ACOG has come out with an opinion on home birth.
Not surprisingly they are against it.
I should care because they share biased information that many people will take as truths.
But I think in the end moms who educate themselves will make the best choice for them. For some the best choice is hospital birth and for some the best choice is home birth.
I think that the moms who chose homebirth are like me, they don’t care what ACOG thinks. They understand that ACOG is about protecting OBs, not protecting moms.
If you care and want to hear what they said, here are some blog posts about it.
Stand and Deliver posted the whole ACOG position. So you can read it there. Interesting comments in the comment section.
Unnecesarean had a great post too.
Mama Birth quoted from it and added her own thoughts. She sums up by saying:
I think the reason that the powers that be care at all about home birth is not that they are worried about yours or my safety, it is because they realize on some level, that birth can be much more than they will ever be able to offer in their hospitals. They don’t want the word to get out. That, could hurt their bottom line.
Again, my point. ACOG’s purpose isn’t to protect moms, it is to protect OBs. Since I am not an OB I don’t care what they think. 😉
Which is exactly what I told them when I emailed them- that they are NOT the authority over my birth. Not that they give a rip what I had to say but I had to say something. Well said!!!
Exactly. I won’t support their bottom line by handing them my birth. Home birth is WHERE it’s AT!
Interesting to note that right under that article they have the following:
Referring to the Wax meta-analysis, whose conclusions excluded the largest study of home birth and included flawed studies known to include unplanned home births
Why quote and base a theory on a study that is flawed and biased. It shows lack of professionalism, and down right stupidity.
Good for you for e-mailing them. Maybe if all of us did that they would take notice. Or maybe it would just scare them more!
just to clarify, it appears that footnote about the source of the stats was added by the blog author (Rixa) who reposted the position, and not included in the original ACOG position