I gave birth completely alone

[- Femme -]

Rixa Freeze, 29, a doula from Iowa in the US, endured a 10-hour labour with no medical assistance. She gave birth to daughter Zari on October 31, 2006.

 

"I was sitting on the edge of the toilet, supporting my baby's crowning head with one hand, when it occurred to me that my husband, Eric, might like to witness the birth of our first child. Having spent the entire 10 hours of labour almost completely alone, I now wanted to share her arrival.

 

"Eric came in from our bedroom as I half-squatted on the floor, a pile of towels underneath me. Zari arrived with a swoosh and I gently lowered her onto the nest of towels. Her initial crying subsided as soon as I scooped her up to my chest.

 

"A few moments later, Eric took a photograph of Zari and me - and when I look at it today I realise what a raw and beautiful moment this was. It was just us - no strangers and no unnecessary noise.

 

"Two and a half hours later, when the placenta came out, Eric cut me off a small piece to eat; the mild taste was surprising. Later that afternoon, as the three of us relaxed together in our bed, a family for the first time, Eric told me I was right to give birth this way. Initially, he had expressed doubts, out of concern for the baby and me, but now he too realised it was the right choice.

 

"For me, it was the only decision. When I first heard about freebirthing, or unassisted birth as it's also known, it was as an academic, in 2003. I was in the first year of a postgraduate degree in American Studies, researching birth-related issues, and a midwife I met mentioned it to me.

 

At first, I reacted like most people. The idea of giving birth without any medical assistance on hand sounded scary and a bit radical, especially for someone like me who didn't exactly grow up in a particularly alternative family.

 

"My curiosity piqued, I read as much as I could on the subject and grew to really respect the women who had chosen this path. I discovered that we have such a culture of fear when it comes to birth. Look at how films portray it - a woman on her back screaming as a doctor comes to save her and deliver the baby. That makes it hard for people to imagine any other way than a medical birth.

 

 

THE DEBATE

 

THE CASE FOR

 

Janet Fraser, national convenor of Joyous Birth, an Australian homebirth network, argues that giving birth is as natural as having sex. "We come from a culture that says birth is a medical emergency," she explains. "It's not. Basically, a spontaneous, normal, physiologically unhindered birth is really safe."

 

In Australia, less than one per cent of babies are born at home and while there are no figures on freebirthing, Lisa Schuring, from Unassisted Pregnancy & Childbirth Australia, reports an increase of hits on her website, www.purebirth-australia.com, from just 350 a month in March 2006 to around 3000 in June this year.

 

Fraser quotes Australian GP Dr Sarah Buckley as evidence that this is "not just hippie bullshit". In her book, Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering (One Moon Press, $36.95), Dr Buckley argues that a non-medical approach to birth is best for mum and baby. "A caesarean section involves major abdominal surgery and increases the risk of maternal death by up to four times," she writes, citing UK research. Fraser argues that our high caesarean rates make our birthing outcomes some of the worst in the developed world. "We had a higher caesarean rate than the US in 2005," she states, adding that routine obstetric care is part of the problem.

 

Fraser believes there is an atmosphere of fear and anxiety around birth. "We don't feel that it belongs to us anymore, that we will know what's going on in our bodies, but we do," she says. "Our grandmothers freebirthed, though it wasn't called that."

 

However, Joyous Birth encourages a high level of personal responsibility. "Everyone has a back-up plan," says Fraser. "If something is genuinely wrong, then you go to hospital. Who wouldn't? But there are few things that actually go wrong in birth and a lot of what we think of as emergencies are just variations of normal - breech babies are normal, they're just not given the time to turn in hospital."

 

To Fraser, discussion about freebirthing is a moot point. "It's not about what professional bodies think of this stuff," she argues. "It's about what consumers want. If [a woman] wants to do something off her own bat that's safe for her and her baby, then I'm happy to support it."

 

THE CASE AGAINST

 

"Babies are precious, mothers are precious and I don't think we should deny the risks associated with childbirth," asserts Dr Christine Tippett, president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Some of those risks include breech birth, placental praevia (where the cervix is blocked by the placenta), foetal distress (where the baby may not be receiving enough food or oxygen) and haemorrhaging.

