This has been a terrible few days for homebirth midwives here in Australia, the articles so bad and lacking in information.
This is a particularly bad one so you can all see what is happening. I have no idea whether 4 babies have died in the past 9 months but I don’t think they have either, it was something said by an Obstetrician and then taken on a role.
It is so unfair that journalists who knows nothing about birth and can’t be bothered to research it properly can get this garbage published.
I wonder how many babies died in hospital during the same period? How many women were needlessly opened up and their baby’s dragged out and will spend the next few years dealing with the aftermath and trauma every day of their lives? How many babies will suffer long term effects of entering into the world a way that in absolutely not the normal process.
They often pull out the third world country card and the look at us 100 years ago card.
Well prior to the industrial revolution there wasn’t such a high mortality rate. Citification brought disease and sanitation issues. Lack of diet, hygiene, sanitation and facilities changed the neonatal and maternal death rate dramatically. Of course mothers and babies died before the IR but they still die today and we can’t prevent it all.
Hospitals don’t eliminate risk but add further issues by trying to interfere and control women’s bodies. It’s just not possible to do this. Taking away their human right to birth at home can’t be left to happen. It can’t be up to journalist to rubbish skilled midwives (who weren’t really mentioned much yesterday) or a womans right to birth with nobody there if that’s what she feels to be best for her and her baby. No woman puts herself and her baby at risk for the experience.
Drugs and operations aren’t safe and have huge implications for the future.
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Another bloody idiot reporting, I wrote them a letter!
I read the article, and can only say, “Ugh!”
oh what a crap article. i just had to leave a comment not that it realy deserved one. Anyone that starts an article on neonatal death by referring to her dilemma of choice about her toenail colour…
I thought it was the job of journalists to bring us information not to bombard us with biased, unsupported, personal opinions. I don’t appreciate being told I am “selfish, irresponsible, anti-reason and anti-progress” simply because I choose to birth my baby in a safe, natural environment. I can’t believe she is saying that the only reason we chose to birth at home is for our own comfort! It also has a lot to do with not wanting my baby exposed to unnecessary and potentially unsafe hospital practices.
So apparently women might not be comfortable in the hospital but it’s ok cause at least they have drugs??!! Drugs which are potentially harmful and can have short term, as well as long term side affects for both mother and baby. Oh but that’s right she clearly thinks that giving birth is somehow like having root canal, so of course we should be pumped with as many drugs as possible to fix this horrible medical condition that has ailed women since the beginning of time. If having babies is comparable to root canal why the hell are we still doing it???
For goodness sake it would be nice if she had actually bothered to research both sides of the story rather than base her article purely on her own uninformed opinions. It shocks me that homebirth could be compared to women giving birth in Somalia, yes they want to go to hospitals because they don’t have trained, experienced midwives to support them at home like we do, they don’t even have the clean, safe living conditions that women in Australia who choose to free birth have. If I lived in Somalia I would probably want to go to the hospital too, there is simply no comparison!!
Oh well I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when the article begins by describing how after going into labour she had the dilemma of what nail colour to choose. I’m sorry, I thought we were supposed to be the selfish ones.
I just wish we could live in a world where people accepted other peoples choices. If she wants to get her nails done and then get pumped with drugs so someone can deliver her baby for her, fine! She is welcome to do that, I’m not going to try to stop her, so why does she feel she has the right to try and stop me from wanting to be at home, with the people I love, with candles and nice food and an amazing midwife I would truly trust with my own life as well as the life of the most precious being in my world?!
Can’t believe all this is really happening. I hope you all win this fight!!!!
Being a member of several different parenting boards/forums, I can tell you that the backlash of this “article” and others is not nice.
While it has opened up discussion, and allowed some of us homebirthers to get a say, it is hard to stay diplomatic and calm (its a huge ask for me at the best of times
) when you are consistantly being called selfish, cruel and disregarding our precious childrens lives for an “ideal”.
As one person said to me, “funny how this is coming out NOW…”
I’m just eternally grateful that there are People out there like you Lisa, and the many tirelessly working educators plugging away in the background, that will help keep this very real option of birth going strong.
That’s really sad. I was really upset too these last days with these articles.
Ar for the last Daily Telegraph one, I wrote a comment with a link to WHO’s former Maternal and Child Health head, Marsden Wagner, “Fish can’t see water, The need to humanize birth in Australia”. Hope that opens eyes to some people, at least one!
Let’s keep being united!
seeing as it was such a balanced and unbiased article, i am sure she can back up her source of data. but just in case maybe we should all show the article to the tv show media watch mediawatch@yourabc.net.au they love this kind of thing.
i suspect she was still under the influence of the wonderdrugs she kept raving about……
The uneducated articles just keep appearing. When will they publish a article that is articulate and not fear based, or fear mongering. Why aren’t they interviewing the college or better yet, the midwives who practice homebirth?
I am planning on having a homebirth when I eventually fall pregnant. I will be totally honest though – when I read these articles I do freak out a bit and wonder if maybe I should go to a hospital, heck! I have private health insurance. But then I come back to the positive sites like this one and it totally makes sense to have a home birth =D
I didn’t even have to click the link to know which article you’re referring to. Every blogger I know has given some energy to it. Maybe the current information coming from the UK will swing the pendulum for Ms Roxon.
Love your blog Lisa and have added it to my RSS.