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Stay-At-Home Mom, Indeed

Home-birthing 'strange and magical,' but trade-offs hurt—like Mo. law against midwives

By Paul Stinson,  Newser User

Posted Jun 27, 2008 4:08 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Home-birthing isn’t only strange and magical—it requires some covert-operation skills, Madeline Holler writes in Babble. After finding she preferred an attending midwife in the birth of her first child, Holler found using one for her second to be illegal in Missouri, where she'd moved. As such, she found, "there were trade-offs in going off the grid to have a baby."

“Sure, flaxseed oil and white oak bark alleviated constipation and hemorrhoids," Holler writes. "But for a rash on my breasts, why yogurt in my bra? Couldn't I just use an ointment?” After a successful birth, the fate of the placenta also took unexpected twists: "Most of my moms bury them," the midwife said. "Placentas are great fertilizer."

Article author Madeline Holler is shown here in a photo taken from the Babble website. Holler developed a preference for midwife usage during her first pregnancy on the East Coast, but had to rely on an underground network to find a midwife in Missouri whose laws forbid midwives from hospital...
Article author Madeline Holler is shown here in a photo taken from the Babble website. Holler developed a preference for midwife usage during her first pregnancy on the East Coast, but had to rely on...   (Babble)
A soon-to-be mother is shown here. Madeline Holler's illegal Missouri home birth could have led to her midwife being charged with a felony for performing her duties.
A soon-to-be mother is shown here. Madeline Holler's illegal Missouri home birth could have led to her midwife being charged with a felony for performing her duties.   (Index Open)
A picture of a midwife is shown here. Facing the threat of arrest and felony charges, Holler's midwife, under the pseudonym Alice required a third of her $1,500 fee up front. Mother and child are doing fine. No one was arrested.
A picture of a midwife is shown here. Facing the threat of arrest and felony charges, Holler's midwife, under the pseudonym "Alice" required a third of her $1,500 fee up front. Mother and child are doing...   (Index Open)
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COMMENTS
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If you're going to turn you home into a delivery room, poke your head in here first
homebirth.org.uk

Is home birth safe?
Telegraph (UK)

 
pregnancy • motherhood • mothers • felony • placenta • Missouri • midwife • home birth

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