Free Birthing

There has been a lot of publicity recently about this latest craze of women giving birth alone and unattended by either a midwife or a registered medical practitioner. In Britain, this legally falls into a grey area. It is against the law to give birth attended by anyone other than a midwife or doctor so by the very fact that most women have either a partner or friend with then who could be deemed as assisting the birth, they are in fact, breaking the law.

All this aside, it is also a very dangerous and foolhardy practice. Ok, I have read lovely accounts of how the baby just slipped from its mother and went on the breast and all was lovely and wonderful. But, in reality, giving birth is fraught with all kinds of dangers and problems and it is only because of the very skilled attendance and intervention from highly skilled midwives that prevents the maternal and neo-natal mortality rates being as high in this country as they are in Namibia for example.

In the third world and developing countries, women ‘free birth’ because they have no choice and they unfortunately die in large numbers as do their babies. These women would give anything to be able to access the level of care women in this country not only take for granted, but criticise. Women in this country have it all but still demand more, wanting a ‘birth experience’ that only exists in ‘fairy tales’. Birth is an experience in itself, but it is painful, frightening and can be above all lonely – why would any woman in their right minds want to do it on their own?

Only this week, a young woman gave birth on her own in a hotel in Spain – the baby died and she is being charge with infanticide. Of course we do not know the details of this sad case but I hope it does not prove to be one of another free birthing episode.

This concept is hotly under debated at the moment and whereas I can understand where women are coming from when they decide to go it alone, I wonder if it is truly because midwives have become so callous and uncaring that women would rather birth alone than have one in attendance – I find this hard to believe and wonder what other motives lie beneath this latest craze.