Tragically, you cannot make this stuff up.
From a Facebook UC (unassisted childbirth) group:
Baby girl got her MRI yesterday. There appears to be no damage to her cerebrum (higher learning) but there is damage to her Thalamus/Basal Ganglia area (deeper brain that handles body functions like blood pressure, temperature control, libido, etc… She is not swallowing spit or choking … Smetimes I feel remorseful when the what ifs come but it could have happened anywhere.
What happened?
I free birthed her but she got stuck in the birth canal. I birthed her head but could not get her shoulders out (she was 11lbs 9.5oz with linebacker shoulders). After 4-5 minutes I called paramedics who took about 2 minutes to get there. I got her out before they got there but she was unresponsive. They cut the cord immediately against my wishes. We should have killed that guy. Anyways, she was recovering under cooling therapy for 3 days to limit organ damage and has been recovering since.
So let’s see if I get this straight. She tried to deliver a massively macrosomic baby without any medical assistance of any kind. The baby’s shoulders got stuck (shoulder dystocia). The baby went without oxygen for more than 5 minutes. And this women thinks the problem was that the paramedics cut the umbilical cord?
[pullquote align=”right” color=”#c59db8″]Unassisted birth: worrying about getting lion fur on your sweater when cuddling the lion instead of worrying about getting mauled.[/pullquote]
How could anyone be so stupid?
It’s easy in the world of homebirth where every day is opposite day.
Since every day is Opposite Day, there are never any complications, only “variations of normal.”
Since every day is Opposite Day, labor isn’t agonizing, it’s orgasmic.
Since every day is Opposite Day, birth in water, although unheard of in any other primates, is “natural.”
And most importantly:
Since every day is Opposite Day, you should trust what is most dangerous and fear everything else.
If homebirth represents anything at all, it is childbirth WITH fear, just fear of the wrong things.
When homebirth advocates say “trust birth,” they don’t mean “trust pregnancy” and they certainly don’t mean “trust oxygen deprivation.” What they mean is trust anything that another homebirth advocate tells you and nothing that a medical professional tells you.
They fear not getting enough nutrients, but they don’t fear developing gestational diabetes.
They fear not getting enough exercise, but they don’t fear pre-eclampsia.
They fear for the baby’s microbiome in the advent of a C-section, but they don’t fear the baby dying in utero of fetal distress.
They fear cutting of the potential oxygen supply of the umbilical cord after birth when the baby can absorb oxygen through its lungs, but they don’t fear the cutting off the only oxygen supply of the umblical cord during birth while the baby suffocates.
And then they rationalize the tragedies by insisting it could have happened anywhere.
No! It wouldn’t have happened if she had a C-section for macrosomia.
No! It wouldn’t have been as bad if she hadn’t been outside the hospital with ZERO medical assistance.
No! It wouldn’t have been as bad if a doctor or nurse trained in neonatal resuscitation had been present.
She feared giving birth in the hospital, but apparently she didn’t fear her daughter’s NICU stay, the IVs and the prodding and the pain of that NICU stay, the cooling therapy necessitated by the profound oxygen deprivation of the birth, or the brain damage that resulted.
Now this mother thinks they should have killed the paramedic.
How dare she? She is the one responsible for the baby’s oxygen deprivation and brain damage and he was the one trying to save the baby’s life.
That’s right. It’s HER fault and only her fault.
I want to send a message to the members of the Unassisted/Freebirth All Are Welcome,Facebook group who encouraged this mother.
This is YOUR fault, too.
It’s your fault because you lack the critical thinking skills to make the most elemental decision that human beings need to make: telling the difference between what is dangerous and what is not.
Listen carefully to me and hopefully we can avoid more cases of death and brain damage to your own babies:
CHILDBIRTH IS DANGEROUS. IT KILLS AND INJURES BABIES.
You worry about the wrong things.
Unassisted homebirth is the equivalent of worrying about getting lion fur on your sweater when cuddling the lion instead of worrying about getting mauled.
The things you obsess over: nutrition, exercise, herbal supplements, delayed cord clamping and the microbiome among others are lion fur. Childbirth is putting your baby’s head in the mouth of the lion. It is entirely normal for the lion to bite it off.
And pretending that it could have happened anywhere is the equivalent of pretending that the folks at the hospital would have let you put the baby’s head in the lion’s mouth … and whining if they did not.
