'Free birthing' on channel 5

[Hazel]

I was going to watch it but then saw the advert for it and changed my mind. I don't need reminding of what I've got to do in 6 weeks.

Were they actually totally on their own without a mw? Couldn't they have done it with the mw there but her not being involved unless it was necessary??

 

[Snuggle]

They did it completely on their own, I wouldnt do it. Maddison came out not breathing and I woyuldnt have wanted to be the one resuscitating her

 

[*pud01*]

my little brother stayed in and ended up watching it with me, so my 1st thought of being able to watch it without the sound effects of the men in this house went out the bloody window.
poor bugger he was and making sound effects and panicking for me haha.
"woaaaaah vic, you gotta do all that soon! Im scared for ya! dont do nothing like these crazy bitches" quoted from my 17yr old younger brother.

must say though, I couldn't wrap my head round why they would want to risk themselves and their babies, the lesbian woman... cant remember her name, well she seemed more arsed about being prosecuted. and the other one who has had complications and needed intervention before, the american 1 she'd lost the plot her... and she ended up in hospital aswell so she could deliver her placenta.

they're selfish, am i being niave in thinking that when you have a "homebirth" you get your freedom you want by way of you being in control but with midwives attending to assist incase of complications.

dont understand some people.

 

[Sophie1102]

damn, i wish i had seen this post earlier cause i would have watched it for sure!!!

does anyone know if it's being repeated at any time, or if it's available online?

Give it a day or something and have a look on you tube... thats what I normally do when I miss something on telly!!

You can sign up to 'demand 5' on the channel 5 website and watch it on there, it is there now - I'm watching it right now! There is no way I would have been able to do it on my own, I had a home birth which was great but ended up with a retained placenta and had to get an ambulance to hospital, it would have been awful if I didn't have the midwives here to get the help I needed

 

[Gene]

I really couldn't do it - I'd be far too scared, I need to know medical intervention is available ASAP.

 

[rach]

i must say i really enjoyed this programme and after watching could understand some of it but why they couldnt have a midwife just there in another room on standby is beyond me they could have had the same experience with the security of knowing someone was there if needed
i do think that the programme was a bit too much FOR it they should have maybe showed the other side with something going wrong to show people that things can go wrong i think this programme might encourage more women to try this way of birthing which is eventually going to end with babies and mums dying xxxxxxxxx

 

[hennaly]

Ok first off i think if someone wants a natural birth thats fine fine but see no reason other than to prove some kind of point why a midwife cant be in the room in case of emergency, im sure she wouldnt intervine unless absolutely needed if that was what was wanted.
Secondly i was quite angry at how easy they made it all look, youngsters (and older mums i suppose) will have watched that and thought it was ok to go off and have a baby without telling anyone, i can see there being a lot more abandoned babies where kids have gone it alone, sorry but i was quite annoyed they didnt show someone really struggling and coming very close to having serious problems.

 

[*Star*]

ooh thanks Sophie - I'll have a look now!!

Am i right in saying it's actually illegal to choose to give birth without assistance.

 

[daftscotslass]

ooh thanks Sophie - I'll have a look now!!

Am i right in saying it's actually illegal to choose to give birth without assistance.

It's apparently illegal to attend a birth if you're not a midwife/doctor (so the person/people with you could be prosecuted if it was proved they were intending to act as midwife). It's not illegal to actually give birth alone, planned or unplanned.

 

[Melanie]

I really wanted to have my mind changed about unassisted birthing but by the end of the programme i really couldnt see why they were refusing to even have a midwife on standby. Surely they could have had an totally unintrusive home birth while at the very least letting the medical services know they were in labour so if problems did arises they would know what the situation was!
I thought the woman who had no medical treatment at all and wasn't sure if she had a placenta that was too low was just mental to be honest. If you had even a tiny inkling that something like that was going on then why would you put yourself and your child at risk? Surely it would have been an hour out of her life to go and have a scan to see what was going on for sure!
It also annoyed me that they all kept harping on about this is what women are designed to do and its totally natural. Yes of course it is but that doesnt alter the fact that still in this day and age women and babies die during childbirth. It puts your body under huge amounts of stress and there are so many ways it can go wrong without the right care and attention.
Even in the days where we didnt have the NHS and Dr's didnt attend every birth women didnt labour alone! My gran gave birth to my uncle 10 years before the NHS existed in her bedroom with the town midwife who hadnt had any official training but had been helping women have there babies for 50 years and before that her mother had done the same.
I think its irresponsible of these women to ask their partners to assist them with something that should it go wrong that person could be charged with manslaughter.

