Extraordinary People - Outlaw Births (Is this legal??)

[yummymummy4]

I have just seen the following advert on C5:

Extraordinary People - Outlaw births:
Documentary following three womean as the prepare to give birth without medical care, midwife intervention or pain relief

I can understand trying to give birth without pain relief / Medical intervention but without a midwife?

I could not imagine going through it all without a midwife, it also appeared from the advert (though it could just be leaving parts out) that one pregnant womean at least had not had any midwife support as she was getting her blood pressure checked at a supermarket machine.

Is this legal?, what if something happens to the baby?.

I am not sure if the womean shown had even had a scan.

Have any other mums here come across this?

Sorry, clearly I need to use a dictionary :

Womean should read Women.

i think freebirthing is legal, declining ante natal care is legal and giving birth alone is legal.

what is not legal is someone deliberately acting as a midwife who is not qualifies as such

to me , it is totally counterintuitive to give birth alone. throughout history, birth companions/ midwives have exisited in some form or another.

although based on scare stories and horrific examples of lack of care/ neglect of pregnant and labouring women , i can understand why some women would prefer to birth alone.

but i think it is useful to think about how much intervention is necessary and wanted in pregnancy.. i/e blood tests, scans etc.. are they all necessary and in teh best interests of everyone?

low risk is not the same as no risk and no scan or blood test is 100 % reliable, so always worth thinking about things

did you notice when this programme is on?

It's known as freebirthing. This article has more info

I think it's Wednesday at 9 LoulaDoula. It's on the home page under Aitch's bit. She reckons we'll kick off. She names doulas (in general) lol

Message withdrawn

oooh, thnk you marsy!!

i don;t ever kick off !

maybe it was the parenting news email. They all blend into one here in the Mars household!

I've known three women who gave birth alone- one a single Mum because midwife didn't get there in time gave birth in her armchair in her living room alone at 3 in the morning while her other three kids slept in the next room!
The other locked herself in the bathroom and wouldn't let her DH, her Mum or the midwife in until she'd finished
And the third was a hippy and did it in a field.

i'm considering it

my choices are;

hospital birth where all my wishes are ignored (have had 2, both times i was ignored and didn't get the birth i wanted) and i'm forced to stay in overnight as they won't discharge me so my first night with dc is ruined

homebirth which costs 2000 to 5000 euros over here

unassisted homebirth

will be getting ante natal care the whole way whatever i decide though, and dp will be there whichever route i go.

I know someone who did it. She had no pre natal screening either. She's a doctor, and felt that in her experience pre natal screening is not very useful.

Afterwards she said she regretted a bit not having a scan as it would have helped her dh to bond with the baby better (but not for any medical reasons).

If I was a woman I'd insist on a whole team of people standing by to make me more comfortable.

However, babies were invented before scans so none of that can be essential. I reckon an extra pair of hands would be useful, but at least once my mum managed with just my dad who must have been the worst midwife in history

i think the scans can be helpful in ensuring that the placenta isn't low and that the baby is in a good position (although i could tell with both of mine how they were lying so maybe not so much for that)

also, if the was an obvious medical issue like spina bifida the babies life could be saved by being in hospital in which case my issues as the mother woule no longer come into the equation.

It sounds like a very romantic idea, one that I've pondered, and I totally respect anyone with the guts to do it. However it just isn't practical. I know I wouldn't trust my dh in an emergency.

It's one thing to give birth alone in an emergency situation, it's another to plan to do it.

It looks like an interesting programme, its a shame they chose to use the term "outlaw birth" when it is not against the law. I have come across unassissted births but never anyone not visiting midwives, not having scans.

I personally found my visits very reasurring and got on well with my midwife. It was a small unit so saw the same people and the birth of my two girls there was so different to a larger hospital where my boys were born. I had a bath, nurofen and gas and air and actually enjoyed the experience.

ib- I do not think any of the scans helped my husband bond, that did not happen until after the birth. He always says the pregnancys were only real to him after the babys were born (he was still supportive though).

I have a friend who had a (deliberately) unassisted homebirth. She had standard antenatal care including scans but didn't call the midwife when she went into labour (she waited until she was pushing to wake her husband up). It was her 4th homebirth & she is a very quick/efficient birther with no complications & had found the mws who attended her other births to be incredibly annoying - she just wanted to do it on her own.

I also know people who've done it the other way around - i.e. no antenatal care at all & just turned up at hospital in labour. IMO that is far more (potentially) dangerous but entirely up to them. They'd had horrible experiences in the past & I can understand why they were scared to put themselves in the same position again.

I had an (unplanned) unassisted birth (although DH was there to catch the baby) and there was a moment of sheer terror before DD2 came out - I think we were both thinking "what do we do if she's not okay and it's only us here"!

I would have loved to have a home birth but would quite possibly not have 2 of my 3 children if I had so I would be very worried about those who choose to go it alone. JMOO.

I thought about having a homebirth with my younger children but my other half was to worried.

In the end I actually enjoyed the peace in the hospital for a couple of days (not the food but my lovely husband came in with meals as we only live half a mile from hospital)

lulu to me it is far more counter intuitive to give birth in a brightly lit room in the presence of one or more strangers!!!!

i think that we live in an INSANE world that it could be considered so outre that it might be illegal for a woman to give birth alone by choice.

I'm about to hopefully have my second homebirth, I love the fact I will have 2 MWs there just for me to help me to give birth. I get very distressed and fearful as I have very intense, quick births and wouldn't like to do it on my own.

However, the minute the baby is out I have made it clear to the MWs to leave me alone if all is well, they are fine to be hands off and let the placenta come out in it's own time and the baby to feed by herself etc.

how can giving birth be illegal???!!!!!!!! Talk about being institutionalised.

Jeez I despair.

Some interventions do more harm than good you know.

Are we living in a totalitarian state?