Fighting for Homebirthing Rights
It's amazing to me that in the 21st century, people still have to fight for even the simplest and most basic of rights.
In Australia, thousands of people rallied in front of Parliament, fed up with bureaucrats who want to criminalize homebirthing.
Of course, in typical government doublespeak, they won't come right out and say they want to make homebirths illegal. Instead, they're making it difficult for midwives to do their job by forcing them to carry indemnity insurance. Most midwives can't afford it.
Australia isn't the only place where this basic human right is being threatened. There are still 11 U.S. states, along with Washington D.C., where midwives can be prosecuted for assisting at homebirths.
The biggest crime of all is that this obscene trampling on your rights is being done for no reason whatsoever.
Homebirths are just as safe as hospital births -- if not more so.
Two recent studies echo just about all the rest of the research on homebirths: They are safe and inexpensive. One new study out of Canada found no difference in the infant death rates between midwife-attended homebirths and hospital births. The study also found that women who choose homebirths and their babies suffer from fewer complications.
A Dutch study in July found that homebirths with midwives are just as safe as hospital births for moms who have a low risk of complications.
But no government -- from Australia to the United States -- has ever let the facts get in the way of its decisions. For them, it's never about truth -- it's about control.
Fortunately, the Australian rally helped midwives there win a two-year reprieve -- showing that it's still possible for people to stand up to their government, and win.
For now.
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William Campbell Douglass I.I., M.D. has been called "the conscience of modern medicine," and the National Health Federation voted him "Doctor of the Year."
You can sign up for his "Daily Dose" at DouglassReport.com.
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Comments
Anonymous
The fact that women have to fight for the right to give birth at home, in so-called "civilized" nations, does not surprise me.
But it does prove that no matter where you live, with few exceptions, the government has too much power in lives of ordinary people.
Yvonne
I enjoy reading Dr Douglass's articles but in the case of home births I have to disagree. Maternal and infant death rates were high in the old days - just take a walk around a graveyard. My own daughter's birth showed how quickly things can deteriorate. Home births might make the mother feal like some sort of hero but can be very dangerous.{ I am an O.R. registered nurse.}
Anonymous
As usual some people with a hypnotic trance will say every birth should be at a hospital, under normal conditions a birth will happen even inside taxi cabs, there is no mystery here, a child born at home may represent less hazardous contamination as hospital carry many germs, now if by chance the Mother to be, shows from the beginning she would have complications, very rare cases, then the hospital should be the choice, if this is done there will be more room in hospitals for acute cases, and for other Moms let nature takes its course, all these said the parents should make the decision not Government or the subliminal effect Drs or Nurses carry out in order to bring business to hospitals. JAM
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