Most people don’t know much about midwifery. I didn’t.
From what I’d seen, home birth could be weird. I didn’t want some New Age backwoods hippy-gypsy fanning me with feathers or rubbing crystals over my belly any more than I wanted doctors and nurses unnecessarily probing me or capitalizing on my vulnerability.
Some people assume home birthers are ignorant and irresponsible. From the stories I’ve heard, I agree that some are. A lot of people think home birth is scary. “What if you hemorrhage and die?” they ask, or “What if you have the baby before your midwife gets there?” It seems like someone always knows someone who knows someone to whom it happened.
If we ask good questions and educate ourselves, we realize anything can happen anywhere. Statistically, women are safer birthing at home. And if a woman is at risk for complications, signs usually present themselves beforehand.
I never went into pregnancy with a mindset of what was wrong with my baby. I knew my baby was growing and protected because I felt it in my spirit since conception. There were no signs anything was wrong other than how sick I was—and a woman’s sickness is not necessarily an indicator of her baby’s health.
But a lot of people believe it is.
In America, it’s ingrained in our minds that the ways of conventional Western medicine are the be-all and end-all of medical care. They are not. There’s a place for both allopathic and alternative medicine. But today, as more people awaken to the big business of healthcare and pharmaceuticals, more people are seeking alternative care. It’s one reason why the number of home births in the U.S. has increased to the highest level in 30 years.
Every woman should feel safe wherever she decides to give birth. In my area, there aren’t many options for childbirth. You either give birth at the hospital or at home. Some people are completely fine with going to the hospital. They feel safe there and trust our healthcare system. That’s great for them.
I’m not one of them.
The thought of having my baby in a hospital made my face flush. I pictured myself arguing with doctors and nurses who wouldn’t respect my beliefs and would pressure me to make decisions with which I didn’t agree.
Many compassionate people work in our healthcare system. They are my childhood friends, relatives of my childhood friends, family members, neighbors, and business clients. I know sometimes some of them have to deal with a lot of crap that no one should ever have to deal with. I’m glad they do, though, because someone has to, and I appreciate them very much.
However, when people never question policies or procedures, and ignorance overrides patient care and preferences, those who know must raise concerns and challenge institutions.
We have to speak up and push back.
Although I had difficulty reading and looking at screens while pregnant, I was able to learn enough to make informed decisions.
When I discovered that one ultrasound is equal to 250 chest X-rays, I couldn’t entrust my prenatal care to a medical system that continues to deny their harm.1
What I learned about ultrasounds was so disturbing that I started asking questions about a lot of things.
Like what do ultrasounds do to us cellularly?
Why do fetal deaths outnumber infant deaths in our country?
Why does the most industrialized country in the world have the highest first-day infant mortality rate?
Why do we rely so heavily on technologies that do not benefit the outcome of pregnancy?
And why does the medical system continue to deny the harm of ultrasounds after an Australian doctor, Stan Barnett, published his findings about their danger? In doing so, he was blacklisted by the government and ordered to discontinue further research. At the same time his study was published, the FDA increased the maximum allowable output levels on ultrasound machines by eight times, from 94mw/cm2 to 720mw/cm2. 2
I didn't care that doctors and even home-birthing midwives continued to tell me ultrasounds were safe when evidence showed otherwise.
Instead, I found a midwife who respected my request to use a fetoscope instead of ultrasound and manual methods to determine my baby’s positioning.
Thankfully, the Lord led me to a mother of midwives who had welcomed over 4,000 babies into this world. She’d trained most of the midwives in our area, was a Christian, lived 10 minutes down the road, and had a wonderful apprentice with whom I connected.
Charlie attended every appointment with me in her clean and comfy home office. Every appointment was medical-based and charted. They measured my weight, tested my urine, blood, and hemoglobin, and spent one to two hours talking to us about everything from nutrition to alternative medicines to birthing expectations and breastfeeding. I could call or text them anytime and ask as many questions as I wanted. I never felt rushed. I always felt heard, even when we disagreed. And they never referred to me as "geriatric." (At the time, her oldest patient was 47 years old.)
My midwives also guided me to homeopathic remedies like Nux Vomica, which provided relief from my severe nausea, and Arnica, which I used in place of ibuprofen or Tylenol. Instead of that nasty glucose drink I had heard so much about, I used a natural alternative, The Fresh Test, that tasted like lemonade.
Their care far exceeded any I had received from any OBGYN. I always felt better leaving my midwife’s house. And I was thankful for these women who would deliver my baby.
But when the time came, and after 24 hours of active labor, they started whispering about the positioning of my baby.
Their touch had comforted me throughout labor, but when they removed their hands from me, suddenly, all the energy was sucked out of the room. I wasn’t scared, but I felt alone, trapped in contractions, and at a loss for what I was supposed to be doing.
My birth team had assisted me as much as they could. Now, on my way to the hospital, my only help was God.
1. Jim West, DUS Hazards, excerpts from Jim West’s third book on childhood disease, published in the April 2017 issue of Townsend Letter, harvoa.org/chs/pr/dus_haz.htm, citing Z. Hocevar, et al, Gene expression profiling of rat fetuses exposed to 2-dimensional ultrasound, Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, Jun 2012, 31(6):923-32, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22644689 and D. Liebeskind, et al., Morphological changes in the surface characteristics of cultured cells after exposure to diagnostic ultrasound, Radiology, Feb. 1981, 138(2):419-23. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7455124
2. Ultrasound dangers to the developing fetus. Part I, EMF Facts Consultancy, EMFFacts.com, Aug 6, 2009, citing a study done by Dr. Stan Barnett, Section Manager of the CSIRO’s National Measurement Laboratory’s Division of Radiophysics, and author of the 1994 report “Status of research on biological effects and safety of electromagnetic radiation: telecommunications frequencies.”
Ted Nace, Conflicts of Interest: Understanding the Safety Issues Around Prenatal 3D Ultrasound, Jun 2, 2005. vaclib.org/basic/ultrasound.htm
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