Birth. It’s a normal, natural part of life. So why is birth always such a hot topic? The controversy has to do with both the safety of homebirth versus hospital birth and the incredibly high cesarean section (c-section) rate in the US. It is about a woman’s right to choose to have birth the way she feels is best for her and her baby.
Two events have been come to my attention recently concerning childbirth. In 2006, a woman in New Jersey refused to consent to a c-section while she was in labor, and this began a series of events leading to the termination of her parental rights. The second occurrence was when popular blogger Heather Armstrong started a series of posts about the birth of her daughter Marlo, where at 30 weeks pregnant she started considering natural childbirth. I will explore both of these stories in future posts.
This is the first in a series of posts on the debate over birth in America. They will focus on a woman’s right choose her birth and the choices she can make. In recent times natural childbirth occurred in only a minority of births and homebirth accounted for only 1% of the births in the US. I’m hoping to shed more light on this topic because I feel it is important choice women have but may not be well educated about. If this topic is challenging for you or you do not agree with natural childbirth, I encourage you to follow along, keep an open mind, and leave constructive comments regarding your opinion. We may both learn something!
Abby, birthed at home
Can’t wait to learn from and with you!!!
Just found your site via Twitter, love it! We have a lot in common 🙂 I also blog about natural birth, breastfeeding, and a greener life.
I had my son without drugs and chose to have as little interference as possible in the hospital. I was only there for 20 minutes before L was born, so they couldn’t do much to me 🙂 The next one would be a home birth for sure, I’d love a water birth.
Best,
Dagmar
That sounds awesome, can not wait to read! People have asked me multiple times “how” I had my daughter and the first few times I was like dude if you do not know how a baby is born you need to go back to sophomore health, but then I wised up. Now depending on who it is we may discuss birth options, or I may say politely that they should mind their own beeswax.