I am a 53 year old woman who has had a life of weird twists & turns, the loss of both my parents, adoption by two very abusive step-parents, 9 brother & sisters in varying degrees of blood relation or not at all. I ran away from home Rochester Adams High School (where Madonna attended)  in 1970 at age 15 after yet another beating with a belt, and the first person to give me a lift was the only teacher in High School I admired, Mr. Guererri. He didn't even ask why I was leaving school & hitchiking away in the middle of the day. He just must have known. I hooked up with some hippies from Detroit & hitchhiked to California when the winter hit in Michigan that year. I ended up in godawful Indio, California "The Date Capitol", where I met my 1st husband, whom I married at age 17. I also had my first baby at 17 & was subjected to much disgust & disrespect from the military doctors I had to see because "daddy" joined the Marines to support us, or go to jail for some stupid infraction. He was a Mexican immigrant, legal though, with a greencard. I listened intently to these OB-Gyn's not knowing any better, took the crappy prenatal vitamins & was told aspirin was just fine for my headaches & teeth & the result was a terrible pregnancy complete with morning sickness, headaches, tooth loss, varicose viens, hemorroids, insomnia, terrible charlie horses.  I flew back to Michigan to my step grandmother & grandaddy's home to deliver, as Daddy was at boot camp. I delivered a 7lb 3oz baby boy after 3 days of labor. The Dr. who actually delivered my son I hadn't even seen before, ironically his name was Dr. GERBER! He ended up doing a large episiotomy & dragged my son out with forceps. All of the babies in that hospital had the forceps bruises on their heads. All of this was routine procedure at that time, & the cause of many a case of cerebral palsy. And of course he was jaundiced.  Of course I had had an epidural put in as soon as I entered the hospital. It was humiliating to say the least to be half naked during the whole 3 day fiasco, & having random anonymous people come in & stick their fingers into me without so much as a "how do you do" first. In fact, I kicked the hand out of me during one of those because it hurt so bad & he couldn't have cared LESS, wouldn't even look me in the eye. I had another nurse come in & grab my leg fold it, & shave me, & had an enema which I had to discharge in the hallway bathroom, much to my embarrassment. After this, Dr. Gerber told me I couldn't have a baby over 7lbs naturally. THEN, after I was discharged, I felt like my entire pelvic floor was broken. In the hospital the nurses kept dragging my baby away & parking him in the nursery, & I kept dragging him back into my room.(They guit trying to stop me eventually)  3 days was the stay then, & one day they brought all the babies to moms to feed, except mine. Off in the distance I heard a baby screaming. They circumcised him without my consent or knowledge. Then didn't tell me how to care for the incision, so months later the skin had reattached & the damned pediatrician literally ripped it apart on my poor baby, revealing a red raw gash, as he screamed in pain & shock.  Another thing the OB didn't tell me about until I found sex to be painful & bloody, was that he put in "the husbands stitch" when he sewed up the episiotomy. This was in 1973. My son always seemed to be a little out of touch, & I even took him for testing looking for WHY he just was in his own world no matter what I did. I now truly beleive & no one can convince me from the AMA that those 3 continuous days of epidural & pitocin, & forceps  didn't affect him.

How else can you explain the epidemic numbers of Autistic /Ausbergers/Add & ADHG that this country kids are afflicted with? I will bet you nine out of ten times the mothers had numbing & stimulant drugs during birth. And, toxemia, preaclampsia from overall poor nutrition.

