"When looking for somewhere to deliver a child, there are - broadly speaking - a couple of options available. Most people opt to deliver their babies in a hospital, surrounded by medical professionals and technology. Others prefer to work with midwives and doulas. While there are differences between the two, they have one thing in common: a certain level of experience and familiarity with the process, including knowing what to do if complications ensue."
"And then there's the idea of "free birth." A paper published in 2024 in the journal Midwifery described free birth as "the deliberate decision to give birth without a regulated healthcare professional." Unfortunately, there's a troubling component to a popular group of free birth influencers - and it's likely to have led to multiple instances of death and chronic medical conditions that could have been avoided."
"Kale and Osborne focus on the efforts of the Free Birth Society, headed by Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark, which The Guardian notes takes an especially doctrinaire approach to free birth, eschewing ultrasounds and "[promoting] wild pregnancy, meaning pregnancy without any prenatal care." If you read the above and think that that's a recipe for disaster, you are not wrong."
A group called the Free Birth Society, led by Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark, promotes deliberate unassisted childbirth that rejects regulated healthcare professionals and prenatal monitoring. The group advises avoiding ultrasounds and embracing 'wild pregnancy' without prenatal care, and distributes content across podcasts, YouTube, and paid Zoom courses reaching millions. Several pregnancies linked to these practices involved clear medical issues, yet participants often declined emergency medical intervention such as calling 911 or going to hospital. Those choices have likely caused preventable deaths and chronic medical conditions that could have been avoided with standard medical care.
Read at InsideHook
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