----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 12:21
PM
Subject: [ozmidwifery] Fw:
[UCbirthnews] Unassisted Childbirth on the Discovery Health Channel
Given our recent
discussions about this brilliant dvd, I thought it might interest people
to see this.
Best,
J
Dear Friends,
As some of you know, Mindy is the woman who delivered her own twins
unassisted while her husband tended to their two-year-old,
and calmly captured the event on video. The result (other
than two beautiful babies!) was the inspiring DVD "Psalm and Zoya:
The Unassisted Homebirth of Our Twins" -
http://unassistedbirth.com/bookshop/videos/bv2_psalm_zoya.html
Mindy said the production crew was very nice. However, be
prepared for the usual dramatics those of us who have watched these shows
have come to expect. The description of the episode
on Discovery's web site reads as follows:
"A plan for homebirth with a midwife goes terribly wrong when the
pregnant mom has to deliver her twins on her own; and one of the babies is
a breech birth."
While it's true that Mindy had planned to have midwives at the birth,
anyone who has seen the DVD knows that she was not the least bit worried
when they didn't make it in time. In fact, she was fully prepared to
give birth alone and had planned for an unassisted birth throughout much
of her pregnancy. As she wrote in her birth story:
"Since we had conceived our babies naturally, we had no reason to
think we couldn't give birth to them naturally as well. We started
looking for a midwife. This was easier
said than done. We interviewed several yet none quite meshed with
how we wanted this experience to be. Rather than trusting in the
process, most of the midwives had fear about the birth of the second twin
and I did not feel comfortable having that attitude around me during
birth. We decided to simply go it alone. I had always wanted
an unassisted home birth...I just didn't think it would be with
twins! My husband trusted me to make that decision and felt
comfortable being the only 'attendant' at the birth. I knew in my
heart, soul, and bones that these babies needed to be born at home into
the safest environment possible and that the birth would go
well."
Once again, I am somewhat disappointed (but not
surprised) that the production company chose to put a
dangerous spin on the birth - at least on their web site. Let's hope
Mindy's optimism, enthusiasm and confidence comes through in the
actual episode.
