Unassisted Childbirth - History

History

The UC movement grew out of, and is an extension of the natural childbirth movement, pioneers of which include Grantly Dick-Read, Robert A. Bradley, and Fernand Lamaze. Influential proponents of UC include Marilyn A. Moran, Jeannine Parvati Baker, and Laura K. Shanley.

Moran, who wrote several books advocating UC, was motivated primarily by a strong belief that childbirth is a private, deeply sexual experience that should be shared only between intimates. This belief led her in 1972, after nine conventional births, to give birth to her tenth and final child with only her husband in attendance at their home.

Parvati Baker, a yogini, writer, poet, herbalist, and "spiritual midwife", coined the term freebirth to describe UC. Following the birth of her own children, she began to advocate for UC, speaking at conferences, giving interviews in various media, and writing extensively on the subject. Parvati Baker credits Moran for persuading her to practice and promote unassisted childbirth: "I was a young mother when Marilyn Moran wrote to me thirty years ago. Characteristically, she got right to the point. She told me that my work to promote midwifery was missing the boat. She had a better idea. Her letter changed my life. I had my next three babies without the paid paranoid in attendance, and expanded my own book, Prenatal Yoga and Natural Birth, to include these freebirth stories."

Shanley, a writer, poet, and self-styled birth consultant, is the author of the book Unassisted Childbirth (1993), which helped popularize the practice. Inspired by the writings of Dick-Read, Shanley, who has no formal training in gynecology or obstetrics, gave birth to all five of her own children unassisted and with no prenatal care. Four of them survived; Shanley's fourth child, born four weeks premature in her bathroom, died a few hours later of a heart defect, pneumonia, and sepsis.

In response to the recent growth in interest over unassisted childbirth, several national medical societies, including the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, have issued strongly worded public statements warning against the practice. Professional midwives' associations, including the Royal College of Midwives and the American College of Nurse-Midwives also caution against UC.