Home Birth

13 years ago today, I gave birth to a 10 pound 11 ounce baby boy in my living room, surrounded by my midwife, her helper, a good friend and my husband. My 6-year-old watched the entire thing. My then 2 year old was taking a nap. When he woke up he asked “Whose baby?” and “Can we keep him?” I felt supported, safe and like I could fly or climb a mountain. It was one of the best experiences of my life to that point. Of my seven birth experiences, that one was the best!

So I take the news that AMA and ACOG want to support legislation to make homebirth illegal with a grain of salt and renewed inspiration to fight this – because I want my daughters and daughters-in-law to have better options to give birth whereever they feel the most comfortable.

ABC News: Controversy Brewing Over Home Births: “By AINA HUNTER
July 11, 2008

The American Medical Association has agreed to support proposed legislation that, some physicians say, could make make having a planned birth in one’s home difficult, to virtually impossible.

As of now, no actual legislation has been drawn up, but the AMA has agreed to back a measure called ‘Resolution 205,’ a request to support the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) position that home births are not safe.

‘We are against home births, period,’ said Gregory Phillips, an ACOG spokesman.

Women who give birth outside of a clinical setting risk putting themselves and their newborns at risk, Phillips told ABCNEWS.com.

In an e-mail to ABCNEWS.com, AMA board member Steven Stack, MD, wrote that the AMA ‘stresses that the safest setting for delivering a baby is in the hospital or a birthing center within a hospital complex.’

The influential medical groups — AMA and ACOG — now find themselves at odds with those who say women should have the choice”

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