All three of my children were born naturally without hospitals or doctors. I had midwives who were ready to call a doctor. If there was an emergency except for my first child we were living in the jungles of Costa Rica took our little boat to town stayed in a little hotel in Golfito got a last-minute midwife and took our little boat back to our farm dirt floor shack, bamboo/bed washing diapers in the stream. It was really quite an idyllic having a baby is the most natural thing in the world. No way I was letting them inject my baby the first day they were born.
I have two kids. the first born in hospital, forced induction because water broke early. involuntary "vitamin k" shot. required a full 24 hour stay in hospital because doctor caused a vaginal tear by forcing pushing too early.
no other inoculations or medical interventions, with the exception of some stitches after a branch fell on her head while we were all swimming in a creek. she was always temperamental from infancy and uncooperative with authority. smart but unwilling to work. didn't get sick any more often than her brother. didn't handle assignments well when home schooled but would eventually do the work correctly after being forced to sit with it for around an hour. juvenile delinquent always getting kicked out of public school. diagnosed as Oppositional Defiant Disorder by the state shrink the school forced us to take her to thinking she was autistic. ran away at 17, quit school to live with a woman who helps local kids get out of the school system without graduating or getting equivalency certificate.
cost thousands and thousands of dollars to the hospital she was born at.
second born at home with midwife. he unfortunately inherited being a bit of a crybaby from me (emotional regulation is hard until you get used to it,) but is otherwise even tempered. hates getting in trouble and goes out of his way to avoid it. cooperates with instructions. super easy to home school. graduated a year early by finishing two required credits at summer school.
he's never once been to a doctor or hospital except when he was accompanying other family going in for diagnostics or treatment. gets the occasional cold. 18 now and working to save money for a fancy college he got partial scholarships to this fall.
cost: assisting the midwife's baby daddy changing a head gasket in his truck so he could learn how to do it. approximate retail value in 2007 of that labor was around $800.
no comparison. the hospital was horrible and cost enough to put a down payment on property. the home birth was cheap barter with no money involved, smooth as butter, and nobody was traumatized.
I was fortunate in giving birth to my two - both born in hospital but using the hospital midwife service only. My mother has been teaching birth preparation classes (and later, breastfeeding preparation classes) since I was a child, filling the house with happy pregnant and breastfeeding women for a young girl to be impressed with as role models. In my family, we all assumed that birthing and breastfeeding were natural processes and that we were already equipped to carry them out, even though help would be welcome at the time. My midwives (who, as hospital based midwives, had not met me before I arrived in labour) were both very happy to work with me. My husband, a sheep farmer who has spent a lifetime attending, and sometimes helping with, births, was considered by them to be an asset to the "team".
Both births were excellent experiences, the first more intense than the second, but all the "hands on deck" were at all times working with me, not against me, and that was most important. The reason I did not birth at home is that I live over an hour's drive from the hospital, and the law in Ireland at that time (early 90's - I can't speak to the law now) prevented either midwives or general practice doctors from being insured for home births occuring further than 7km from a hospital. So, it sucked, but I dealt. Because of my mother's teaching, and the support of my birth-savvy husband, I went to the hospital, each time determining to do it my way, and succeeding. I knew too much to be intimidated into accepting any intervention I did not trust. I needed one stitch after the first, none after the second.
So, this is to provide data to support the proposition that good preparation, together with good support, can make a big difference to a birth, even when it takes place on "their" territory.
When we had our child, we constantly had to fight against the doctor’s recommendation for inducement. They seemed to have some sort of timeline that they couldn’t justify without resorting to their authority of knowledge. The problem with inducing is that if the water breaks before the cervix is ready the child’s lungs can fill with fluid and force a c-section. Fortunately our baby was delivered naturally and beautifully and im so thankful for my wife’s resilience. The doctor’s were always pushing for a quick and efficient removal of this child from my wife’s body, I found their use of “expertise” revolting. It was as if we were at a restaurant and the server was just trying to flip the tables to increase the volume of customers.
I also gave birth in a hospital, of course, without painkillers. The bad thing is that I felt like a gutted chicken lying on my back with my legs spread wide. When I was in labor, I always sat up, instinctively feeling that this was the best possible position for the baby under the circumstances, to make the labor easier. In the end, they squeezed the baby out of me like a tube of toothpaste, it was not a good experience. I didn't have any more children because of it.
Having birth was routine handed down through grandmothers and expert midwives. Now modern nonsense the expected rule where a “birth plan” is demanded. Maternity wards are too busy and don’t look at it, but it is mandatory for a plan to be made!
Unnecessary consequences and more anxious and complicated births the result - not to mention the horrific birthing difficulties imposed by Covid jabs and boosters when pregnant. Was nothing learned from Thalidomide disaster?