In 1978 I was divorced & having my second child, a girl, only this time-I was in control, & had a homebirth. Midwives in Maryland & really anywhere except maybe a few areas of the country were rare, especially those who were backed up by an OB-Gyn. I was lucky enough to find her, & I was her first home birth client & what an experience we had together! The baby's dad & I painted the midwives church as payment for her 17 hours of by my side care, & her apprentice as well, & I educated myself on alternatives to hospital birth by reading all I could find on this, & took the classes they offered. I had also been tutored by my Nana, a registered nutritionist & had a completely different approach to eating & suppliments, & experinced NONE of the awful symptoms I had with my son. If I missed a dose of my calcium/magnesium (dolomite) I knew because I'd get a charliehorse. If I missed my Vitamin E 400IU my varicose viens & hemorroids would flare up. I had no insomnia, or headaches, & I attribute this all to excellent nutrition, & the AMA prenatals are NOT adequate. My daughter was 10lbs 51/2oz. And not jaundiced. She got stuck at the shoulder but the midwife  got her out, with her skill & the apprentice pushing my abdomen. At one point I had gotten tired & kinda stalled in my progress, & Kate told me, "Kathy, if you don't dilate in the next 30 minutes, we will have to go to the hospital." The hospital in this case, was in SE Washington DC. At the height of the crack baby abandonings & deliveries, by the way. And-a male Dr. I did not know would be in charge & I would have my whole birth taken out of my control. Well, that was all it took. I dilated fully, & when I felt the need to push, I pushed & it felt SO good. When Kate came over to my bed with a sewing kit afterward I asked her what she was going to do, & she said, I had torn a little down the old episiotomy scar & she was going to stitch it up. I said-NO WAY!! Stitches have always terrified me for some reason. She said, ok, but your'e going to have to keep your legs together, & I said NO PROBLEM! For the next 6 weeks, I put vitamin E on the area, & so as not to urinate over it (OUCH!) I fashioned a "penis" out of a dixie cup, in which I poked a small hole in the bottom & held the cup in place at my urethra above my tear.( I shared this tip at moms meetings too) When she did my 6 week checkup she said she was amazed. I had healed BETTER than if she had stitched it. I also had continued on my vitamin therapies to heal. And, it was not anywhere near as painful as the husband's stitch was either. My daughter was large & slightly cyanotic, so she was sent to the hospital just for a checkup. Her left arm was also numb. The boneheads, without my permission, exposed her to 17 different xrays before she was hours old. They placed her in isolation, she was a huge caucasian germ & had to be contained!! For the next couple of days they continued to do stupid stuff to her, such as made her blood sugar drop. I asked why, & they said, "she regurgitates when we put the feeding tube down her throat" WELL-DUH!! There was no rhyme or reason to that. It's like they simply did not know what to do with a healthy white big baby from a homebirth. The day after that I called for progress, & now the dr. wanted to keep her because she was developing a STAPH infection!! I said- THAT'S IT! Get the doctor, I am signing her OUT! And we did, & she came home & fed immediatley, & had no staph infection.  I had physical therapists come to check on her from the county after that. We needed to be kept an eye on, you know, crazy homebirthers!! They didn't give me a diagnosis on her arm, I looked at medical books until I found it was Erbs Palsy. They didn't offer any therapies for it either. So, I kept the arm pinned up so as not to hang there, & every waking moment, whatever she did with her right arm I made her left arm do in tandem. I did this for months because the arm was intact even if it was pulled & nerves were damaged, I felt it could learn to work. I was doing the usual imitations one day & had her left hand in mine & when she dropped her right one I dropped the left I I SAW IT! Resistance!! I picked the arm up & let it go again, & THERE IT WAS AGAIN! She was gaining use of the arm!! this occurred in her 6th month of life. Although her arm is shorter by a couple of inches it isn't really noticeable, & her angelwing in the back protrudes more than usual when she lifts things it is pretty much a fully functioning arm. Way better than little baby size arms I have seen on adults. A mothers instincts are good to listen to & not squelch.

My 3rd baby was in 1984. My 3rd marriage too, this time my husband is Filipino. And Catholic, & staunch church goer military type by the book people, except for my husband, the black sheep. So, of course, they all thought I was nuts too like my daughters family did, but at least they were country folk way back. These people well, they wouldn't even discuss my plans with me, like it wasn't going to happen if they ignored it. But, after the time I gave my midwife with my daughter, we were sure this was gonna be a breeze. I wasn't going to have another ten pounder, I laid off the brewers yeast a little, but still stuck to the tried & true megavitamin therapy & again didn't have any of the "usual accepted" problems listed in the first pregnancy. Everything was going along fine, until, 1 week before I was due, the baby went breech. We waited a week to see if he would turned back head down but on my due date, no, he was still head up. So, we contacted the ONLY OB in the entire tri-state area that would attempt an external version. We were so disappointed at the thought of the hospital. My appointment was the next day. I went home with instructions to elevate my hips & keep pushing on him to see if I could get him started, & in doing so, being so determined NOT to have the perfuntory C-section, I put myself into labor. I called my midwife Kate who lived in Maryland, I was in Virginia now, & she said, have a glass of wine, get in the tub & see if the contractions would slow down. As soon as I sat down I contracted & got right back up, & my water broke. I immediately got into the hands & knees position with my tail in the air, as my husband called Kate back, & she called her associate in Va, Joyce, who flew over to my house. The rescue squad was there already because it was ILLEGAL to homebirth a breech or "high risk" delivery. The rescue squad had run in as I was in my balancing act in full labor, & being men, started pulling on my appendages I was supporting myself on, BP, pulse, oxegen, WHATEVER, I am in labor-LEAVE ME BE!! Joyce came in & checked me & the baby was a footling breech & his feet were already descending & visible. The "LEGAL" rescue squad was saying "We have to transport!" & the nearest hospital was about 15 minutes away, & Joyce said"You can transport, but this baby is going to be born in the van." Silence. They turned white, & Joyce said.."Okay-stand back & watch how it's done!"And sent 2 of them to watch Monday night football with my older son in the living room. I don't know where my husband was! And she proceeded to tell me I could turn over & push & GOSH what a rush that was! YES!!! So I am pushing & 2 of the guys, I will never forget them, were SO compassionate to me, & so respectful to Joyce, were holding my hands & looking directly into my face saying you can do this!!! The baby came out as far as his chin & the labor stopped. Joyce said "Stand up!" "Stand up & push",& she reached into me & inserted her fingers into my baby's  mouth so he wouldn't suffocate before his head was delivered, & she was looking for scissors or a scalpel,but didn't need them, she manipulated his head out & there he was!! On the floor, alive & breathing & beautiful. The whole thing start to finish was 3&1/2 hours. He was 8lbs. 1oz. Neither one of us needed to go to the hospital, we were fine. In fact GREAT!! It was SO sweet when my older son came in the room afterwards & saw the baby & asked if he could hug him. It was too bad Kate didn't get to attend this one, but Joyce was wonderful. She saved my baby's life that night. He would have suffocated in the birth canal during the drive to the hospital for certain.

