Freebirthing, an underground movement now in the spotlight

Unassisted childbirth, better known as freebirthing, is a fast growing underground trend among women in the U.S. and UK. It picked up even more followers after a documentary following the freebirth of three expecting women aired on Discovery Health in June.

So what exactly is freebirthing? Well unlike home births which are attended to by a medical professional or midwife, a freebirth is attended by family, friends and spouses, and completely void of medical personnel.

You can see where the critics can raise their eyebrows on this one. However, although medical professionals are ardently outspoken about choosing a home birth with no assistance proponents insist that freebirthing is safe and natural when well researched. A freebirth is not entered into blindly by the expectant mother, usually plenty of research is done and much support is given to the mother from loved ones. Women who chose to take this path insist that giving birth a natural phenomena done from the inception of man and is usually done best when uninterrupted by machinery and medicine. They feel as though they are trusting their bodies and their babies and chose to listen intuitively to both.

This argument however isn't making it very far within the medical community, especially since the death of a freebirth baby this past April. Janet Fraser, a prominent figure in the home birth community and founder of Joyous Birth, experienced the tragedy of losing her child born via a freebirth. Opponents say that this is a prime example of why a licensed professional should be in attendance of all births

Unfortunately there is no concrete way of knowing how many freebirths are actually successful since this is an underground (possibly criminal) movement. Estimates put it at 7,000 of 4.1 million babies born in 2004 were unassisted.

So where does the stone fall and what should you chose? Well such decisions should always be made after careful research and inner reflection.
For more info: You can visit Born Free or Freebirthing. Andrea can also be reached at aogardiner@yahoo.com or follow her at Hartford Wellness and Weight Management