All three of my children were born naturally without hospitals or doctors. I had midwives who were ready to call a doctor. If there was an emergency except for my first child we were living in the jungles of Costa Rica took our little boat to town stayed in a little hotel in Golfito got a last-minute midwife and took our little boat back to our farm dirt floor shack, bamboo/bed washing diapers in the stream. It was really quite an idyllic having a baby is the most natural thing in the world. No way I was letting them inject my baby the first day they were born.
I have two kids. the first born in hospital, forced induction because water broke early. involuntary "vitamin k" shot. required a full 24 hour stay in hospital because doctor caused a vaginal tear by forcing pushing too early.
no other inoculations or medical interventions, with the exception of some stitches after a branch fell on her head while we were all swimming in a creek. she was always temperamental from infancy and uncooperative with authority. smart but unwilling to work. didn't get sick any more often than her brother. didn't handle assignments well when home schooled but would eventually do the work correctly after being forced to sit with it for around an hour. juvenile delinquent always getting kicked out of public school. diagnosed as Oppositional Defiant Disorder by the state shrink the school forced us to take her to thinking she was autistic. ran away at 17, quit school to live with a woman who helps local kids get out of the school system without graduating or getting equivalency certificate.
cost thousands and thousands of dollars to the hospital she was born at.
second born at home with midwife. he unfortunately inherited being a bit of a crybaby from me (emotional regulation is hard until you get used to it,) but is otherwise even tempered. hates getting in trouble and goes out of his way to avoid it. cooperates with instructions. super easy to home school. graduated a year early by finishing two required credits at summer school.
he's never once been to a doctor or hospital except when he was accompanying other family going in for diagnostics or treatment. gets the occasional cold. 18 now and working to save money for a fancy college he got partial scholarships to this fall.
cost: assisting the midwife's baby daddy changing a head gasket in his truck so he could learn how to do it. approximate retail value in 2007 of that labor was around $800.
no comparison. the hospital was horrible and cost enough to put a down payment on property. the home birth was cheap barter with no money involved, smooth as butter, and nobody was traumatized.
I was fortunate in giving birth to my two - both born in hospital but using the hospital midwife service only. My mother has been teaching birth preparation classes (and later, breastfeeding preparation classes) since I was a child, filling the house with happy pregnant and breastfeeding women for a young girl to be impressed with as role models. In my family, we all assumed that birthing and breastfeeding were natural processes and that we were already equipped to carry them out, even though help would be welcome at the time. My midwives (who, as hospital based midwives, had not met me before I arrived in labour) were both very happy to work with me. My husband, a sheep farmer who has spent a lifetime attending, and sometimes helping with, births, was considered by them to be an asset to the "team".
Both births were excellent experiences, the first more intense than the second, but all the "hands on deck" were at all times working with me, not against me, and that was most important. The reason I did not birth at home is that I live over an hour's drive from the hospital, and the law in Ireland at that time (early 90's - I can't speak to the law now) prevented either midwives or general practice doctors from being insured for home births occuring further than 7km from a hospital. So, it sucked, but I dealt. Because of my mother's teaching, and the support of my birth-savvy husband, I went to the hospital, each time determining to do it my way, and succeeding. I knew too much to be intimidated into accepting any intervention I did not trust. I needed one stitch after the first, none after the second.
So, this is to provide data to support the proposition that good preparation, together with good support, can make a big difference to a birth, even when it takes place on "their" territory.
When we had our child, we constantly had to fight against the doctor’s recommendation for inducement. They seemed to have some sort of timeline that they couldn’t justify without resorting to their authority of knowledge. The problem with inducing is that if the water breaks before the cervix is ready the child’s lungs can fill with fluid and force a c-section. Fortunately our baby was delivered naturally and beautifully and im so thankful for my wife’s resilience. The doctor’s were always pushing for a quick and efficient removal of this child from my wife’s body, I found their use of “expertise” revolting. It was as if we were at a restaurant and the server was just trying to flip the tables to increase the volume of customers.
I also gave birth in a hospital, of course, without painkillers. The bad thing is that I felt like a gutted chicken lying on my back with my legs spread wide. When I was in labor, I always sat up, instinctively feeling that this was the best possible position for the baby under the circumstances, to make the labor easier. In the end, they squeezed the baby out of me like a tube of toothpaste, it was not a good experience. I didn't have any more children because of it.
Having birth was routine handed down through grandmothers and expert midwives. Now modern nonsense the expected rule where a “birth plan” is demanded. Maternity wards are too busy and don’t look at it, but it is mandatory for a plan to be made!
Unnecessary consequences and more anxious and complicated births the result - not to mention the horrific birthing difficulties imposed by Covid jabs and boosters when pregnant. Was nothing learned from Thalidomide disaster?