In defense of a word
picture by clango
It has been an unpleasant week of negative publicity about home birth. I simply can’t fathom why some find it so threatening.
A certain brand of antagonistic “journalism” does nothing to explore the real reasons why midwives will be banned from attending home births next year.
Ms Devine misleadingly uses “home birth” interchangeably with “freebirth” and fails to clarify that home birth is birth at home with a qualified and competent midwife. Add to this the voice of a traumatised woman plucked from an online support forum as evidence that home birthing women care nought about their babies and she completely misses the whole point why women desire the choice to legally birth their babies at home.
By the way, a brilliant rebuttal can be found on Hoyden About Town so I don’t feel the need to write one of my own.
Unlike Ms Devine, I can see the similarity between birth and sex, though surely she’d agree few women ‘want it done to them’. Other similarities: most women want to control the environment in which it takes place, few have a satisfying experience with strangers, all women want to be asked what’s best for them and, let’s face it, we all want to finish with an adored person. I can understand why women feel violated when they learn that they’ve been unnecessarily subjected to major abdominal surgery. It can be a seduction akin to date rape when women place trust in a care provider but don’t feel consulted in decisions made about their bodies. And for a long time after women blame themselves for how events unfolded for them.
Women who choose birth at home do so because that is what is emotionally safe for them. Women want privacy, women want nurturing and women want to feel safe because, when it all boils down, feeling safe is what keeps the hormonal alchemy of natural birth safe for mothers and babies. Having a qualified care provider who can also advocate for the wellbeing of the baby is an essential part of the home birth equation. There are women who want it. There are midwives willing to do it. I understand the financial justification for keeping indemnity insurance out of the reach of midwives. But I don’t understand why GP Obstetricians - who might have a similar number of clients per year as independent midwives - are provided with insurance options when midwives are not. What are the real obstacles to giving everyone what they want?
April 12th, 2009 - Posted in parenthood, duty of care, sustainability, grief, health | |
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on April 16th, 2009 at 10:14 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7998417.stm
And here we find some positive worldwide media on home birth - and realistic and evidence-based comments from The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) saying they support home births “in cases of low-risk pregnancies provided the appropriate infrastructures and resources are present to support such a system. RANZCOG take note: not a scaremongering word in sight!