible experience. I laboured fast and well considering it was a twin birth but I still feel angry and upset at some of the things that happened/how I was treated by some of the midwives/medical staff. Freebirthing is something I would never have chosen, but I can see why some women choose it, especially if they have had poor experiences in the past.

@MissTrip82 of course there’s no ‘joy’ to be had from that. And in reality a disclaimer is not something that should ever be imposed, the baby shouldn’t suffer because of the decisions of the mum. My point was just that it’s very easy to be strong in your ‘natural’ convictions when it’s all going swimmingly, but it would interesting to see how strong they are when things go less than well.

Our last midwife asked about my preferences in a carefully neutral way. When I said hospital she sighed in relief. They had had a woman die during a home birth.

I wouldn't do it at any time but with the ambulance service where it is... no way.

@Wouldloveanother why wouldn't you consider induction?
The pessary alone is probably enough to get you into labour.

There's a woman on Instagram who insisted on freebirthing without medical intervention. Her daughter got stuck in the birth canal and ended up with cysts on her brain and hydrocephalus. The mother is into all sorts of woo, and insists that the child is fully sentient. She's functionally brain dead.

I think you mean @OchreLights

fwiw I had an induction for my first baby, a couple of weeks early, it was fine. Honestly they’re not all horror stories.

I’m tempted to ask who but I won’t as I know I will look her up and then feel very sad/angry.

I really empathise with women who have had bad birth experiences, but to me, the baby’s physical health comes before the mother’s mental health. I think once you’ve committed to birthing a baby you owe them the safest route into life you can manage. Of course that can’t be enforced as forcing any woman to do something with her body is wrong, but that’s just my thoughts.

Yes your right I meant @OchreLights sorry

No more babies for me but I wouldn't hesitate to have another induction either.

I did this by accident as DS came so quickly at home that the midwife didn't get there on time. Luckily there were no complications but it was quite scary (poor DH having to deliver and was trying not to panic) and I went into shock afterwards.