 

Women would reconsider freebirthing if they witnessed the medical difficulties faced by women in Third World countries, where "one woman dies from post-partum haemorrhage every minute and one in 10 babies dies", points out Dr Tippett. "Here, women are free to make choices, but I think if a mother or her baby lost their life because she didn't access medical help in Australia in 2007, that would be a tragedy."

 

And given that there are several different models of care within the Australian health system - from private obstetrician to midwife care through a birth centre or, more difficult to organise, at home - Dr Tippett believes women can find a solution that suits them while also having medical personnel on hand in an emergency.

 

The number of caesarean sections continues to rise in Australia. In 2004, the number of women who had a C-section was 30.2 per cent compared with 19.3 per cent in 1995. Dr Tippett says a number of factors are driving this trend, including a greater acceptance of it in society and the perception among older and IVF mothers that it's better. One other factor that may weigh in is that obstetrics is a high-risk specialty carrying high insurance premiums. "Litigation is very real," she reveals. "Women won't sue over a C-section, but they will over a vaginal birth gone wrong."

 

Medicine has improved over time - including anaesthetics, blood transfusions and antibiotics - and made caesareans safer, explains Dr Tippett. "Intervention is usually done with the best intentions," she argues. "It's called modern medicine."

 

She urges women to consider the risks of freebirthing very carefully. "If there's a tragedy, there's no-one else to blame and they're the ones who have to come to terms with that," she states.

 

Source

[Crystal_Clear]

"Two and a half hours later, when the placenta came out, Eric cut me off a small piece to eat; the mild taste was surprising

 

Allah she ate the placenta kuulaha,,yak!

[- Femme -]

^What do you think of free/home birth?

[Pujah]

^not my cup of tea, she is very brave woman. My grand mother said she once gave birth under a tree while watching the live stocks...I on the hand will probably check-in at the hospital weeks before i am due that is how much fear i have over the whole thing

[Faheema.]

^ Brave maahee she is suicidal. I could never understand why some woman would choose to go through such a painful experience.

 

Why complicate the process of giving birth when there are healthcare professionals who can facilitate and medications that can make it a little bearable. :confused:

[Blessed]

^Suicidal, indeed! I wouldn’t recommend it.

 

I’ve had a complicated labour which ended in a caesarean because my baby was distressed. She had difficulty breathing, it was so scary. You can opt for a home birth with a community midwife if you don’t like the hospital environment.

[chubacka]

^^^ Good for her, I am glad she was able to do it by herself, but really women in labour belong in hospital!!

 

And there is no need to eat the placenta. I hope they cooked it at least

[Cara.]

It's NOT natural to give birth alone without assistance. And the medical assistance she sneers at is why the maternal mortality rate in the developed world is a fraction of what it is in third world countries.

[umu zakaria]

YAK and YAK , how can eat a lacenta. she is insane.

 

I gave birth in a hospital with 2 midwives, a doctor, and a nurse! loooooooool plus my husband. I cant go thru all the agony alone. I went 2 the hos. 6 hrs be4 the actual labour coz i was scared well n there were some alarming stuff.

 

Walee waa bahal naagtu.

[-Lily-]

Two and a half hours later, when the placenta came out, Eric cut me off a small piece to eat; the mild taste was surprising

:eek: :eek: Wtf?

 

Psycho, she got lucky.

[-Nomadique-]

Originally posted by -Lily-:

quote:Two and a half hours later, when the placenta came out, Eric cut me off a small piece to eat; the mild taste was surprising

:eek: :eek: Wtf?

 

Psycho, she got lucky.

^LoL, very true.

 

Only in America.

[Al-Muminah]

At least it wasn't a silent birth.

[amatillah]

the story was going alright untile she said

 

Two and a half hours later, when the placenta came out, Eric cut me off a small piece to eat; the mild taste was surprising

THAT IS DISGUSTING YAAAAAAAK

[nemo]

damn ppl love to complicate things for themselves