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On Natural Birth...
The real question about safety is not whether you want a pleasant birth at home or a safe birth in the hospital ? It is, “Do you want to give birth at home and run the miniscule risk of an emergency that might (but not necessarily would) be handled better in the hospital, or do you want to give birth in the hospital and run the considerably increased risk of infection, the certainty of additional stress, and the near certainty of having unnecessary (and potentially risky interventions?”) ~ Henri Goer

Members of the home birth movement have chosen their alternative form of care not through faulty understanding of medical principles, but as a result of active and reasoned disagreement with them. ~ Bonnie O’Connor

Birth Movement in Bulgaria

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In the 1920s and 1930s my great-grandmother gave birth to 10 children in her home or in the field.


Now in Bulgaria the hospital birth has no alternative and Bulgarian women give birth to one, at the most two children. These mothers have painful experiences, attended with the offhand manner oh the hospital staff, the treatment of a woman like a body on the delivery table rather than an active birth-giver, any other kind of medical intervention /unnecessary episiotomy, periodic vaginal examinations, the use of electronic fetal monitors, oxytocin, analgesics during labor and delivery/.

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3 years ago I met a family, which has had an unassisted home birth. They looked so happy and satisfied. Talking to them I became deeply convinced that their decision was a result of a long spiritual development and a lot of information. So I started reading about active birth and I learned that the ideal environment for an active birth ensures the mother privacy, semidarkness, silence and at the same time, the proximity of an experienced person.


My first daughter was born in 2007 in a hospital and when strong labor began I had to lie passively in bed, semireclining for the last 6 hours, was given obstetric medications , had to put up with many internal examinations, had episiotomy, and my baby was taken away from me immediately after birth.


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This negative experience  motivated me to give birth to my second child at home.


Meanwhile in Bulgaria was established “Estestveno” /”Naturally”/ association /www.estestveno.com/, with the purpose of popularization of active birth in a hospital, regulation of the assisted out-of-hospital birth, and teaching of traditional midwifes. One important initiative of “Estestveno” association is the petition to promote active birth policies and practices and to improve the quality of maternity care services /http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/promote-active-birth-policies-and-practices/sign.html/. Despite it was signed by a large number of people /1755 signatures/, there is no response from our Health Ministry. And mothers started educating themselves, and began to give birth unassisted in their homes.

 

All the 8 mothers I know are intelligent women, who made this choice after a long preparation and training. They got their inspiration one from the other and from you, Clare. During your visits in Bulgaria in 2008 and 2009 you inspired us with confidence in our female power and in the wisdom of our bodies. You helped and encouraged me too and this gave me the power to manage with my unassisted breech birth. My daughter is a happy and healthy baby and we both feel excellent after the birth. Nobody has taken her away from me and her father. We burned the umbilical cord about 3 hours after birth and she fell asleep. This is the most significant and the greatest event in my life. I staked on faith and love and there was no place for fear. This home birth brought us – me, my man and the baby very close together and inspired me with incredible power and self-confidence that I can manage everything in my life.

 

 

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There are two reasons for me to give birth at home :

    • Because this is the best way for me and the baby;
    • Because I want that women take back the control and the responsibility of childbirth.