E-Mail 'Birth- Part 1, by A.E.' To A Friend

Email a copy of 'Birth- Part 1, by A.E.' to a friend

* Required Field






Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.



Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.


E-Mail Image Verification

Loading ... Loading ...

14 Comments

  2. In a survival situation, please do not take pregnancy or child birth lightly, having attended over 1000 c-sections and complicated deliveries over the last 40 years things can go south very quickly.
    In days past up to 20-25% of women died from pregnancy complications or child birth.

    1. Anyone who has children of childbearing years (or younger, for that matter, too) and is not stocking condoms in their preps is not being fully prepared—

    2. In a relatively short term emergency, avoiding pregnancy makes sense. However, in a real TEOTWAWKI situation, children are the only means of long term survival. Any group that is not fertile in that situation has no long term future.

  4. The sad truth is that in a more primitive environment the old laws of survival will maintain and people will suffer and people will die. It is within my lifetime that it was not uncommon for half of all children born to die before reaching age 18, many from childhood diseases that we now vaccinate against and then never give another thought. I had three brothers and one sister who died before I reached age 10, I was almost one of them. Childbirth is “easy” 95% of the time either in ideal conditions or in primitive conditions. It’s that 5% that will be very problematic if our medical environment regresses back to a 19th century situation and the results for both mother and child will be roughly as it was in those times. This will be true for common illnesses too. People will dies from pneumonia when they were strong and healthy mere days ago. It is a reality of a pre-modern medical environment.

    1. Excellent article! I’ve had a lot of first-hand experience with sphincter law myself. The more relaxed you can be, the better labor goes; and I’ve now had three 22 hour labors (and a 1 1/2 hour one…yikes!), so I can only imagine what would’ve happened had I been fighting the hospital staff the whole time to keep them from pushing things along.

      Folks saying that the kids will die or that we’re going to experience a rash of problematic births forget that a lot of knowledge we have now can still be put to use in a bad situation. Most diseases that kids used to die from are greatly ameliorated with proper understanding (let’s start with clean water and pasteurization techniques!). And any prepper not learning how to make colloidal silver is missing out on a huge medical benefit. I actually know someone currently dealing with the SHTF situation in Nicaruagua who is having to help a birthing mother who was scheduled for a routine C-section and is curing a terrible infection from a boat propeller accident with colloidal silver. She has been a great resource in learning what’s useful and what’s not recently.

  5. A.E.,

    Excellent! What a great topic and often overlooked subject matter.

    The power of a nurse’s tongue…it can work wonders or destruction (same goes for a doctor’s tongue).

    I look forward to part II.

  6. Great topic. If things change radically birth control will be an issue. When people are stressed they seek comfort with one another. There are tricks to help birthing moms. The book “Where there is no Doctor ” shares some of them . A home birth can be a good experience but having someone with training can and has spared lives. Having basic birthing equipment can save lives too.

    1. Look up Natural Family Planning. It can be used to avoid pregnancy, get pregnant, or space births. The only equipment needed is a thermometer.

      Condoms do not last well.

  7. Life on the homestead is full of birthing tutorials . We have helped on hundreds deliveries of every kind from cats to cattle. It will seldom surprise us anymore when something goes south . The reference to those that give suck and the pronouncement of woe would be inevitable in a large scale nuclear conflict . Radiation kills multiple times faster as age regresses . Those babies sucking would be the first to suffer devastating results from nuclear contamination . Us old guys would probably go on with life as normal . That is why after a long career in the power industry I am anti-nuclear . It is a curse that intensifies as the age of the victim is reduced .

  8. Remember a three strand cord is stronger than two. Having topics on child birth which the father can plug into is just as important. I’m not too keen on all this male bashing promoted through the public schools. They’re are good men/fathers out there and not all are bad as they can/will/want to plug in.

  9. Something everyone should have in their preps is a sterile disposable emergency birthing kit. You can find these online, google this and you can find single kits that range in price from $12 up to about $20. I have been a critical care nurse for 30 years (ICU or sometimes ER) but never in L&D. So I have really been researching this, as I have daughters of child bearing ages. I bought mine on amazon, I bought the Medline 6 pack for about $149.00 (currently now see they are $169.) I have no connection to Medline, but I have used many of their products over the years, and have used them to stock my supplies at home. I feel that they have a really good product. Secondly buy all the hard copy books you can on childbirth!

Comments are closed.