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I would freebirth if i could not homebirth. More likely i would invite a friend who happened to be a midwife (with their agreement of course!) over to assist and if anything went wrong i would call an ambulance and have her out of sight when it arrived. Trust is not an issue for me. If i trust someone with my child's life, pretty obviously i trust them to do their best not to get us both fined $30000.
Midwives in the US face this dilemma every day and still homebirths are done, and attended, whether it is legal or not. Eventually politicians will realise that you cannot effectively enforce laws governing birth any more than you can make it illegal for it to rain.
Bx
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I would like to encourage every woman out there to never let cultural norms, the economic climate, politics, laws, increasing technologisation of family life, beliefs, misinformation, scare tactics, expectations from family, friends, society or government, lack of freedom, the failure of democracy, oppression, persecution or ANYTHING else prevent you from choosing the safest, gentlest, wisest way to give birth, for the sake or your well-being, your baby's well-being and that of you family and everyone in it.
It doesn't matter what the law will be from next July onwards. We need to see the bigger picture. Right around the world, natural values and feminine wisdom is being denigrated and marginalised. In every society where technology is advancing, natural living skills are being lost, sometimes irretrievably. In countries where this is not a mutually honouring balance between the wisdom of the masculine and the wisdom of the feminine, you see the feminine being dominated and vital wisdom and skills being trodden under foot.
Every woman knows deep in her heart and soul what she is capable of and what she needs to give birth safely. You can't look at what is available, what is "allowed", what is even "legal" and then try to work within that. You need to start with your own deep wisdom, your own vision of what you know is right and safe and good for you when you are birthing. And then - choose that. And do whatever you need to achieve that.
Underground or not, we in Australia are part of a network of women and men in every country who are clinging onto the remnants of natural wisdom and knowledge, to preserve the love and gentleness and compassion needed to nuture our unborns, birth them safely, and parent them gently and kindly.
Don't give up and don't let any authority of home, church, state or peer group, dictate what is accepable for you. Access your own inner wisdom, then reach out to support, and feel the support of, women all around the world who instinctively know these things are too precious to lose and cannot be wrested from our possession so easily.
(Paradise I LOVE your last sentence, especially.)
