To think free birthing should be entirely banned

[StandFirm]

I have come across this article earlier which made me feel so very angry at the cynical extremists who brainwashed a mum into an entirely avoidable tragedy: https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/nov/22/free-birth-society-linked-to-babies-deaths-investigation
If I'd listened to similar cretins, I would have died in childbirth aged 19 and none of my three DCs would have been born alive or at the very least without severe disabilities. 'Pearls of wisdom' which gave me the rage include:
-ultrasounds are not safe
-women’s “bodies do not grow babies that we cannot birth”
Such ignorant perfidious lies. I hope the cult leader gets sent down for a very long time. That poor little child was robbed of a healthy body and many more actually died. I really hate the internet's ability to spawn dangerous cults entirely unchecked.

I don’t think silencing people helps. It doesn’t work. For many people reactions like that simply add weight to the idea that these idiots are ‘truth tellers’ being hounded by the medical establishment.

People are entitled to be as stupid and gullible as they wish. Once the baby is born, if it survives, there are (some) limits to the extent to what parents can prioritise their own right to be stupid over their child’s safety,

It remains the case that many parents harm their children due to their misguided faith in their own intelligence. I’ll never forget the conversations I’ve had with parents who didn’t vaccinate their child and lived with the consequences forever. I think of one unvaccinated child on ecmo everytime there’s a thread about the flu vaccine. In this, as in antenatal care, punishments and banning just drive unscrupulous non-evidence-based practitioners underground where they gain even more fame to those determined to be fools.

To be honest I'm surprised because home birth is still discouraged and if the extra risks were zero l doubt that would be the case,lack of midwives wanting to work this way could explain it however.

I think freebirthing is a terrible idea but I don't think it should be illegal because I don't trust the police not to go after some women who freebirthed by accident because they didn't get to hospital in time

@Laurmolonlabe Are you UK? Homebirth is absolutely not discouraged, why would it be? No idea where you got that from!
For subsequent low risk pregnancies the risks are no greater than in hospital. That's fact. Also look up the advantages. Do a bit lf looking around on the Internet if you like.

How would you ban it? You cannot force a woman into hospital to give birth?

You just can't save some people from themselves. And it's awful an innocent baby gets caught up in it, but while they're still in utero it's the woman's body and choice.

There are endless resources online showing how dangerous freebirthing is, if someone chooses to freebirth then they've either not bothered to research it or think they know better than trained medics. Either way, it's their choice.

It's bonkers to me that someone would happily eschew top notch healthcare they can access free at the point of use in order to roll the dice but people make stupid unwise decisions all the time.

I would hardly call todays maternity services "top notch healthcare"! There are regular threads on here of women detailing their traumatic experiences of giving birth on the NHS, and then you have the Ockendon review too...

This is probably the most ridiculous thing I have read on here in a long time

Childbirth killed many more women and children centuries ago. Are you not aware of that? Neither of mine would have made it into the world safely without expert medical intervention. You are basically saying that as long as some women manage to give birth with no assistance the rest of us can be sacrificed.