later on, some head honcho from the AMA or OBGYN Boards or something was trying to make trouble for the local midwives was doing some snooping around in the birth records & made noises about hearing someone had delivered a breech birth at home & he wanted to see the records. At that time, we clients kept our records with us. When I was told about this I replied"WHAT records??" And we had a quite understanding about the situation.

I have made this observation as well in my studies: In all of the literature given to women who are attended by doctors for birth, the only REAL natural birth is explained in the very back of the publication.

It is under: EMERGENCY BIRTH.

As you can see I am incensed that the doctors on your show, especially today, & when Rikki Lake was a guest are still propogating the myth that birth is a dangerous journey, & you better have that epidural ready. And you better be damned scared of that pain, boy! And the BEST line was"Women have actually DIED from the pain in childbirth!!" HOW despicable for you to spout that out to a bunch of first time ready to pop mothers sitting in your front row today. I could NOT believe I heard that, & It was WHOLLY irresponsible for you to put that FEAR FACTOR into the public.

That fear factor is what has allowed the medical industry to reduce practicing SKILLED midwives to fewer & fewer numbers, & YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED. Maybe, though, you are  OVEReducated on complications, on top of being UNDEReducated on the natural birth process. You completely dismissed the possibility that this can occur safely, & beautifully, if mothers ARE LEFT ALONE during the labor. If a mother works with the labor pains, they are PRODUCTIVE  pain, they are not a negative' we must STOP this pain.' Your interference & fearmongering is what stops productive natural labor & birth. I have seen it OVER & OVER on TV in birth stories. If a woman is in the hospital, even in a birthing room, the nurses & doctors & machines, & IV's & STUFF &  STUFF & MORE Machines that go "PING" are waiting for a moment of weakness to pounce upon the mother & take it over so the DOCTOR can come in at the last minute & DELIVER the baby. Yay. Then you can send a REALLY BIG BILL!!! And the mom is bummed out that she didn't go natural, but heck-everybody implies-THIS IS THE NATURAL WAY HERE IN THE HOSPITAL!! YOU DID GREAT-see ya next time!

I saw what the medical industry has done to some of the midwives here in Alexandria. My daughter went to them, fully intending to go through a home birth in 2000.  I only had a bit of confidence in them with my daughter & unborn grandson in their care & that was because one of them knew my Kate.

They turned out to be a bunch of buffoons who have been so deconstructed by laws & rules & regulations & scrutiny of overseeing MEAN OLD MD.s & OBGYN's that they haven't the confidence to guide anyone. I was so angry at their ineptness I could hardly STAND it. And, my daughter ended up in the hospital, epidural, with a slouch of a yawning doctor who came in at the last minute to stretch her & tear her & take just enough time to bill her for "delivering" the baby. AND-She should have gone to the hospital WAY before she did instead of waiting while these idiots are trying  to talk her into paying THEIR fee at the birth center. I fully blame the midwives in her case for the birth ending up in a hospital, & the attitude they display is more like, Oh, aren't we cool that we do this! No, they are not cool, they are products of years of doctors undermining them & not letting them practice the skill fully.

Doctors do not know how to deliver any baby that isn't completely by the book. They head to the knife. 

    Now days, if you want a homebirth like it used to be, it is almost about going underground to be hidden to avoid inteference. Women who undertake a homebirth are SELF educated & SELF motivated & SELF confident. It is not selfish to want dignity & privacy & gentleness & time with your baby alone to bond. It is wrong to grab a baby away. weigh it, clean it, wrap it up, show it to mom & rush away with it to some nursery, unless it is an ill baby & mother.  

Natural birth is a woman's birthright.

Doctors should only be there for the ill & infirm, & they need to stop turning birthing  into a disease to be afraid of, BE VERY AFRAID OF, as I saw you do today. 

Soon, homebirth may become illegal like it has in  Australia. Western medicine has actually reached THAT far now.