Last night, I previewed the film Freedom For Birth by Toni and Alex Harmon. The film explores the idea that childbirth is a human right, an innate right of women to choose where and how they give birth. The film explores this topic by highlighting two women, one a midwife in Hungary, jailed for attending home births and the second a woman who sued the country of Hungary for not allowing home birth. Her case, Ternovsky versus Hungary was heard in the European Court of Human Rights and it was decided that, yes, we have a human right to this choice and to have our choice supported by the State.
Do you believe a woman has the right to chose where she will birth? In the European Union, the high court says she does. What about women in America? What about women in Sub-Sahara Africa? What about women in Haiti? What questions does this issue raise for you?
After viewing the film, I was confronted with many questions percolating within me, questions that were societal, legal and deeply personal.
Issues and stories of women’s choices at the beginning of pregnancy (such as contraception and abortion) make front page news and are featured in political platforms. The questions generated by these early pregnancy issues are often seen as lines in the sand, lines that cannot be crossed for fear of joining the other side.
The stories and the very important issues around the end of pregnancy (such as childbirth) appear on blog and Facebook posts, generally finding the same audience again and again. Like preaching to the choir on Sunday, these posts are read by folks that are already ‘converted’. As with the issues related to earlier in pregnancy, these questions are hardly ever fully explored.
Even now, the morning after viewing Freedom For Birth, I ponder. There are so many subsequent questions that arise for me:
- Does a woman have the right to choose how she will birth? Is this a fundamental right?
- What if a woman chooses a physiological birth for this pregnancy and she previously has had several surgical births (vaginal birth after Caesarian, VBAC)? What if no providers in her area are willing to participate in this choice?
- What if a woman chooses a midwife attended hospital birth and there are no midwives with hospital privileges in her area?
- What if a woman chooses a surgical birth yet there is no medical reason (elective Cesarian Section)?
- What about the providers’s rights? Does the provider (nurse, doctor, midwife, doula) have a right of self determination after they join their chosen profession?
- What if a woman chooses a midwife attended hospital birth and there are no midwives with hospital privileges in her area?
- What if a woman chooses a surgical birth yet there is no medical reason (elective Cesarian Section)?
- What if she chooses to birth in her own home with a highly trained professional (CNM,CM,CPM, DO or MD for instant) but her state says home birth is illegal? What if this same woman then chooses to birth at home, alone?
- What if a woman has access, both legally and logistically, to a well trained and highly qualified home birth attendant, yet she still chooses to birth alone (unattended home birth or Free Birth)?
- What if others truly believe that a woman’s birth choice will endanger the yet-to-be-born child?
- What if that imaginary person is a nurse? Or a doctor? A social worker? What is the concerned person is the father (or other mother) of the unborn child?
- What if the woman simply wants a typical American birth, circa 2010 (hospital, physician, probably an epidural), but for personal and religious reasons she wants a female provider?
You can see how the questions start coming on their own, one generating another!
The list of questions above is long but I think that they are important. I invite you to view the film Freedom For Birth and discover your own questions concerning childbirth as a human right.
The worldwide premier of Freedom For Birth is this Thursday, September 20, 2012. In the Capital district of NY there are several showings, one at Colgate College, one in Cambridge, NY and one in Troy, NY.
Local Care Midwifery PLLC and Pregnancy Project are sponsoring a free showing: Freedom For Birth will be shown at The Guild House, 27 State Street, Troy NY. We will arrive and mingle at 6:00, start the movie at 6:30. After the movie, a mere 58 minutes, we will gather for refreshments and discussion.
I invite you to join the discussion. Come to a film viewing and talk after. Comment on this blog or others. Talk with friends and family. Let the questions arise in you. Speak your questions and explore them. Just be sure to listen, listen well to yourself and to others. There are important questions here. There are also important stories. So listen, listen well.
We hope to see you Thursday night.
~Michelle
May all babies be born into loving hands