Read other letters about this article

• Sunday, May 20, 2007 10:47 AM

  Is a botched Unassisted Birth Manslaughter? My view: Jenny Hatch

  "in The Guardian:

  "Because freebirth is such a fringe movement there have been no studies on it. However, a report in the magazine New Scientist recently quoted a survey undertaken in a religious community in the state of Indiana, where there were more than 300 unattended births in the 1980s. The neonatal death rate was calculated as 19 per 1,000 live births, compared with seven per 1,000 for the rest of Indiana."

  Almost 3 times a greater risk of death for the baby - sounds free of common sense...

  Question:

  If I'm the father - do I get any say?

  And if my partner kills a baby giving free birth against my advise, what are the legal ramification?

  Is that manslaughter?"

  This is the crucial question anonymous. And it is one that as a promoter of Freebirth, needs to be addressed by the supreme court, sooner than later. Birth can be deadly and dangerous in both hospital and home settings. Mothers can do so much to mitigate a poor outcome. Wether or not they choose to do so is largely left up to the individual woman. Nobody can force any woman to eat healthfully or exercise or educate herself about the birth process. But to say that those of us who are birthing our children alone in the sanctity of our own homes are uneducated idiots and "killing our children" is not the truth either.

  First of all I would question the study, simple because it lumped all unassisted births in one group. Planned and unplanned.

  But even if those are the true statistics, three times the risk of hospital delivery, one of the issues that must be debated in the courts is WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHERE BABIES ARE BORN? We are at a time in our nations history where a medical police state is kicking in and parents are increasingly being forced to toe the party line in terms of health care for our families. Wether it is being forced by a court order to give birth by c-section or forced to give our kids chemo for cancer, the fact is that parental choice is being overruled by an increasingly out of control medical profession.

  I was one of the moms profiled in the Westword article. After three hospital deliveries I decided that I could not give birth in that environment again.

  So I told my husband we were doing it at home and alone with baby number four. This almost ruined our marriage.

  Paul felt that it put undue and unfair pressure on him as the father to be personally responsible for both me and the baby should anything bad happen.

  Yet as the mother who was the one who had to give birth, I felt that he had railroaded me into unsafe birthing situations at the hospital simply because of his father fear. He watched me during those three birth (one was a c-section) try to work with the hospital people to make it go well, and after my VBAC, which was successful, I simply had enough fights in the delivery room. I was frustrated that right at the moment I met my child for the first time my emotional state was "fight or flight" mode rather than ecstatic mother mode.

  Laura Shanleys book made so much sense to me. I would challenge anyone reading this to study freebirth. Giving birth to our fifth child at home alone was the most sacred and JOYFUL experience of our marriage. We are very educated about the various statistics being thrown at birthing parents, but still choose to give birth at home alone.

  Jenny Hatch

  —Jenny Hatch Read Jenny Hatch's other letters
  Permalink
  Flag
  Click "Submit Flag" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

  Cancel