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Unassisted Births
The Pros and Cons of This New Birthing Trend
By Kelly Burgess
"I encourage people to go out and look at the [unassisted birth] Web sites and come back to me with their questions so I can answer them," Dr. Librizzi says. "The work we do in the obstetrics field is based upon solid research, not anecdotal evidence. I advocate for people to be able to make choices, but you have to make logical and informed choices. Don't confuse a soliloquy with solid data."
Mairi Breen Rothman, a certified nurse-midwife and a consultant with the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM), understands why some women would opt for unassisted birth in a system she calls "so restrictive that people are choosing to opt out." This restriction includes the fact that in many areas of America women can't even choose a midwife over a doctor. It's a hospital birth with a physician in attendance or nothing.
"I think this trend has more to do with the current system we have in this country rather than the attractiveness of staying at home," Rothman says. "If women felt safe and listened to in a hospital or at home with an attendant this wouldn't be necessary at all. There's an accurate understanding [among women] that if they go to the hospital they will be interfered with, and at home with an attendant they may be interfered with."
Still, she worries about women who choose unassisted birth, likening it to swimming in the ocean without a lifeguard. You don't have to pay any attention to the lifeguard while you're swimming, but it's nice to have someone on the beach watching for dorsal fins.
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