Just when you thought your midwife-assisted homebirth was about as natural as you could get,
enter the freebirth. (
And this birth you cannot change... What?) Freebirthing (not to be confused with freeballing or freebasing, though I'd much rather do either) basically means having your baby at home, with no attendant. Proponents feel birth has been hyped up as a scary thing, when in fact, we've been doing it for thousands of years. I mean, it's not like women have been
dying in childbirth for thousands of years...oh. But advocates contend that the main
dangers of childbirth come from "poverty, intervention, and fear". If you've covered the first, an unattended birth is a matter of dealing with the latter two.
There's this quote from one freebirth practitioner: "Birthing uses the same hormones as lovemaking--so why would you want
anyone poking and prodding you, observing you and putting you under a
spotlight?" Number one: I'll give you the same hormones, but if (ugh) "lovemaking" felt anything like birthing, I'd be a virgin. Number two: doesn't lovemaking involve poking, prodding, and spotlights? Just me?
In any event, I don't really care that much if someone wants to give birth without a doctor, as long as I don't have to help. But as someone who imagined this natural birth and in retrospect wishes she got the epidural on arrival, I'm so not in the "beautiful, natural, just do that special breathing and find your woman-power" camp. I like doctors. I like midwives. I even like western medicine, especially when it can prevent lots of suffering and agony. And I don't think the fact that my birthin' crazy-insane hurt was in the least bit empowering. I was really grateful to the anesthesiologist after he gave me the epidural. Next time my wonderful doctor can chloroform me in the hospital like they used to do in the old days.
