According to researchers from the American Academy of Midwives (AAM), new mother, 24 year-old Ashley Lack, did not mention that she gave birth at home until repeatedly prodded by friends, an event unprecedented in the history of modern home birth.
The incident occurred at a Baby-and-Me Music Class, with several other young mothers gushing over Ms. Lack’s new baby Theo. According to one witness, “Ashley talked for nearly an hour about Theo without once mentioning that she had an unmediated home birth. When someone finally asked her about the delivery, we had to drag it out of her. She wasn’t embarrassed or shy, for sure. She just didn’t see what the big deal was.”
A spokeswoman from the AAM told The Spudd, “To our knowledge this is the first time a woman has given birth at home and not mentioned it within the first 30 seconds of discussing her delivery or the baby. In fact, most of our members blog, Tweet, or post on Facebook about their homebirth well before anyone else sets eyes on the child. Those who have access to podcasts, radio shows, or even TV use them to broadcast their homebirths, as they very well should.”
Gina Cohan, Ms. Lack’s midwife, said that while she understood her client’s desire to focus on Theo, “Ashley needs to remember that while Theo is cute, so are other children. What separates her from other mothers is that she was strong enough to endure the primal transcendence of home birth. They weren’t. If she doesn’t remind them of this at every opportunity, then really, what was the point of the whole thing?”
