This article was written after I undertook some informal research on a freebirth forum that I am a member of, on why women choose to freebirth. This is what I discovered ...

Terminology

Firstly, I’d like to just address the issue of terminology regarding birthing without medical assistance;

While the term Unassisted Childbirth (or UC - coined by Laura Kaplan-Shanley in the book entitled Unassisted Childbirth) is commonly used these days to refer to a birth that is planned and occurs without medical assistance, the term ‘freebirth’ seems to be generally preferred by freebirthers themselves, as they consider their experience to be one that is ‘free’ or ‘freeing’, whereas the term Unassisted Childbirth implies that childbirth ought to be assisted by someone, and that the mother cannot or should not be doing it by herself.

Also the idea and term of ‘assistance’ is further muddied by differing opinions on what constitutes ‘assistance’. The desire for a birth that is not medicall...