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This just in from an australian friend!
http://www.blognow.com.au/whohomebirths/ Please share widely! Overseas and local content sought.
Welcome to a new blog, a blog of activism, humour, love and community. This is a blog for those who have birthed at home, those who would like to, those who support homebirthing women and anyone with a love of family and community. It is a safe place for women who birth at home to share their stories about why they chose homebirth, what it means to them, and anything else that helps us make sense of this anti-birth world.
In Australia we are currently facing legislation which could make midwife-attended homebirth a thing of the past. We may have access to government funded homebirth but we may not have ready access to midwives who work independently. This means many women who have previously birthed at home, or who would like to in the future, will be denied a careprovider who works with them and without an intervening obstetric bureaucracy.
This blog is a way to share what we have, used to have and could lose in the near future.
This blog is for all women who birth at home. It is not about careproviders, although many of the stories will include midwives, doulas and even some doctors who support women to birth at home. Careproviders are also welcome to share why they choose to work independently and support women to birth at home. It is a blog about the women, and their families who choose homebirth regardless of who supports or attends their births.
This blog stands for the right of women to choose a safe birth, a birth with loving attendants, in their homes.
Email me your story, photos also welcome. Attachments or in the body of an email are both fine. If you want to answer the questions here http://www.blognow.com.au/whohomebir…_to_share.html , that’s great or please feel free to share in any other way that suits you better!
whohomebirths@y7mail.com
Homebirth. A basic human right.
Enjoy!
xox,
Heather
Thanks so much for this! I and my siblings were birthed at home, and I fully support homebirth. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even able to have a natural birth with my two, but I have dreams
I’m passing this on to my sister who has had 2 homebirths. I know she’s interested in advocating for women’s rights to homebirth!
Thanks, Heather. I hope to hear from your readers!
i just got an email about this – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-marie-roth/is-a-woman-in-labor-a-per_b_242307.html from a midwife in my community. i am flipping out!
In the case, New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services v. V.M. and B.G., the New Jersey appellate court found that V.M. and B.G. had abused and neglected their child, based on the fact that the mother, V.M., refused to consent to a cesarean section and behaved erratically while in labor. The mother gave birth vaginally without incident, and the baby was “in good medical condition.” Then she was never returned to her parents, and the judge in the case approved a plan to terminate their parental rights and give custody of the child to foster parents.
here’s the text of the email, for those who are not on all the lists:
The linked blog, written by a sociologist/birth center mom who teaches
at the University of Arizona, concerns a tragic case in New Jersey.
Four years ago, a woman at St. Barnabas Hospital in New Jersey declined
to consent to a cesarean section. It wasn’t even advised that she have
one, it was just pretty much part of what the hospital wanted everyone
to consent to in advance — “just in case.” She was pretty much
harassed during her labor (as we understand happens in hospitals when
you don’t do whatever they want you to do). The baby was born in a
medically-uneventful vaginal delivery, and the parents were reported by
hospital personnel, to New Jersey child welfare authorities. They never
took their baby home and were charged with abuse and neglect — the
mother for refusing the c-section, the father because he didn’t force
the mother to consent. No, I am NOT making this up. This happened in
the United States. The baby remained in foster care for three and a half
years, mostly because the parents continued to fight the system, as
nearly as I can tell from the record.
Anyway, an appeal was filed last fall. The Big Push, along with ICAN,
AABC, CfM, ACNM, NJ Chapter of ACNM, Henci Goer, Childbirth Connection,
Choices in Childbirth, BirthNet, the National Latina Institute for
Reproductive Health, the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in
Women’s Health, the New Jersey Statewide Parent Advisory Network, and
the Child Welfare Organizing Project, Marsden Wagner, and several other
physicians, filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief
supporting the parents. I will post the brief and the court’s decision
to the list a little later tonight. Anyway, we lost on appeal, although
one of the three judges issued a concurring opinion in which he stated
that refusal of a c-section ALONE should not be enough to establish
abuse or neglect — but then he factored in other aspects of her “bad
conduct” during.labor.
If the family files a further appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court, we
will file an amicus brief there also.
In a companion case a few months ago, the court terminated the couple’s
parental rights. That case is also on appeal and the same groups and
individuals, joined by Nicette Jukelevics of CIMS and a few more groups,
are filing an amicus brief in that case also.
This case has not been made public before because it was in family court
and the record was sealed, with the parties unable to go to the press
about it. We didn’t want to make things worse for the parents by making
it appear that they had violated any court gag order, so I have not made
this public on the list before. Now that the appeals court has decided
– which is public record — we may as well let the entire nation know
about this travesty of justice. I am one of the lawyers on the amicus
brief, and I have known about this horrible situation for months, but
even today I can’t even think about it without crying.
Here’s the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-marie-roth/is-a-woman-in-labor-a-per_b_242307.html
Hi, Heather–I LOVE your comics. They are truly amazing and inspiring to me. I had a homebirth 11 months ago with a very hands-off midwife (she mostly just sat across the room or in another room) and it was amazing–still nursing my baby about 100 times a day/night (feels like) and loving your comics, especially the breastfeeding ones and the ones about those sad stroller/crib babies. But anyway, am leaving you a comment now because I just posted this ( http://mfomnews.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/homebirth-plays-cameo-on-hbos-weeds/ ) on a friends-of-midwives blog I contribute to–apparently HBO’s Weeds had a plotline making homebirth look even more lunatic fringe than most people think of it as, and I know you are big into protests, letter-writing, etc. I am upset at this depiction, but there seems to be no rage out there against HBO! Look into it if you like–thanks for all the wonderful comics.
Oh no, I really like that show too. Drat! Alright off to research…
xox,
Heather
We had a homebirth in Hawaii in 81, with a direct entry midwife. Very smart, and warm woman. But my wife didn’t know her very well. When she arrived my wife went into fear, fight or flight syndrome and labour stopped.
I asked the midwife to leave us for a bit, she did, and I told my wife something that got her very angry. She started to hit me in an absolute rage. I managed to get a pillow in between us, and for the next twenty minutes she beat the hell out of that pillow!
Then she told me something and I dissolved into tears and was no longer an unconscious predator in her eyes.
My daughter’s head arrived, and I got a bit lost looking into her eyes which were wide open. She was totally at peace, and so was my wife. The midwife came in then and just checked that the cord was free of her neck.
I looked at my wife. She appeared to be in total command and in some sort of bliss state. She assured me that there was no pain or distress, just a sensation of stretching muscles. She was definitely not a stoic, if it had hurt she would have screamed her head off.
I eventually came to the conclusion that the hitting of the pillows was in some way mimicking fighting off a predator, and that is how she discharged the adrenaline which was in her physiological system.
Since then due to a happy happenstance, (I invented a baby sling which became much in demand in the States,) we became inundated with mums who wanted to buy one.
Pregnant mums wanted to talk with my wife about her labour, and many were intrigued with our story. In the first few months over 200 pregnant mums tried it, and it worked for them. Over the years since, countless mums have tried it out with great results.
I am an anthropologist; although medically trained not a physician. Totally unable to get any body of expertise interested either in the States or in the UK. Maybe try Cuba next. Great pity as it is such a useful and inexpensive tool for reducing pain and distress in labour.
If you are interested in trying it out go to raynergarner.com No fees of any kind, all the info is freely available. Some of my anthropological research is there too.
Think your blogs are very funny and some very disturbing in their implications. Love what you are trying to do.
Happy nurturing. Rayner