A Homebirth Handout I have created

Homebirth Books and Websites
* Available at Durango Public Library
Suggested Reading:Unassisted Childbirth By Laura Shanley
*The American Way of Birth By Jessica MitfordUnassisted Homebirth: An Act of Love By Lynn GriesmerObstetric Myths versus Research Realities By Henci GoerGentle Birth, Gentle Mothering By Sarah J Buckley M.DImmaculate Deception II By Suzanne ArmsSilent Knife, Open Season By Nancy CohenHard Labor By Susan L. Diamond
Birth as an American Rite of Passage By Robbie Davis Floyd
Pleasurable Husband and Wife Childbirth By Marylin A. Moran
A Woman in Residence By Michelle Harrison M.D
Outrageous Practices By Leslie Laurence
The Menopause Industry By Sandra Coney
Male Practice By Robest S. Mendelsohn
The Farmer and the Obstetrician By Michael Odent M.D *The Power of Pleasurable Childbirth By Laurie Morgan
*The Thinking Women's Guide to a Better Birth By Henci Goer
Childbirth without Fear By Dick Grantly Read
101 Reasons not to have your Baby in a Hospital By Jock Doubleday
(You can find it at http://www.spontaneouscreation.org/index.htm)
*Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care
By Jennifer Block
Primal Mothering in a Modern World By Hygeia Halfmoon Ph. D
*Giving Birth, Challenges and Choices (Video)
www.hospitalbirthdebate.blogspot.com
http://www.birthingnaturally.net/barp/main.html
http://www.freewebs.com/womenhealthybynature/index.htm
www.unassistedchildbirth.comwww.unhinderedliving.com/childbirth.htmlwww.empoweredchildbirth.comwww.sarahjbuckley.com
www.gentlebirth.org
http://www.birthpsychology.com/violence/odent1.html
www.compleatmother.com
www.birthecology.com
www.davis-floyd.com
"There is something wrong with a society that insists on making a complicated, expensive medical emergency out of a normal physiological function primitive women have been doing by themselves for centuries"... Cathi Cogle
Millions of Years of Evolution Can’t Be Wrong
“The best place to give birth is the best place to make love” Michael Odent M.D
Birth is safe, Interference is Dangerous!!!
Most Complications happen because of what is done to women in Hospitals.



Local Homebirth Midwives
Advent House Midwifery (970)759-5154
Ahmavine Midwifery (970)749-6318
Mountain Birth (970)708-1298
Juanita Nelson 385-2626
We have a secret in our culture, it's not that birth is painful, but
that women are strong. Laura Stavoe Harm
Birth is as safe as life gets. -Harriette Hartigan
Experiences have clearly shown that an approach which "de-medicalizes" birth, restores dignity and humanity to the process of childbirth, and returns control to the mother is also the safest approach. Michel Odent, MD
The best way to avoid a cesarean is to stay out of the hospital. Brooke Sanders
We need to get the information out there, babies are dying, women are crying and doctors are lying. Penny Groner
If we hope to create a non-violent world where respect and kindness replace fear and hatred, we must begin with how we treat each other at the beginning of life. For that is where our deepest patterns are set. From those roots grow fear and alienation, or love and trust. Suzanne Arms, author of "Immaculate Deception"
Being a Woman, being pregnant and giving birth is NOT A SICKNESS!!
HOSPITALS AND DOCTORS ARE FOR SICK PEOPLE!!
The first Intervention in birth that a healthy woman takes is when she walks out the front door of her home in labor from that first intervention all others will follow. M. Rosenthal
"In The five European countries with the lowest infant mortality rates, midwives preside at more than 70 percent of all births. More than half of all Dutch babies are born at home with midwives in attendance, and Holland's maternal and infant mortality rates are far lower than in the United States..."
"Imagine dancers on a stage. Once, doing a pirouette, a woman sustained a cervical fracture as a result of a fall; she is now paralyzed. We try to make the stage safer, to have the dancers better prepared. But can a dancer wear a collar around her neck, just in case she falls? The presence of the collar will inhibit her free motion. We cannot say to her, 'This will be entirely natural except for the brace on your neck, just in case.' It cannot be "as if" it is not there, because we know that creative movement and creative expression cannot exist with those constraints. The dancer cannot dance with the brace on. In the same way, the birthing woman cannot "dance" with a brace on. The straps around her abdomen, the wires coming from her vagina, change her birth."Michelle Harrison M.D
Over 87% of births planned as homebirths required no medical intervention at all.
Only 3.4% of women who began labor at home had a transfer.
Overall, for all the women planning homebirths, intervention rates were: epidural (4.7%), episiotomy (2.1%), forceps (1.0%), vacuum extraction (0.6%), and caesarean section (3.7%); these rates were substantially lower for low-risk US women planning hospital births.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists still opposes home birth, but has no valid evidence to support this position.
British Medical Journal 2005 Homebirth Study
Rising Cesarean rates, more than 55% in some areas, have resulted in the largest maternal mortality rates the U.S has seen in decades. National Center for Health Stats
A woman’s greatest tool in birth is her instinct when she uses it.
Don’t let your busy mind interfere with the ancient wisdom of your body Ina May Gaskin
Infection, poor hygiene, and poor nutrition was the major cause of death, not because birth is dangerous