 

[beanie]

I'm pretty open minded on unassisted birth and did enjoy the programme. However I didn't agree with the American woman who could have had a low lying placenta, I would have had a scan for reassurance.If a birth is low risk I can understand why some women prefer to go it alone, though I couldn't do it personally but she didn't know if her birth was low risk.

Even in the days where we didnt have the NHS and Dr's didnt attend every birth women didnt labour alone! My gran gave birth to my uncle 10 years before the NHS existed in her bedroom with the town midwife who hadnt had any official training but had been helping women have there babies for 50 years and before that her mother had done the same.

In the programme they weren't alone,they had a birth attendant but I know what you mean. Traditionally it was someone who had experience in birthing, not necessarily medically trained. I think part of the issue is that the midwife role has changed. They seem to have this rulebook about how fast a labour should progress etc. I was told that if my birth wasn't progressing how fast they wanted (even if my baby wasn't in distress) I would have to goto hospital which really stressed me out.Luckily my labour did progress but if it had been my first labour with Seren I would have had to go in as I dilated slowly (Seren was fine, just back to back) and at one point a c section was mentioned. I would prefer a midwife who was more doula in their approach if that makes sense, but doulas aren't medically trained and as such to just have a doula there would be seen as an unassisted birth.

Secondly i was quite angry at how easy they made it all look, youngsters (and older mums i suppose) will have watched that and thought it was ok to go off and have a baby without telling anyone, i can see there being a lot more abandoned babies where kids have gone it alone

I don't understand how unnassisted births are going to lead to more abondoned babies tbh. Yes there are mums who will abondon their babies usually after giving birth in secret but they are very different from mothers who decide to have an unassisted birth.

they're selfish, am i being niave in thinking that when you have a "homebirth" you get your freedom you want by way of you being in control but with midwives attending to assist incase of complications.

to a degree in a homebirth the midwives are more hands of but they are still there and can be invasive at times. Others will have had different experinces but my experience was that at times she was quite invasive and wasn't listening to me.


Whilst this programme didn't make me want one it was so good to see the south african lady have such a positive birth experience. I wish I had seen this before Cally's birth as I had no pain relief and was so worried about it before, whereas she showed it was possible.

 

[hennaly]

What im trying to say is teenagers that may have gone and got a bit of help could have watched the program and thought they can do it on there own so nobody will ever need to find out.
Does that make any sence?

 

[abcd1234]

Having had a possitvie birth experience, where the midwifes really paid attention to my birth plan and not wanting to be touched much i personally dont see why they cant have a midwife in the room or even the next one just as a safety measure, you dont have to be touched by a midwife during birth, and as for me id rather have that safety.

I totally understand wanting to birth alone, it must be very empowering and being able to get on after by yourself at home is great, i know america is different to the uk but i think you can have that birth without having to sacrifice having medical care available.

I didnt like that fact that women said a midwife rang her and told her she was crazy and must not do it and they denied her a homebirth kit, for me thats jsut going to make her even more inclind to go it alone, if they'd been supportive she may have agreed to have someone available.

 

[welshpolly]

This really shocked me - I just kept thinking what if something goes wrong?
Thankfully there were no problems for any of the mothers but I couldn't do it!

 

[Lou]

I watched the programme and I share most of the opinions on this thread and have really mixed views on the subject. What I would say though is that although I fully support a womans right to choose how to give birth I do think its a shame that the women who choose to free birth because they want to avoid medical intervention for negative reasons will not help to improve the current level of service and care that is available to woman who do want midwives and proffessionals attending their labours and births. Also I think if a woman does not want intervention because they are of the opinion, because of previous experience or not, that hospitals and midwives are a bad thing and their labour and birth will be "taken over" maybe they need to look at the option of either learning to assert themselves and voice their wants and needs instead of allowing their body or situation to be taken over or at least having a birthing partner with them who can act as their voice for them to assure they are not taken advantage of when they are otherwise engaged in the act of giving birth. I had to sign a consent form so Isaac could have an assisted delivery, if I had been adamant that I didn't want an assisted delivery they would have had to basically stand by and watch me struggle to deliver a baby that was stuck in the birthng canal and in distress. I am sure I wouldn't have got him out on my own and we both very probably would have died. I do understand that free birthing is about state of mind and a lady birthing at home alone would be in a different mind set than if she was in a hospital but really what harm will it do to at least have a midwife or doula present? If you have a midwife attend and they are taking over and are rude or ruining the experience then tell them to kindly be quiet and keep away as much as possible. They aren't the bloody police for gods sake lol

Oh....and the only bit I raised my eyebrows at was the lady in america mentioning "orgasmic birth" wtf?

