This site is was developed to promote a wonderful way to give birth, a method that has become known over the years by many different names: unassisted birth, unattended birth, unhindered birth, do-it-yourself (DIY) birth, solo birth, among others. It doesn’t really matter which name you choose to use, they all describe a birth that occurred without the attendance or assistance of a medical professional, such as a doctor, nurse or midwife.
You occasionally hear in the news about a birth happening while en-route to the hospital, but did you know there are people who actually intentionally plan to birth without medical assistance? Some choose to get traditional prenatal care, with or without all the major tests, while others forgo all prenatal care except for what they can do for themselves.
I did not know about unassisted birthing before my husband and I had our first one in November, 1991. As we prepared ourselves for the birth, I knew of no one personally who had done it. This was way before the internet was in common use so I did not have the opportunity to research on home birth, other than getting books from the library. And while there were many great books about planning home births with midwives, there weren’t many about planning to birth without one. In fact it wasn’t until a couple years after our second unassisted birth in March, 1993 that I discovered a newly published book by Laura Kaplan Shanley, titled Unassisted Childbirth. Within the pages of that book, I found that there were many other women out there just as crazy as people told me I was! I was truly fascinated as I poured through the pages of that book! In the years to follow, we had 5 more unassisted home births.
We are Christians, and God has blessed us with 12 beautiful children together, all the same mom and dad! 7 of our babies were unassisted home births all caught by their daddy! You can read my birth stories in the Unassisted Birth category in the birth story section of my site.
An unassisted birth is any birth that takes place without the assistance (or even supervision!) of a medical professional, like a doctor, nurse, or midwife. An Unassisted Childbirth (UC) can be planned or unplanned. All of our UCs have been planned and well-prepared for.
This site is here to provide you with the information you need to help you in your quest for information about birth. You will find my own personal childbirth experiences, as well as others who have had unassisted home births. Please browse their birth stories. If you would like to contribute your birth story, please do!
Be sure to visit my bookstore to review birth books that I recommend. You can purchase them directly from my site. The bookstore is in association with Amazon.com, and you can order through their secure server.
God bless you, and I pray you will have an open mind as you read about this most natural and instinctual way to give birth.