"Freebirth" - Dangerous Movement is Placing Expectant Mothers and Their Babies in Danger

Daisy4RN · Feb 27, 2020

Agree, it is sad that people are just listening to total strangers and basing their medical care on their "expertise". I get how people want to avoid the hospital but we need some common sense. I think social media also tends to stir people up so they have a warped sense of reality. I believe someone in one of those articles stated abuse in the hospital, I dont know what happened but I do know people have unrealistic expectations of what to expect from staff etc while in the hospital.

Just sad though that these women lost their babies!

Tegridy · Feb 27, 2020

I would say OK Darwin Award time but I feel bad for the babies who get no say

Also pretty sure any one of us could start some random unscientific movement and bored house moms would hop on board and try it.

Sad!

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Feb 27, 2020

Oh my heart.

When I was pregnant with Ruby Jane, Junior I wanted to find a practice that had a midwife option. This was in the crunchy granola Pacific Northwest.

Guess what? In the practices with midwives, the midwives had no hospital privileges. So who would deliver RJJ? In reality (at that time, RJJ is 20 now) the midwives were ARNPs who were adjuncts to the physicians. Which I think is smart and clever.

I was 33 when I got pregnant, and turned 34 midway, so I became a "high risk" pregnancy literally overnight, and it was pointed out that none of the midwives had the ability to deal with my "high risk" self.

AND what all I thought I wanted in my carefully detailed birth plan went out the window when the contractions started for reals. I loved the anesthesiologist (she was pregnant herself and came to see the baby). I loved the lactation consultant who came to my bedside (and followed me for the first month with as many visits as I wanted to make to her). I got the heck out of the hospital 19 hours later and recuperated at home with all the things I wanted around me.

Someone said to me: Your birth plan is nice but what is the most important is that you deliver a healthy baby. I wish someone would say that to these women who reach out to each other for comfort on the internets.

FullGlass, BSN, MSN, NP · Feb 27, 2020

What gets me is that when a woman becomes pregnant, she can visit different birthing facilities in her area to choose the one she likes and get classes through them. For a home birth, I'm assuming the expectant mother could talk to different CNMs to find the one she is most comfortable with.

As a student nurse, my L&D rotation was in a "baby friendly" hospital considered the best in the city for L&D. The L&D ward looked like a nice hotel, with big beautiful rooms. When a laboring mother came in, she went into her room, and was attended by experienced L&D nurses. When delivery was imminent, or if there were any issues, an OB was notified and would come in. The moms were treated very well. This hospital tried to do everything "natural" and did now allow "convenience" C-sections. I have also visited birth centers run by CNMs that were similar and had great safety records. They also had an agreement with nearby hospitals if an emergency occurred.

I just don't understand how any expectant mother would not place the life and health of her baby first.

Even in "primitive" societies, laboring mothers are attended by the equivalent of a midwife, as well as by women who have given birth.

And going into the wilderness???? What are we, wolves?

Sadly, more Darwin Award candidates

Tegridy · Feb 27, 2020

21 minutes ago, FullGlass said:
What gets me is that when a woman becomes pregnant, she can visit different birthing facilities in her area to choose the one she likes and get classes through them. For a home birth, I'm assuming the expectant mother could talk to different CNMs to find the one she is most comfortable with.
As a student nurse, my L&D rotation was in a "baby friendly" hospital considered the best in the city for L&D. The L&D ward looked like a nice hotel, with big beautiful rooms. When a laboring mother came in, she went into her room, and was attended by experienced L&D nurses. When delivery was imminent, or if there were any issues, an OB was notified and would come in. The moms were treated very well. This hospital tried to do everything "natural" and did now allow "convenience" C-sections. I have also visited birth centers run by CNMs that were similar and had great safety records. They also had an agreement with nearby hospitals if an emergency occurred.
I just don't understand how any expectant mother would not place the life and health of her baby first.
Even in "primitive" societies, laboring mothers are attended by the equivalent of a midwife, as well as by women who have given birth.
And going into the wilderness???? What are we, wolves?
Sadly, more Darwin Award candidates

The internet is a dangerous tool when wielded by the ignorant

Daisy Joyce · Mar 2, 2020

The internet has no gatekeepers and it’s scary-easy to create an echo chamber of your own liking to support anything you like and shut out the nay sayers.

For instance, look at the sites promoting anorexia, or actively encouraging suicide to teens having a rough time? At sites supposedly to discuss social anxiety that devolve into encouraging people not to work on their confidence, but instead how they’re just Very Special People who are mistreated by an outside world that unfairly expects them to do things like...make eye contact.

I hate censorship, but these are the types of cases that remind us why other media started having gatekeepers to begin with.

Emergent, RN · Mar 2, 2020

Humans beings are highly intelligent compared to animals. Evolution caused the cranim to enlarge along with all that brainpower.

Two side effects of that are a) childbirth is more risky and b) humans are intelligent enough to lower that risk by having members of the society specialize in helping with childbirth.

Subee2, BSN, MSN, CRNA · Mar 2, 2020

Nature constantly culls the herds. As humans become less engaged with reasoning, it is only logical that they will be culled before the rest. We don't need more mothers in human society that makes dangerously bad decisions for their offspring . Sad but the logical consequence of bad decisions. Our state still allows lady midwives but keeps no statistics on them (!) so they roam freely to deliver babies at home with a minuscule amount of nursing expertise:(. 21st century America and thus still happens.

brownbook · Mar 4, 2020

I was listening to doctors discuss apgars, NRP, etc. on Doctor Radio. They repeated they don't recommend home births BUT if you plan one, have someone there just for the baby. Which I had never heard of or even thought of in relation to home births.

It hit me like a lead balloon....what are mothers thinking when they have home births? Are they believing some fantasy of wonderful happy mom, dad, holding happy smiling baby in the comfort of their home is of greater importance than their own child's health?

Having a baby is NOT ABOUT THE MOTHER, it is about having a healthy infant.

How dare they be so self centered to gamble with their child's life!

I shouldn't post when I'm angry ?. Probably a little over the top, gotta cut back on the caffeine.

As others said, too bad the Darwin Award isn't retrograde.

Queen Tiye, RN · Jul 20, 2020

The United States has a higher infant mortality rate than other nations who are more “hands off” when in comes to birth. I read a few years that most women in France give birth at home (or are encouraged to give birth at home) because hospitals are germ laden and pose greater risks to mother and baby — interventions are available as needed.

After reading some of these posts, it’s clear why Americans have earned the reputation for being arrogant and lacking in intelligence. If people don’t do the things the way we do them, they are backward and ignorant. Our way is superior, when in reality, it is not.

This may be old, but here are some stats — if you believe them.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

Queen Tiye, RN · Jul 20, 2020

For some reason I can’t edit my previous response. Please accept this less hostile contribution to this conversation.

”Some countries are more “hands off” than we are and they have a lower infant mortality rates than we do. I read some time ago that France encourages women to give birth at home. The reasons being that hospitals are infested with germs, birthing is a natural occurrence as opposed to a dreadful event, and that families ought to be comfortable.

I’m a proponent of the benefits of “natural” birthing, and I also support intervention when necessary. I think it’s cruel to expect a woman to labor on her back hooked up to monitors as opposed to permitting her to move around and assume positions that provide relief.

Birthing has everything to do with the mother and the baby, especially if you are a spiritual woman and view birthing as a holy, sacred event. Though, of course, different strokes for different folks.

This may be old, but here are infant mortality rates in list form.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html”