The American Medical Association Just Does Not Get It

There are many of you reading this column who have never had a home birth - who would never choose a home birth. You still consider yourself an Attachment Parenting mama for all the other wonderful things that you do for your babies, as well you should. But the recent resolution by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) put out last year about home birth should matter to you. Why, you may ask? Well, I will tell you - thanks for asking.

Because you are a woman. You are a woman and the time may come with your next child, or your fourth child or your daughter's first child, when you will want home birth to be an option. And the AMA and ACOG are not happy about you making that choice. There is an attitude among the medical establishment in this country that women are stupid. I mean, as a whole they must believe that we are absolute idiots. Why else would they feel the need to "develop model legislation in support of the concept that the safest setting for labor, delivery, and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex, that meets standards jointly outlined by the AAP and ACOG, or in a freestanding birthing center that meets the standards of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, The Joint Commission, or the American Association of Birth Centers" unless they felt that we are little idiots without a brain cell ready to do whatever they tell us is the best thing. Let me tell you right now...for me, those days are over.

There are good doctors out there. There are wonderful OBs out there who really care about their patients. But those are few...most only care about not getting sued. Thus the current 30% c-section rate in this country. (And that's an average) This wouldn't be a big deal, if it was true that we were saving more women than we did 30 years ago, but we are actually saving less. And when we were saving more - there was a less than 10% c-section rate.

Now some will say that this choice to have a home birth is the same as the choice to have an abortion (meaning both are an issue of civil rights). As a Christian, a Catholic and well - a human being, I am opposed to abortion, in all its shapes and sizes. And where abortion as a right is the willful ending of a life for personal reasons, choosing to home birth is about bringing life into the world and having some say in how that is going to happen.

I have a cousin whose wife delivered quite beautifully and naturally in a hospital with a midwife. The birth was uninterrupted and wonderful, except for the fights that my cousin had to put up in order to say no to each intervention. They are strongly leaning towards a home birth for their next child, whenever that may be. The reason that he had to fight so hard is precisely because the hospital cares more about policy than laboring women. And Labor and Delivery nurses will confirm this for you. They have certain policies that are in place because someone sued some doctor and won. And [insert policy here] is now going to save them from getting sued.

So, thank you very much, as long as I don't have a complicated pregnancy and there is a midwife available, I will birth at home. My last birth was wonderful. With my first dear son, I was in a hospital - hooked up to every machine available (so it seemed at the time) and I was miserable. I couldn't move, the blood pressure cuff hurt my arm, the nurse kept coming to check me when I was in the middle of a contraction (painful, painful), and I was so tired from the Stadol (which I was assured was not pain medicine) that I couldn't even enjoy the final push. All I wanted was to sleep.

With the birth of my youngest son, I was home. My labor started around midnight and there was no rushing off anywhere. Once I was sure I was in labor I called my midwife, who lives an hour and a half away. And I walked. I walked and walked. All around my sleeping house, from room to room, I walked and rocked with the contractions. No one took my blood pressure. No one stuck needles in me. No one told me where lay and how to push and that "you just aren't progressing like we'd like." I just breathed and walked. At the end, I got in a pool in my hallway, seven hours after my first twinge and with, I won't lie, a few screaming moments, pushed my son into the world. I pulled him onto my chest, with my husband and son and family looking on. Then I handed my baby to my mom, climbed out of the pool and crawled into bed. My husband cooked breakfast for me (and about 10 other people) and I lay and nursed my baby. What a beautiful moment.

And the very fact that these major medical associations would dare to take that away from me, when all scientific evidence points to the fact that home birth is SAFE for mothers and babies and in some cases safer, is absolutely infuriating. So the next time you hear someone say that they had a home birth, give that woman a high five, because she went against the grain and did something amazing. And the next time you hear someone say that home birth is crazy, please correct them and say that besides being a right, it is also very safe and extremely fulfilling.

Perhaps with your next baby you will seek out a home birth because you are looking for a different and more natural way to bring your child into the world. For me, home birth was a natural extension of the attachment parenting choices I was already making. To connect with my body, my baby and my God-given ability to be a mom. I was not disappointed.