have ya'll noticed all the slamming of homebirth going on in the media right now? the ama and acog were threatened by the truths spoken about in the film, business of being born. they have launched a full fledged campaign against homebirth.

I think I'm going to mass e-mail this but I'll start with ya'll:

The "study" that is constantly being quoted is called, The Pang Study, in midwifery circles (maybe outside, too, but not sure). It was a study done in Washington state. The authors used birth certificates to determine the safety of homebirth. They misuse words, like for example, they say in the study:

We examined birth registry information from Washington State during 1989–1996 on uncomplicated singleton pregnancies of at least 34 weeks' gestation that either were delivered at home by a health professional (N = 5854) or were transferred to medical facilities after attempted delivery at home (N = 279). These intended home births were compared with births of singletons planned to be born in hospitals (N = 10,593) during the same years.

Birth registry information DOES NOT INCLUDE intended delivery plans. Have you seen a birth certificate before? It doesn't include information like, "the mother planned to birth her baby at home." The Florida Friends of Midwives wrote a response to this study here:

http://www.cfmidwifery.org/pdf/pangstudy.pdf [1]

And here is the actual so-called "study":

http://www.greenjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/100/2/253 [2]

I feel like I need to do something about this. Not sure what, my mind is brewing, though. I also just hate the idea of being associated with a group. No matter how worthy. I know, I have issues.

The legitimate study that has been done on homebirth is not even being mentioned:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416 [3]

Go figure. It is frightening to no end that this is happening. I mean, I have always *known* that the medical community lies to the American population but have never seen it happen to something so dear and near to my heart.