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BORN IN PEACE-A
photo essay of
birth the way it was meant to be. Pho·
tographer Jackie Knapp relives here
birth and next seven months of her
grandson, Justin, born in a birth center.
Father and Mother, in robe, with Justin
(not yet visible to the eye), walk
through hospital corridor to birth center
with prívate bedrooms. Mura l of ocean
divides hospital proper from very home–
like birth center. Top, joy to the worldl
Here is your son, Mother (Grandmother
keeps wiping tears in order to focus
through camera). Left center, Dad
gives his son first bath. Justin, at home,
about 12 hours old, lower left, looks
into Mother's tace. Left, when 24 hours
old, Justin peers over blanket. Nursing
at five months, right center.
At
seven
months, left above, nursing in Mother's
gentle embrace. Center, Justin sleeps
in peace.
August . 1981
Western Europe, have one of the
lowest infant mortality rates.
That must teach us something."
Studies inside the United States
also show the desirability of alter–
na ti ve birth.
M edica/ World
News
(of all places!) in its April
19, 1976, issue, reported a study
done fo r the California State
Department of Health by Dr.
Lewis E. Mehl. He found, after a
s tudy of 1, 146 women who deliv–
ered, or attempted to deliver, at
home, that home birth resulted in
lower
death rates than the Cali–
fornia average.
Tonya Brooks, prcs ident of the
Association for Childbi rth at
Home, l nternat ional (ACH
1) ,
has recently complctcd a re–
search project indicating the sta–
tistical superiority of home births
from studies done as early as
been con fi rmed by a 1980 report
published in the
New England
Journal of Medicine.
Women
who had a companion had fewer
complications and shorter labors.
As one of thc researchers said ,
in a statemcnt carried over thc
Associ ated Press wire service:
"Certai nly a rule is that no moth–
er should cvcr labor and deliver
without a companion. That's
awfully clear."
The st udy also showed that
women who had companions with
them
were m ore affectionate
toward their newborn babies.
To
paraphrasc the prophet Malachi,
the prese nce of other famil y
members "turns the heart of par–
e nts towards their children ."
(Compare Malachi 4:6, "And he
[Elijah] shall turn the heart of
the fathcrs to the children... .' ')
And no doubt, as anyone with any
common sense can figure out, the
presence of fathers in delivery
rooms will also create a greater
bond of affection between fathcrs
and their wivcs and children.
A rel atcd aspect of natural
childbirth is that the mothcr can
immediately hold her newborn
baby. As any number of mothers
can tell you, there is simply no
more reward ing momen t in a
mothcr's lifc than being able to
hold and breast-feed her child
immediately after what is, under–
:o~
statedly, called "labor. " The New
Testament , interestingly enough,
(¡
L--------=--------_. ;t
says much thc same thing:
1895. The papcr will be available
to the public in September 1981
from AC
H1
headq uarters, Box
39498, Los Angeles, CA 90039.
A Family Event
One would hope that childbirth
would be an event that would
bring a family closcr together–
not apart. One of thc hallmarks of
natural childbirth is thc
presence
of the father, and oftcn, of other
relatives as well.
1
n the standard hospital de–
livery, the father and rcst of the
family are purposcly cxcluded
from the delivery. Yct the wis–
dom of allowing a woman in labor
thc presence of a close compan–
ion- prefet"ably the father- has
"A woman when she is in travail
hath sorrow, because her hour is
come: but as soon as she is delivered
of the chi ld, she remembereth no
more the anguish, for joy that a man
13