ABSTRACT

Free birth or unattended birth excites fascinated, and often horrified, interest among the public, midwives and the media. It appears to many as an utterly nonsensical activity in a country and an age when maternity care is free, midwives are highly trained, obstetrics commands sophisticated technologies and hospitals are striving to provide more homely environments to enable women to relax and enjoy the birth of their babies. It is easy to dismiss women who choose free birth either in a kindly if patronizing manner as ‘hippies’ or in a less kind and more defensive manner as ‘irresponsible’. Women who free birth their babies may stimulate genuine incredulity amongst other women, or may provoke them into justifying their own decision to have their babies in hospital. Such a defence often refers to the ‘safety’ of hospital, thereby claiming the moral high ground for the mother who presents herself as taking responsibility for the well-being of her baby by choosing a medical environment in which to give birth.