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C Jane - unassisted homebirth - thoughts?


NothingLeftToLose

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Well I was concerned before Turkey day that C Jane was 43 weeks preggo and we had a good discussion about it. She had the baby the night before/morning of Thanksgiving and published her birth story blog.cjanerun.com

So it was as unassisted homebirth. Reads very poetic and love love love my husband and romantic and sweet and apparently she was hosting guests and she got up the next day and her family and guests had a full dinner a la Anthropologie ad.

Really?

What is it with LDS women and the need to put on a show of perfect marriage/perfect life/perfect birth?

The scary thing to me is after reading it that women who look up to LDS mommy bloggers like C Jane wil think that it is "easy" to just quietly birth a baby at home alone.

What do my FJ peeps think aobut this?

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I knew a woman who believed that since childbirth is a natural process that if you were right with the Lord everything would go smoothly. She had her husband delivery her babies at home. I tried to point out to her that some very Godly women have had difficulty in labor. She wouldn't budge. She must've been taking lessons from Dougie because she named her baby Precious Grace. Sometimes you just can't tell women in that mindset anything. My sil was determined to have a water birth at home. Prior to the birth she had all kinds of problems; she was even spotting and the doctor could not figure out why. After her last appt. with the doctor she said she had to stop her car and throw up because "something he did made me sick." He strongly discouraged her from having the home birth, but she insisted it's because the medical establishment is against home births. Her midwife encouraged her to go ahead with the homebirth. Not once did my sil consider that maybe the midwife was wrong and the doctor was right. On the day she went into labor she labored for many hours and it all went horribly wrong. She had to be rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section while the midwife held the baby in place in the birth canal (that's quite a mental image isn't it?) The baby weighed over 10 pounds and was 23 inches long. Both of them were very fortunate to have survived this ordeal.

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BTW, I want to say that I'm not opposed to homebirths. I do think that the issues my sil was having should have given her pause to consider maybe this wasn't the best course of action because of the difficulties she was having.

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So typically CJane...the pic at the top is the best part. It looks like CJ is Mary and her baby is Jesus. Nice.

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I can't believe she went so overdue and yet still thought it was a good idea to give birth unattended. I assume the unattended aspect was not an accident?

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Crazy as all hell, and irresponsible. I say that as someone who would have loved a midwife assisted homebirth, but who ended up with an emergency c-section.

A trained midwife has the tools to stop postpartum bleeding and knows how to deliver a baby who is in trouble. Your husband doesn't.

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A trained mid-wife would also know when to take the mother to the hospital. A husband doesn't. Why are some women so resistant to the idea that not all "natural" things are good? Nature used to kill half of kids before they reach five years of age. Nature used to kill something like 10% of women during delivery. It's great if a woman has a uncomplicated pregnancy but would you risk your child's life on the off chance something went wrong? There's a reason people go through years of training before they can legally participate in the management and delivery of babies.

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Personally, I can see why the idea of unassisted childbirth might hold some merit:

We are not in the 19th century anymore, food, hygiene etc. are better, many complications are less likely to occur, and most of all, every stranger, every intervention, might lead to the mother being less relaxed, therefore less likely to birth - and with UB, there are no strangers. I also believe that the heavy intervention in hospitals that often restrict the movement of the mother hinder natural birth.

BUT there are still a great many things that can happen, even if the mother has no health problems at all, and the pregnancy was completely normal, and, as others said, a husband can't tell when something is wrong, until it might be too late.

So I think for an uneventful pregnancy, homebirth with a TRAINED MIDWIFE (no doula alone) is a sensible choice.

Personally, if I had the misfortune of being pregnant, would likely birth unassisted although I know the risks and shortcomings. I'd rather die than receive medical treatment. (Traumatic experiences in the past.)

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A trained mid-wife would also know when to take the mother to the hospital. A husband doesn't. Why are some women so resistant to the idea that not all "natural" things are good? Nature used to kill half of kids before they reach five years of age. Nature used to kill something like 10% of women during delivery. It's great if a woman has a uncomplicated pregnancy but would you risk your child's life on the off chance something went wrong? There's a reason people go through years of training before they can legally participate in the management and delivery of babies.

I had a home birth OB and a Nurse Midwife, for what was supposed to be a home birth. I wound up being transported and having an emergency C. Without the medical care its likely neither I nor the child would have made it. She's 26 now

Yersinia I love your nic[/size

edited for a riffle

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Full disclosure: both my babies were born at home with trained, regulated midwives (who had full hospital rights and an ambulance on call should we have needed it). In the end, my daughter's birth was pretty much UC anyway, as the midwives arrived less than 1/2 hour before she was born; all they did was catch her, help me out of the birth pool and in to bed, and clean up. Anyway, I made was the choice that ultimately felt right for me, and I'm so grateful to live somewhere where that choice is considered perfectly valid and is supported by our health care system as I know that is not the case for the vast majority of woman. CJane's choice to birth at home is not one I would ever make myself, because of the inherent risks of doing so. That said, I also would never make the choice to have an elective induction or elective cesearean, also because of the risks inherent in those procedures. I do, however, wholly support and respect each woman's right to make educated, informed choices regarding her own health care, and so I reserve judgement.

That said, I will now shut up.

Except to say, the picture is weird, the baby is adorable, and the Christmas tree looks funny.

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I wonder if she's a adherent to Dr Michael Odent's philosophy that minimally assisted birth is best- he believes that the best/only person who should be with a woman in labor is a quiet, motherly figure midwife who stays out of the way and does her knitting while the woman labors (and yeah, that means the Dad isn't involved in the process).

