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Alternative Parents

  1. #9
    prone_to_wander is offline Registered User
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    Happy V,
    So lovely to find you. I think some unschooling, particularly when they are small is very appealing to me and then perhaps a Sudbury school or its ilk.

    I have heard that you can register a birth if you have photos of yourself pregnant but it is something I'm looking into. I might just call the registry myself.

    I think the term radical feminist not need be so scary. But I do like looking at gender paradigms and pushing the boundaries a bit.

    Matty, It's cool. I have no problem explaining things but I just ask that people be open-minded. I think the thing that I get out of unassisted birthing is that giving birth is natural for women and that we need to trust our instincts more. I know for many women they can do this with a midwife but some want even more control. Here is a forum on it if you want to know more. Unassisted Childbirth - MotheringDotCommunity Forums

    Also, I'd much prefer staying at home but as you mentioned, finding a midwife in Hong Kong is really difficult to do. An unassisted birth is in the back of my head but I'm not sure I have the guts to do it. We'll see.

    Thanks for your replies!


  2. #10
    thanka2 is offline Registered User
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    Here are two more videos related to unassisted childbirth. If nothing else, the videos are useful for coming to grips with childbirth (or at least, that's what I used them for prior to giving birth).

    [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP1-KMKvuxk"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/nomedia]

    [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIt1O-StoIs"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/nomedia]


  3. #11
    Matty is offline Registered User
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    No problem, when it comes to birth, I'm completely openminded.
    I was fortunate enough to have two amazing birth experiences using hypnobirthing.
    I spent most of it at home, and had wonderful midwives in the hospital that weren't pushy and let my hubby and I do our thing.
    I would have loved to have a homebirth 2nd time, but personally wouldn't have been comfortable without a midwife on standby.

    If you do give birth at home in HK registering a homebirth here apparently isn't as difficult as you would think.


  4. #12
    monte is offline Registered User
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    I'm curious about all these hospital, midwife, drug and intervention-free births you guys are talking about...were you here in HK? That's how we had our son, back in the states, but from what I'd heard this was going to be very tough to do in HK. Not that we've done much research--we honestly just planned to wait until we were back home to have #2. But if there's plenty of support here for that type of birth, then maybe we don't have to wait .... =would you mind telling me what hospital you delivered in? And did you have to be quite assertive to not have interventions, or not have them give the baby a bottle?


  5. #13
    Matty is offline Registered User
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    I delivered both of mine in public hospital, the first a Queen Mary, the 2nd at Prince of Wales.
    Believe it or not, I think it's can be easier to have an intervention free birth in a public hospital, as you don't have to deal with an obstetrician you have paid who has his/her own ideas of how your birth should be.
    I saw a Dr for only 10 mins during my first birth, she saw she wasn't needed and moved on. From there it was just a midwife who didn't do anything until I started pushing.
    Didn't even see a Dr for my second.

    I was very clear that I wanted no intervention and with a little insistence my hubby and I were left to do things our way.
    They seem to offer you as little as possible in public hospital, which can work to your advantage if you want drug and intervention free.

    I stayed at home for as long as possible, and only went to hospital for the last couple of hours.

    At Queen Mary they didn't offer bottles if you were BF, but at Prince of Wales they insisted that my 4kg baby who was BFing fine needed one due to his 'massive' 8% weightloss!
    It's not a problem if you are assertive and can stand your ground.

    Last edited by Matty; 07-01-2009 at 10:54 PM.

  6. #14
    Shenzhennifer is offline Registered User
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    I think the idea of homebirths, unassisted or not, should be taken along the same lines as any birth plan - at the end of the day(literally!), with a grain of salt.
    If I had insisted on a homebirth, I don`t think I would have ended up with such a healthy baby, or one at all.
    It would be interesting to find out how many homebirthing experiences end up at the hospital and what finally prompts them to go? When your water breaks and every last drop of fluid leaves you along with a bit of the cord...? just an example... How can you tell the position of the baby`s head? Do you use a fetal monitor to measure the baby`s heartrate with your contractions? What happens if you hemmorage? What happens if there is something wrong with the baby and it needs immediate intervention?
    It seems like there is too much luck and gambling involved and too many what ifs.
    Homebirthing sounds like a nice idea in theory, but for me, I am more comfortable with being surrounded by professionals in a hospital or birthing centre.


  7. #15
    carang's Avatar
    carang is offline Registered User
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    i'm with you shenzheniffer...but i had two VERY, VERY complicated pregnancies...

    even if they hadn't been, i think i would still have gone for the professionals around me. but, that's just me. i've had too many friends develop serious complications before, during and after to even consider a homebirth.

    good luck if that's what you want to do. I hope you can find someone in hk to help as i've heard it's really difficult registering the birth etc.


  8. #16
    Matty is offline Registered User
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    In Europe homebirths are very common and just as safe as hospital births.
    There are plenty of websites that show statistics.

    Here in HK for my first, I had a midwife with me at home.
    She came to my house after my water broke, she monitored my sons heartbeat, checked his position, monitored my blood pressure and made the cups of tea!
    I had gotten to know her well during pregnancy and was completely relaxed with her.
    She was also my hypnobirthing coach.
    If you want her to, a midwife at home can do as much monitoring as in hospital.

    8 hrs into labour when things were obviously moving along, we jumped into a taxi and went to hospital.
    2nd time my hubby and I did it on our own.

    If we'd been in the UK or just about anywhere else for that matter, we could have continued on at home with no problems.
    We also would have had things like oxygen and basic resucitation equipment on hand, and an ambulance service that is set up to deal with birth complications, that gets you to the right place a quickly as possible.
    Which for the majority of births is never needed.


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