It’s not unusual for new mothers to seek out other new mothers for support. They share information and experiences about birth, breastfeeding, sleeping and the awe of having created a new life.
In contrast, in freebirth groups they share information about their dead babies. It’s not really surprising that there are lots of deaths in freebirth groups since freebirth (also known as unassisted childbirth or wild pregnancy) is birth without medical assistance of any kind. Even so, I’m surprised at just how many deaths there are.
[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]How many babies have to die preventable deaths before these women wake up to the harm they are causing?
[/pullquote]
Several weeks ago I shared a story about a recent freebirth death of baby Journey Moon:
So the surges keep coming every day, but still no baby. Just making me more and more tired and my body ache everywhere. Nothing I could do would ease the pain but I tried so hard to stay positive.
My water broke the evening of the 4th and was discolored. Since I was 42 weeks I thought it was normal. But as the days went by it got more foul smelling and turned a sick poop color which was constantly leaking and the baby stopped moving on the 6th.
I woke on the 7th with so much pain and pouring meconium that Chris and I agreed it was time to transfer.
Not surprisingly, Journey Moon was dead.
The widespread publicity about that death did not stop another mother from letting her baby die at freebirth.
As Katie Paulson reported on Patheos, the mother reached out to her freebirth group after 6 nights of prodromal labor and 48 hours of ruptured membranes.
At this point, the mother is beginning to doubt her choice of moving forward with the labor at home. However, the group cheers her on, encourages her that the issues are normal, and provide suggestions to help the labor progress…
The mother seemed to be satisfied with the responses she received from her friends in the group. After a few exchanges, the mother left the conversation. Then the group went completely silent. For more than two days, members bumped the thread, tagged the mother, and tried to get her to respond to ensure she was ok.
She was okay but her baby was born dead.
Freebirth is an incredibly fringe practice yet there have been two deaths in just a few weeks. But that’s not all. In this particular freebirth group of only 400 members, 3 others immediately responded with stories about the deaths of THEIR babies.
It has been 4 years since my daughter was born sleeping… I’m here if you need to talk.
And:
I lost my daughter at 8 hours old 11 weeks ago to group B streptococcus.
And this:
We will be praying for you! My son died shortly after birth in June…
Notice a theme? Lots of women have let their babies die in a cult-like devotion to a bizarre practice that has no parallel in other times, places and cultures.
I know that freebirthers are emotionally immature: supremely egotistical, reflexively defiant of authority, unwilling to admit mistakes, incapable of accepting responsibility for their own actions and entirely devoid of any empathy for their suffering babies. Even so, they should be capable of learning. The only question is how many babies have to die preventable deaths before these women wake up to the harm they are causing.
