This Week in Illegal Babies

Madeline Holler writes about her illegal home birth.

Home birth, as such, isn't actually illegal anywhere in the United States. No state (or district) prosecutes women who give birth outside the hospital, at home or any other place. Twelve states and the District of Columbia prohibit direct-entry midwifery (the kind of midwives who will deliver babies at home, as opposed to certified nurse midwives, the majority of whom deliver babies in hospitals).

Although the American Medical Association has passed a resolution condemning home birth as a practice. I'll spare you the history lesson, but a lot of maternal death (as well as the politicization of abortion) resulted from 19th century doctors thinking there was no way a WOMAN could know more than they did about birthing babies. So, really, nothing new.

But it still totally blows, to put it eloquently. Particularly because most studies in countries where many (or most, as in Denmark--80%!) women give birth at home show no difference in outcomes for women and their newborns.