I'm interested in and sympathetic to the appeal of unconventional birth choices--I know several people who were born at home without professional assistance--but I definitely think it's important to be highly educated about the risks.
The review in this post turns a sharp, unromantic (rather bracingly sardonic, in fact) eye on freebirthing, at least as it is portrayed in the show, and the author's perspective as a midwife, presumably more sympathetic to the idea than many people would be, makes her thoughts especially interesting.
I think childbirth can be a subject on which heated opinions are easy to hold and defend.
On the one hand, come on! People give birth without medical attention all the time, and clearly they usually survive, since the human race hasn't died out yet.
On the other hand, yeah, they usually survive, but in a not-insignificant number of cases they don't. Why take a chance on being one of the unusual ones who doesn't?
I love the middle ground, so I'm just going to say that it seems like it's probably a good idea to have a skilled attendant of some kind, wherever you are, and that backup medical care is a nice bonus.
2 comments:
For a while, before library school, I got in the habit of watching a lot of the birthing shows on TLC and Discovery Health. They were all enough to make one believe that no birth ever happens without major complications. I had to just stop watching them. Still, I think I want a medical expert present any time I am planning on doing anything that could go horribly wrong right when I need to be around to be the most responsible for anything I've ever been in my life.
I figure it's probably not as horrible OR as easy as one might gather from various sources. But definitely something I'd want to consult knowledgeable sources about should the eventuality arise!
Post a Comment