The American Medical Association (AMA) made a statement this month regarding home birth, which came as a response to all of the great publicity Ricki Lake's new documentary The Business of Being Born has been getting. It's a great film about birth in America, and the option of home birth with a midwife. Basically, the AMA wants home birth to be outlawed. Period.

Back in February ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) issued a statement on home births reiterating their already long standing objection to women birthing at home. In their statement they accused women of putting their babies at risk for the fad of home birth. The statement as a whole is riddled with misinformation and fear, this being my favorite:

"Choosing to deliver a baby at home, however, is to place the process of giving birth over the goal of having a healthy baby."

This is such a horrible accusation. The worst I feel. To say a woman would rather stay home and give birth because of a trend, fad, or personal statement on "the establishment" is ridiculous. To say women put themselves ahead of their babies is totally wrong. Mother and child are a unit, a team. They work in unison, and birth is not about one without the other, or one that deserves more safety over the other. That is the part physicians are missing. It's not about baby and the danger baby is in --It's about MOTHER AND BABY and the job they do together. Neither mother or baby are biologically designed to die in childbirth. They are made for each other. Choosing to leave the actual trend of hospital birth is a choice women make out of education not selfishness. It's choosing normalcy. Birth is the only part of our innate human make-up that has been put under fire. Managed, monitored, made dangerous. Nature is not always perfect; sometimes sex hurts, sometimes we fall down, sometimes we choke on food, sometimes we get sick from disease, or drowned in water, or have health disorders, or have birthing problems, but we are not broken beings for any of those reasons. Life is not immune to risk, pain, or death. Birth is the main component of life, and therefore is as safe as life gets.

LISTEN TO WHAT WOMEN ARE SAYING. I am not alone. It's not just me wanting things to change...

I am not selfish for wanting solitude and privacy to give birth. I don't want to be strapped to machines, needles, or medications while I labor because it's not good for me or my baby. I don't want to be told to abstain from drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes for my pregnancy and then told that induction drugs (that aren't even approved by the FDA for use on pregnant women) and narcotics are perfectly safe.

I am not selfish for not wanting hands inside of my vagina. It hurts me and can hurt my baby. It can cause my water to break unnecessarily, introduce bacteria into my womb, and make my cervix flinch in fear and pain while it's trying to dilate and let my baby out. It's also disrespectful to my body to reach into me without my permission, it's my body and it's the most private of areas. If I don't want my cervix to be checked it won't be checked. It should be my decision and not something I have to endure or something I can't say no to. I do not want electrodes attached to my cervix so you can see my progression on a machine and manage me, or a heart rate probe screwed into my baby's head. This violates us both.

I am not selfish for wanting to eat, drink or replenish my body during labor if I so wish. If I'm thirsty I will drink, and if I need energy I will eat. I am not a prisoner of birth, I am a follower of my body. When my body tells me it needs something I will listen.

I am not selfish for not wanting to be on your time clock. I don't want to be induced for your selfish reasons or c-sectioned because my body isn't fast or efficient enough for you.

I am not selfish for wanting to walk, crawl, stand, sway, dance, sit, or pace during labor. For wanting to be in my bed, my room, my living room, my couch, outside, inside, or in the bathroom. Being off my back feels good and provides maximum blood oxygen flow to my baby. Being in a bath or shower relaxes my body and in turn speeds my labor. My body works hard and fierce naturally to bring my baby out.

I am not selfish for choosing to NOT have my labor and birth managed and controlled by a profession that wants to institutionalize me and "fix" me. I am not broken.

I am not selfish for wanting to squat to give birth. It opens my pelvis much wider and uses gravity to my birthing advantage. Other women are not selfish for wanting to be on all fours or in any other position to give birth. Bodies are different and babies don't need to come out against gravity and at a incline unless that position feels good to the woman. I do not want my knees held to my ears. You will not hold my vagina open in such a fashion. The only advantage lying on my back serves is so the physician can have his face and hands in my vagina. I'm not selfish for not only wanting a comfortable birthing position, but also one that doesn't make me feel like I'm being taken advantage of.

I am not selfish for wanting to give birth in a quiet and familiar environment. I don't want to "push" my baby out to your requests when you say I am 10 cm and ready. I want my body to give birth to my baby. My baby doesn't want forced out. I don't want to swell or forcefully push until veins burst in my forehead or rectum. I don't want to be cut with scissors because my vagina isn't wide enough for you. All of these interventions listed slow my recovery time and inhibit my ability to care for my baby.

I am not selfish for wanting to bond with my baby after birth. To meet him or her and nurse this new being before any thought to dress him ever crosses anyone’s mind.

I am not selfish for wanting to wait for the cord to stop giving my baby blood and placenta to detach on its own, allowing my body maximum time to clot and clamp down preventing bleeding or danger to me or my baby.

I am not selfish for wanting to make my own educated decisions. And I should be respected, supported, and guided. I expect to be honored as a pregnant mother-to-be and not treated as though I'm ignorant.

I am not selfish for wanting to go to the hospital only if an emergency occurs instead of in case one occurs.