Yes your but looks big in that hypocrisy

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I support a woman’s right to bodily autonomy…But:


*Freebirth is not okay.

What you are saying here is that you support a woman’s right to make choices that you deem acceptable and reasonable. You’re saying that only some women are deserving of your support. But here’s a fact. Every single woman has a right to make health care decisions for herself. Not just some women, and not just choices that others find acceptable. She has a right to decide what is in her and her baby’s best interest.

I know people who will jump up and down to support women in their right to choose an unnecessary caesarean who are then exceptionally silent when it comes to supporting a woman in her choice to freebirth. This suggests to me that we are still facing a huge issue out there with “the system”. We’ll support you if you are in the system, being fucked over by the system, left traumatised and defeated and scarred by the system – but we don’t want to be associated with you if you leave the system. Because leaving an abusive relationship…sorry “system”…is just unreasonable.



*Women shouldn’t be allowed to have non necessary caesareans.

Again – who are you to suggest that women should only be able to make choices YOU deem acceptable. Women have a right to choose to birth their baby how where and with whom they like – including in an operating room. You either support all choices or you are supporting women. If women have the right to decline procedures they don't want, then we must also protect their right to choose procedures that they do want.

And goodness me - if I can have very non evidence based surgery to make my boobs perkier, my nose a nicer shape and my tummy smaller then it's a pretty small step towards saying that I'm allowed to birth my baby surgically.


*If you cared about your baby you’d do the GTT / have that extra ultrasound / take that vitamin pill and just shut up

Everyone has a right to decline medical treatment and recommendations. All the time. It’s a legal right and it doesn’t go away just because you are pregnant. NOTHING is risk free and the only person who has a right to decide which risks they are willing to be subject to is that person whose body will bear the consequences.

Could you imagine if we flipped this one around and started telling women that if they truly cared about their baby they’d step up and make an informed decision based on wide research, care provider advice and their own individual circumstances? Women who opt out of “standard care” are not trading it for sub-standard care. They are trading it for gold standard care. The kind that is woman focused, woman led and evidence based.



*The doctor has your best interests at heart

Maybe. Maybe not. But we are back to that pesky right to make an informed decision. Yep – even if your doctor thinks something else would be best for you they don’t have the legal backing to make that call.

And even if they do genuinely want what’s best for you – who are they to decide what’s best for YOU? They aren’t you. A doctor who want’s what is truly best for you will ask: What do you feel is best for you? And will then step up to help you make that happen.


*The hospital policies are in place to protect you and your baby

I’ve been involved in the writing and review of public policies. I can assure that the primary concern of those writing them is the protection of those who are bound by them – in this case the hospital and it’s staff. Oh…you didn’t know that, as a consumer, you aren’t bound by hospital policies? Well…you’re not. And it’s a good thing too, because many of the hospital policies are not evidence based, but are based on being able to provide evidence (in support of the hospital) should you decide to sue.

Oh...and that pesky little right to make an informed choice. Policy can totally be something that informs your choice, but policy isn't fact or evidence. It's just what they want you to do.



We all know that whenever you use the word “but” you completely negate anything that was said before it. So here’s the 60 million dollar question – Do you support a woman’s right to bodily autonomy? Or is your but looking a little big today?

#Birth


%matterhatter