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.

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

@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.

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

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!

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.

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!

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".

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

Bodily autonomy means that if you are in sound mind, you are allowed to take really foolish decisions.

Free birthing is one of those really foolish decisions.

People can be as cavalier with their own lives as they want, but as soon as another human being is part of the equation, this should no longer be voluntary.

One of these dreadful women told a mother whose baby died that a dead baby wasn't necessarily a bad outcome.

Why is your instinct to ban something that you think is dangerous but which is voluntary? - because it actually is NOT voluntary. These women were brainwashed by a cult that lied to them about the real risks. They were mislead

Skiing is dangerous
Rock climbing, trampolining , crossing the road, swimming ... all these dangerous too and kill small numbers. - I would have the same issue with a weird cult promoting off piste skiing without any form of adequate equipment, or wild swimming in notoriously unsafe waters. My anger is directed at the people who mislead the women. If you make an informed decision on risks, then sure, it's entirely up to you. But free birthing as promoted by those liars manipulates women into putting their lives and that of their babies at risk. See the difference?

Better to address why some people can't get midwifery when they need it at a price they can afford... - again, that's not really what drove the decisions; it's an ideological thing, and its victims themselves refer to it as a cult.

In those cases there is evidence that the mother has attended scans, ante natal appointments etc and had never intended to have an unsupervised birth.

Baby’s heart beat was distressed facing the wrong direction labour going on for days (the c section was a huge relief really) and not dilating. Second baby so I knew what was happening wasn’t normal.
Before hospitals a lot of mothers and babies did in childbirth so I can believe it was needed

i just find it weird how cultish & possessive people get over women/pregnancy/childbirth. The very existence of a free birth cult, is bizarre.

By that it would mean no pregnant woman would be able to do anything that might be possibly bad for the baby

I think banning it would just push the problem underground. It can't be illegal for anyone to give birth without medical presence, because that would mean you had to punish those people whose kids came too quickly! That would be madness. If it's only illegal to deliberately have your kid outside hospital, people who want to freebirth, will do it anyway and pretend they didn't plan to! The fear they could get found out, will probably just make them less likely to seek help during or after the event if things do go wrong, which will not stop free birthing, but just make it riskier!

Mine was a back to back baby, had been in labour for 47 hours and had oxygen mask on to get more oxygen to her. Born half hour after refusing the CS as soon as they broke my waters

You misunderstand. I had my first at 19 and would have died then without an emergency CS. Even if hypothetically I'd survived that birth, my other DCs also had to be born with medical assistance. So without modern medicine, I would have either died or at the very least given birth to severely disabled children. My point is that some women, a sizeable ratio of us, grow babies that cannot be given birth to naturally.

Also just to add something I said on the other thread if something does go wrong it’s not as simple as going to the hospital unless you live next door to the hospital things can go wrong in a matter of seconds do you want to die in the middle of a traffic jam?

Or people could just use their own brains and medical advice instead of relying on the Internet

Is that any different really than a baby coming quickly and you don't have time to go to a hospital

Hospital post natal care is awful. I do feel it’s probably a factor for some women when choosing home birthing , perhaps even free birth too

At least homebirths have a midwife present. Free birthing has no trained professional there.

Provided you were not GROOMED into it. The crux of the issue here is that a self styled guru decided to spread dangerous misinformation leading otherwise perfectly competent women to make disastrous decisions. I am not for one second blaming the mother featured in that article. I feel anger on her behalf.

Midwives who could be helping in hospitals.