new york matthew jasper 35 a poet from farmington had a brainstorm after the birth of his second child he said to his wife next time why dont we do this by ourselvesso they did on april 11 1999 beatrice jasper delivered eudora in the playroom the videotape camera was rolling matthew and their two sons 2 and 4 watchedmy first child was born in the hospital and the second at home with midwives beatrice said this seemed the next logical step when i was 7 months pregnant i found all of these references in internet to have a mothers hands be the first ones to touch her baby seems so important to methe jaspers were alone at the birth of their daughter but far from alone in the birthing style they are linked to a closeknit network of parents across the united states and abroad who are choosing doityourself deliveries the parents call it unassisted childbirthnational statistics are not available but the internet provides an abundance of web sites chat groups and links to books and home videosabout 40 couples gathered at two national conferences the first in 1998 in charleston and the second in july in louisvillethe movement for unassisted birth is small it hardly rates being described as a movement but it demonstrates in an extreme fashion a dissatisfaction that some women have with obstetrics the women say they are not fighting the establishment but simply avoiding itdeanne williams executive director the american college of nursemidwives said she could not condone unassisted births but understood the desire these women feel empowered to make a statement but it is a sad statement the majority of births are normal and healthy so its hard to appreciate that things can go wrongno statistics are available on complications because many women do not tell their doctors that they are delivering their own babieshusbands help some but many mothers do not want any help they usually squat allowing gravity to ease the baby through the birth canal and then reach down and let the baby wriggle into their hands when everything goes smoothly babies will glide out of a mother without nudging by a doctor or nurselori and marc a couple from new york had a lotus birth they did not cut the umbilical cord it stayed attached to the mother and baby for two days and then dropped offbeatrice jasper delivered her fourth child albion on feb 25 after doras birth jasper said one of the first things i said was that was fun i want to do it againnyt news service