 

[beanie]

I watched the programme and I share most of the opinions on this thread and have really mixed views on the subject. What I would say though is that although I fully support a womans right to choose how to give birth I do think its a shame that the women who choose to free birth because they want to avoid medical intervention for negative reasons will not help to improve the current level of service and care that is available to woman who do want midwives and proffessionals attending their labours and births. Also I think if a woman does not want intervention because they are of the opinion, because of previous experience or not, that hospitals and midwives are a bad thing and their labour and birth will be "taken over" maybe they need to look at the option of either learning to assert themselves and voice their wants and needs instead of allowing their body or situation to be taken over or at least having a birthing partner with them who can act as their voice for them to assure they are not taken advantage of when they are otherwise engaged in the act of giving birth. I had to sign a consent form so Isaac could have an assisted delivery, if I had been adamant that I didn't want an assisted delivery they would have had to basically stand by and watch me struggle to deliver a baby that was stuck in the birthng canal and in distress. I am sure I wouldn't have got him out on my own and we both very probably would have died. I do understand that free birthing is about state of mind and a lady birthing at home alone would be in a different mind set than if she was in a hospital but really what harm will it do to at least have a midwife or doula present? If you have a midwife attend and they are taking over and are rude or ruining the experience then tell them to kindly be quiet and keep away as much as possible. They aren't the bloody police for gods sake lol

Oh....and the only bit I raised my eyebrows at was the lady in america mentioning "orgasmic birth" wtf?

Lou I completely agree with you but not everyone is assertive and training won't help. During my birth with Seren I lost my control completely and couldn't have argued my way out of a paper bag which isn't like me, and my partner listens to medical people. I had one midwife adament I was to get into the bath, I was coping ok with the pain and didn't want to go but she would not take no for an answer. I ended up throwing up in the bath - the bitch had to clean it up lmao. With Cally I had spent the last few weeks of my pregnancy arguing for a homebirth, and even then I was very aware they would have refused me one if I went more then 10 days over even though I delivered Seren 13 days late with no problems. I am fully aware that I could have argued to have a homebirth but I was fed up of fighting with them and the situation was making me feel depressed, I was fed up of basiong my head against a brick wall. Unfortunetly alot (not all) of midwife teams operate a "my way or highway" approach - you saw that on the programme where the hospital refused to give one mum the homebirth kit as she was not having a midwife there which was petty.They may not be the police but they do hold a lot of power. A doula is not someone necessarily trained in childbirth, they are there for support not medical intervention so even with a doula there it would be an unnassisted birth.

I would like to think the medical profession here and in the USA look at the growing number of freebirths and think to themselves "what can we do to get people more confident in us, and how can we make the birthing experience more positive". However I will not hold my breath on that one. Though if there are any orgasmic births going I'll have one of them, beats an epidural

 

[Lou]

I watched the programme and I share most of the opinions on this thread and have really mixed views on the subject. What I would say though is that although I fully support a womans right to choose how to give birth I do think its a shame that the women who choose to free birth because they want to avoid medical intervention for negative reasons will not help to improve the current level of service and care that is available to woman who do want midwives and proffessionals attending their labours and births. Also I think if a woman does not want intervention because they are of the opinion, because of previous experience or not, that hospitals and midwives are a bad thing and their labour and birth will be "taken over" maybe they need to look at the option of either learning to assert themselves and voice their wants and needs instead of allowing their body or situation to be taken over or at least having a birthing partner with them who can act as their voice for them to assure they are not taken advantage of when they are otherwise engaged in the act of giving birth. I had to sign a consent form so Isaac could have an assisted delivery, if I had been adamant that I didn't want an assisted delivery they would have had to basically stand by and watch me struggle to deliver a baby that was stuck in the birthng canal and in distress. I am sure I wouldn't have got him out on my own and we both very probably would have died. I do understand that free birthing is about state of mind and a lady birthing at home alone would be in a different mind set than if she was in a hospital but really what harm will it do to at least have a midwife or doula present? If you have a midwife attend and they are taking over and are rude or ruining the experience then tell them to kindly be quiet and keep away as much as possible. They aren't the bloody police for gods sake lol

Oh....and the only bit I raised my eyebrows at was the lady in america mentioning "orgasmic birth" wtf?