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I texted my mom in St. Louis and asked her to give her fortieth grandchild a middle name.
No. words.

I know a few women like this -- the "drop 'em in the field at lunchtime, then finish the plowing by dinner" types -- and all I can say is "To each their own." :roll:

And that is the butt-ugliest Christmas tree I have seen in a while. Or maybe it's just the photography. :lol:

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And that is the butt-ugliest Christmas tree I have seen in a while. Or maybe it's just the photography. :lol:

I thought the exact same thing! I can't believe they paid (probably exorbitant amount of) money for that thing. When she was describing it, I expected something worthy of a White House Christmas.

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I think too many woman have an "It's all about me attitude" when it comes to childbirth. No it isn't. If you get pregnant and then carry that child it is about that child now, not you.

And isn't there a page all about unassisted childbirth, where one birth goes wrong and the baby dies, and the attitude sort of seems like, oh well.

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I think too many woman have an "It's all about me attitude" when it comes to childbirth. No it isn't. If you get pregnant and then carry that child it is about that child now, not you.

And isn't there a page all about unassisted childbirth, where one birth goes wrong and the baby dies, and the attitude sort of seems like, oh well.

It was meant to be, doncha know. Nature and all that. :roll:

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For some reason--even though I'm done having babies--I've gotten pretty immersed in skepticalob.com. The more I read over there, the more risky it sounds.

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Giving birth unassisted is one of the stupidest things I have heard of. Sure birth is natural, but so is dying in childbirth. Nature is a bitch.

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As someone who had an all-natural birth in a birth center and wants to go the homebirth route next time around, I cannot tell you how angry I am by the thought of planned unassisted birth. Let me use myself as an example. I had a perfectly healthy pregnancy. A little anemia halfway through but I changed my diet and was able to nip it in the bud. Perfectly healthy baby in the right position (other than the fact that his arm was OVER HIS HEAD--yiiikes that hurt). Up until 3 days after my due-date I was going on 2-mile hikes uphill in the mountains 3 or more times a week. No pain, no issues sleeping, very comfortable and healthy. Then I went into labor and because his arm was over his head, his elbow was digging into my back, causing "back labor". I was so unprepared for that, I was exhausted about half way through. I could either breathe or push, but not both at the same time, because that's how bad the pain was. They used a doppler and his little heard rate was in the EIGHTIES. It should have been around the 140s, so I was put on oxygen. I kept pushing but because of his arm, he wasn't coming out so I had to have an episiotomy. My midwife had to help him get started breathing (he was breathing but not as well as he should have been). With an unassisted birth, there is no way to know what the heart rate is, no way to administer oxygen through a mask (I believe you have to be licensed to use one), no way to perform an episiotomy or the stitches to patch it up afterwards. No machinery to resuscitate the baby. Midwives (I mean real midwives, not lay midwives who think that because they were a doula and attended 100 biths, they know how to get past shoulder dystocia or post-partum hemhorrage--and I say that as an aspiring doula) bring all of the equipment in case of an emergency. Midwives know how to do episiotomies and the quickest route to the hospital for an emergency, the numbers to call to let them know you're coming, etc. THANK GOD FOR HIGHLY TRAINED NURSE MIDWIVES!!! The midwives I had were very highly skilled. One has been doing it for over 22 years, including 10 years as a homebirth midwife, years of experience as a nurse in a very good hospital, and has seen just about every type of birth you can see, has assisted over 1000 women. The other hasn't been doing it as long but before becoming a midwife she worked in the trauma unit at the hospital and in the ER. There is no way I would birth with anyone less skilled than that. Unassisted birth by choice is stupid. You may have read in a book what midwives do for this or that situation, but when you're the one birthing and an emergency comes up, you're not in a position to deal with it.

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Giving birth unassisted is one of the stupidest things I have heard of. Sure birth is natural, but so is dying in childbirth. Nature is a bitch.

THIS! One of Mr. Fox's co-worker's cows had to have a c-section last year. I kind of think that a cow giving birth is one of the most natural things, but this cow would have died without the operation. Animals die all the time giving birth, why should humans be any different?

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Hey yeah, what about stitching afterwards?? What if she tore - was good ol' Chup just going to sew up her vagina?!

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Not just the stitching up, but the medication administered so you don't feel the needle too! What about feeling the mother's uterus to make sure it's doing okay after birth? And on and on and on...

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I have a friend who is an unassisted homebirther and she always calls the midwife after she has the baby. The midwife cleans up the mess and checks the mom and baby.

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Well, gee, as a submissive wife, (read with tongue in cheek, please) I wouldn't even be allowed (again, read with tongue in cheek) to entertaine the NOTION of an unassisted, home birth. Hahahahahahha. The look on my husband's face when I just mentioned it was hilarious. His response, "Christ, no, you damn near died in a hospital." Definitely not for us. Besides, I kind of liked having my meals cooked for me, and the baby cared for by highly trained nurses if I needed to rest while I was in the hospital...sort of like a little vacation. (Yikes, I need to get out more.)

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I really can't get behind homebirths after what happened to a friend of ours. There was an issue with the bay or with the birth (I can't remember what the issue was specifically) and they rushed the baby to the hospital, but the baby had serious and permanent brain damage. If they had been in a hospital, the issue would have been taken care of immediately and the baby would have been completely healthy.

I get some of what people say about the medicalization of childbirth, but a lot of things can go wrong. I'd feel a lot safer in a hospital.

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