Spinuzzi’s Blog

Fox News reports (here) that Ricki Lake is under fire from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the AMA for advocating home childbirth. They contend that home is not the safest place to have a baby, instead stating that the safest place is in a hospital, birthing center, or other “approved” facility. Well, of course they would say that, not because it is true, but because if the trend continues they will lose their hold (read that as ‘source of income’) on the general public. To try to retain their hold on our money, these medical associations want to pass legislation to force us to pay them for what women have done for millennia without them: (from the article)

The AMA resolves in the statement to support state legislation “that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging that the safest setting” is a hospital, connected birthing center or other approved facility.

This is big business taking away our freedoms in order to take our money.
We had our first two children in a hospital. We elected for natural childbirth, but in the hospital’s birthing room. Our first daughter was born with the help of two interns and myself, as the nurse refused to call our physician, even after I emphatically informed her that the baby was crowning and my wife was at 10 cm. dilation! The doctor got there well after the birth. Then the hospital personnel got upset when, after two hours, we were ready to go home. Were they worried about the baby? Were they worried about my wife? No, they wanted us to check into a hospital room, even if only for a few minutes, so they could charge us for it.

Our next child, a boy, was born at the same facility. We had instructed the doctor and staff NOT to give my wife any drugs, such as Pitocin. Pitocin is commonly used to make the uterus clamp down to stop bleeding. Interestingly, if you just let the baby nurse right away, the mother’s body releases a substance which does the same thing, naturally and gently – unlike the ‘hard’ clamp-down of Pitocin. Pitocin is also transferred through breastfeeding to the baby. You can’t make me believe this is good for a newborn. (more…)