Divide and Conquer: Pitting Homebirthers Against Freebirthers

An article was published in an Australian newspaper yesterday stating that four babies have died at homebirths in the past nine months. Let's put aside, for a moment, that the article didn't publish the number of babies who have died in hospital during that period, that when a baby dies at homebirth it is presumed to be avoidable and when a baby dies at hospital is is assumed there was nothing that could have been done to save him or her, let's also ignore the abhorrent fact that this article singled out one grieving mother to be the target of all attacks against homebirth, and let's forget for a moment that the article in question made reference to a study which attests to the unsafe nature of homebirth that is twenty years outdated and was not a study of planned homebirths at all, but a study of unplanned "births before arrival", and let us also forget for a moment that the same article failed to make mention of any of the many medical studies attesting to the safety of planned homebirth attended by a midwife (one study which is only four years old).

Instead, let's focus on the fact that the article did not distinguish between homebirth and freebirth. Why focus on this one aspect? Because this is the aspect that some homebirthers have highlighted on their own blogs, or in disucssions on birth forums across Australia. But mostly, because this aspect is the one that has the potential to best serve the opponents of all homebirths.

On the same day as the newspaper article was published one blogger wrote a piece "Homebirthing Vs Freebirthing: There is a Difference", the title in itself pitting two groups of homebirthing women against each other. Ultimately this piece was written as an attack on one group of consumers and their community. In the article she refers to women who freebirth as "radical fringe-dwellers" and concludes that "Freebirthers who actively shun medical assistance for their own selfish ideological positions, however, don’t help anyone. Least of all their babies."

The author's point is this; don't hate all homebirthers, just the freebirthers, women who homebirth with a midwife present are normal mothers who deserve respect, but freebirthers are members of a crazy cult and feel free to disrespect them (where then, I wonder, does this leave the women who had planned midwife attended homebirths but the midwife didn't make it in time?).

What this author fails to realise (in addition to the fact that freebirthers don't actively shun medical assistance or choose to freebirth because of ideology) is that this line of argument makes her, her own worst enemy (if she was hoping to improve the situation for women who homebirth with a midwife). I am reminded of a reworked poem on Empowering Birth Blog:

First they came for the unassisted birthers,

but I did not speak out, because I do not free-birth.

Then they came for those who birth at home with lay midwives,

but I would would not speak out, because I would not have a home-birth with a lay midwife.

Then they came for those who birthed with Certified Professional Midwives,

and I would not speak out, because I would not have a home-birth with a CPM.

And then they came for those who birthed in birth centers and with Certified Nurse Midwives,

but I would not speak out because I would not have a birth in a birth center or with a CNM.

And then they came for me,

and there was no one left to speak for me.


When the freedom of one group is under attack, freedom for all is attacked. This is why when the latest maternity services review recommended effectively making independent midwifery illegal (leaving women who want to birth at home with freebirth or nothing) freebirthers rushed to aid their fellow homebirthers, despite the fact that they don't hire independent midwives!

Homebirthers and freebirthers are not enemies. Nor are hospital birthers and homebirthers. We are all women navigating a system that we did not create, that was not created for our convenience, but for the convenience of care-providers, and we are all trying to make the best decisions for our own health and the health of our babies. To assume otherwise is to be the real fool in all this. Most of all, to pit yourself against another group of women who birth at home is to do the bidding of homebirths' enemies; dividing before concquering.