Lou I completely agree with you but not everyone is assertive and training won't help. During my birth with Seren I lost my control completely and couldn't have argued my way out of a paper bag which isn't like me, and my partner listens to medical people. I had one midwife adament I was to get into the bath, I was coping ok with the pain and didn't want to go but she would not take no for an answer. I ended up throwing up in the bath - the bitch had to clean it up lmao. With Cally I had spent the last few weeks of my pregnancy arguing for a homebirth, and even then I was very aware they would have refused me one if I went more then 10 days over even though I delivered Seren 13 days late with no problems. I am fully aware that I could have argued to have a homebirth but I was fed up of fighting with them and the situation was making me feel depressed, I was fed up of basiong my head against a brick wall. Unfortunetly alot (not all) of midwife teams operate a "my way or highway" approach - you saw that on the programme where the hospital refused to give one mum the homebirth kit as she was not having a midwife there which was petty.They may not be the police but they do hold a lot of power. A doula is not someone necessarily trained in childbirth, they are there for support not medical intervention so even with a doula there it would be an unnassisted birth.

I would like to think the medical profession here and in the USA look at the growing number of freebirths and think to themselves "what can we do to get people more confident in us, and how can we make the birthing experience more positive". However I will not hold my breath on that one. Though if there are any orgasmic births going I'll have one of them, beats an epidural

I'd rather the epidural lol I thought the hospital was quite right to refuse her the home birth kit, after all she isn't trained in how to use the instruments which could ultimately be really dangerous for her and her baby (another case against free birthing) plus unfortunately nowadays we live in a society where every organisation including the NHS can be sued at the drop of a hat so understandably they couldn't be responsible for an untrained unqualified person using hospital equipment. I know alot of medical staff let the power they do have go to their head and I've had experience of midwives, doctors, nurses and GP's being very rude and abrupt but I think its not the power they hold which is the problem but their attitude and bedside manner that needs addressing. Like I said before I had to sign a consent form before any assistance was allowed during my labour with Isaac, and although I don't know what they would have done if I hadn't consented I did consent because I trusted the doctors, the monitoring machines and the midwife on duty to make the decision for me and Isaac that further help was needed. I think whats important is the safety of women and babies during pregnancy, labour and delivery. Its sounds mean but really the reason a woman would want to free birth is for her own gratification and nothing else. It makes absolutely no difference to a newborn baby where it is born as long as it is safe, warm, comfortable and with its mum. So why risk your babies life just so you can experience a free birth? I'm sure there are women in 3rd world countries who have lost their babies while delivering them because they didn't have access to medical facilities and expertise who would be gob smacked to learn of western women refusing any assistance at all for their babies and themselves.

Its such a tricky subject but the more I write about it the more I'm against it I think

 

[beanie]

see I had a homebirth as the hospital birth had left me traumatised and very upset. You could argue that whilst Seren didn't care where she was born she was affceted as she had a mother with PND which I do believe was mainly caused by my experience. You could argue I was putting my need first when I wanted the homebirth, after all I live 20 mins away from my nearest hospital so if something did happen I would have to wait for an ambulance then travel, which could have resulted in the loss of my baby, but I had a low risk pregnancy and my antenatal checks had not shown any reason why my baby was in trouble. And a mother should enjoy the birth if possible, I can't see anything wrong with the mother wanting the best birth for her as well. If the child is at risk then yes the mother has to be realistic but for the most part mothers who free birth have done so after a lot of thought and thinking. One story I read, the mother had a feeling and in the end had a midwife there, so not all free birth mothers aren't totally against medical intervention.

You were very lucky with your birth experience, I would have loved the option of signing a consent form (I would have signed it obviously)

 

[Lou]

see I had a homebirth as the hospital birth had left me traumatised and very upset. You could argue that whilst Seren didn't care where she was born she was affceted as she had a mother with PND which I do believe was mainly caused by my experience. You could argue I was putting my need first when I wanted the homebirth, after all I live 20 mins away from my nearest hospital so if something did happen I would have to wait for an ambulance then travel, which could have resulted in the loss of my baby, but I had a low risk pregnancy and my antenatal checks had not shown any reason why my baby was in trouble. And a mother should enjoy the birth if possible, I can't see anything wrong with the mother wanting the best birth for her as well. If the child is at risk then yes the mother has to be realistic but for the most part mothers who free birth have done so after a lot of thought and thinking. One story I read, the mother had a feeling and in the end had a midwife there, so not all free birth mothers aren't totally against medical intervention.

You were very lucky with your birth experience, I would have loved the option of signing a consent form (I would have signed it obviously)

I totally understand where you're coming from. We all base our opinions and views on our own experiences and who knows if I were in your shoes I may have done the same as you. Thats what makes it such a personnal and sensitive subject. I hadn't thought about the after effects for mum after a traumatic birth and how this could effect baby so I suppose its a calculated risk that is completely individual. I thought the lady on the programme with the red hair was amazing, I wish I was that tuned into my body and confident. She was awesome.