Unassisted Childbirth Pioneers are In the House!

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Clik here to view.Lynn Griesemer, Laura ShanleyImage may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. and I are going to all be meeting in person for the first time on friday!

For the past few weeks I have been remembering all of the time we have spent writing, organizing, and connecting on the phone attempting to share the good news of Family Birth with anyone who would listen.

Lynn organized our first conference back in 1998 and I organized our second conference in 2001.

Lynn was good friends with Marilyn Moran before she died. Marilyn was the author of Birth and the Dialogue of Love.

And Laura and I were good friends with Jeannine Parvati Baker before she died. Jeannine was a powerhouse activist who wrote many books and spoke at so many conferences and on so many topics it was a blessing for me to have her as a friend.

Lynn and Laura and I did a radio show on the current status of birth in America a few years ago: Laura Shanly & Lynn Griesemer: Jenny Hatch Radio Show Nov 2011

And now these dearest sisters and friends will be joining our family for Allisons wedding on saturday and we will all be able to finally meet in person. It feels like a dream. Because Laura and I lived in Colorado for so many years we were able to spend many hours together, but we have not seen each other since I moved to Utah two years ago and I have been missing my Laura. Unassisted Childbirth was recently updated and is now available as a second edition book. And Lynns book Unassisted Homebirth, an act of Love is available on Amazon.

When I began teaching the Bradley Method of Husband Coached Childbirth with my husband Paul back in 1989, I had no idea where my little independent class was going to take me over the past 25 years.

For me it has been a spiritual journey, with such an outpouring of guidance from the Holy Spirit as I have moved from Mother to Educator to Activist, that I know as much as I know anything in my life that Heavenly Father is with us in this movement.

My favorite piece from the Messiah is He Shall Feed His Flock.

Here is the text:

He shall feed His flock like a shepherd

and He shall gather the lambs
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Clik here to view. Jesus_Bette_Myers with His arm, and carry them in His bosom,

and gently lead those that are with young.

(Isaiah 40:11)
Come unto Him,

all ye that labour,

come unto Him that are heavy laden,

and He will give you rest.

Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him,

for He is meek and lowly of heart,

and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

(Matthew 11:28-29)

I know that The Lord has gently lead me even while I was “heavy laden”.

Laura, Lynn, and I all realized early on that the internet was our best tool for outreach.

So we spent the time, money, and effort learning how to set up our own websites, blogs, and social media outreach. I also spent considerable time heckling the mainstream press with a variety of letters, emails, and comments to bully them into covering our movement. Laura told me she did not have the gumption to do what I did and I reasured her that I was content with being the pitbull of the UC Birth movement and she could be the Goddess Divine. We all have played our roles. Nobody has EVER asked me to speak at a conference and that’s cool. I know my style of communication is not the well modulated tone nice mormon girls are supposed to use. And perhaps because I heckled the media, few of them wanted to interview me, although I have done a few interviews over the years. My personal favorite was at

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Clik here to view. baby-s-day-out.839403.40 Denver Westword

In the early years the Media simply ignored us. For years it was complete silence. Then Lisa Marshall at The Daily Camera boldly decided to take us on and came out to interview me the week after our conference in Boulder. I bought ten copies of the newspaper and cut the article out and mailed it to all of the big news outlets with an accompanying letter letting them know they were all a bunch of chickens (bawk, bawk, bawk) if they persisted in ignoring us.

The New York Times contacted Laura a few weeks after I sent my letter and a few months later our first really big coverage was blasted out to the world.

I joked once to Laura that our portion of the Unassisted Childbirth movement was funded by our very wealthy uncles.

Uncles Visa and Master Card.

I literally sent the two checks that will finally put me completely out of debt yesterday. It felt so good to finally free myself from that bondage. So much of our family debt was tied to my birth and political activism and I give all praise, honor, and glory to God for helping our life to organize in such a way that we were able to pay off so much that was HEAVY LADEN over these past two years. We have lived in a situation where we were able to spend most of our money paying down the debt.

In contemplating this walk down the Sovereign Path together as a family, I feel so grateful that Family Birth is now a realistic and viable option for all young couples. Sure, the powers that be still hate us and no doubt will continue to attempt to bully families away from family birth into the Birth Machine, but for those couples who really want to take back autonomy over family life, they have many resources available to help educate them.

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ROUNDUP OF POSTS ABOUT THE SKEPTICAL OB, DR. AMY TUTEUR MD, ON JENNY HATCHS BLOG

Slavery has so many, many forms, and Medical Slavery is the most invisible to those who are caught in the midst of it.

I took the charge to free myself from my Babylonian Pharmaceutical captivity seriously and as the Prophet Isaiah challenged me in his writings…”loose thyself from the bands of thy neck oh Captive Daughter of Zion!” it has been incredibly empowering to do just that.

Here is a link to a list of my many posts on this blog detailing some of our activism. And this link will also guide you to some memorable posts.

Whenever I observe a young mother excitedly share an empowering birth story on her blog, I always feel a sense of satisfaction and happiness that our contribution and hard work has perhaps helped one more family, one more baby, one more mother, and it makes me content.

I will be even more joyful tomorrow night when I get to meet Lynn and Bob for the first time in person and we can enjoy some fun together as we celebrate Allison and Kyles wedding with Laura and Lenny and many other loved ones and friends.

Jenny Hatch

I wrote my book Elijah Birth for the Husband who is reluctant to help his wife with an Unassisted Family Homebirth.
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