“I just prayed to the universe, to God,” the Canadian woman said on a podcast for the Free Birth Society. “I would know if I had to transfer myself to hospital.”Her birth story is among dozens posted online by the Free Birth Society, an activist group and online community with 23,000 followers on Instagram. Co-led by Yolande Clark, a New Brunswick mother of seven, the Free Birth Society encourages women to claim “sovereignty in birth” and to trust their intuition. “I trusted him entirely” to move into a more birth-able position, Stephanie said on a recent podcast with Free Birth Society founder and CEO Emilee Saldaya. And, while free birthers describe themselves as unwavering feminists, their rhetoric can shame and frighten women who choose to birth inside “the system.”The free birth movement horrifies obstetricians.

Source: National Post November 22, 2018 19:05 UTC