‘Ignorant and life-threatening’: experts condemn Free Birth Society misinformation | Childbirth

The Free Birth Society (FBS) is a multi-million dollar company that promotes the idea that women give birth without medical assistance.

It is run by two ex-doulas turned social media influencers: Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark. Neither have any training in midwifery or medicine, but they claim to have extensive experience attending other women’s births.

Through its successful podcast, Instagram account, private online community and online schools, FBS has gained a global audience. An investigation by the Guardian linked FBS content to infant deaths and serious maternal harm around the world.

FBS did not respond to requests for comment. After the Guardian’s investigation was published, Saldaya posted a statement on Instagram criticizing “mainstream news propaganda.” “That’s what it means to be a disruptor,” she said. “They will try to discredit you. They will lie about you. They will try to silence what they don’t understand.”

A disclaimer FBS posted in May said its content was intended for “educational and informational” purposes and was not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical problems related to pregnancy or childbirth. “For medical advice, consult your healthcare professional,” he adds.

Below, four medical experts respond to examples of FBS claims about pregnancy and childbirth.

Norris-Clark told students enrolled in FBS’s MatriBirth Midwifery Institute (MMI) in 2025 that while she was sterilizingd surgical scissors used to cut umbilical cords out of respect for its customers, there There was no risk of infection, even if an “old rusty fork” was used. “I don’t believe in the germ theory,” she said. “But even if the contagion were real… there would be a greater number of cases. 0% chance of anything happening.
Soo Downe, a midwife and professor at the University of Lancashire, said this was very dangerous advice. A significant number of babies in low-income countries die each year from sepsis, she explained, after having their umbilical cord cut with dirty instruments or sealed with substances such as used motor oil or unsterile petroleum jelly.

Asked by an MMI student in 2024, what should you do if remnants of the placenta remain inside a woman’s body a few days after giving birth?she gave birth, and sheIf there is a fever, Saldaya suggested that a husband or friend would be better suited to clear them than a “random pervert in a hospital.” “I said, ‘Johnny, my husband, you’re going to dive.’»
Mary Littlefield, a Texas homebirth midwife with 25 years of experience, said it’s dangerous. Manual removal was not a “casual skill” that anyone could perform, she said; it carried a range of risks, including infection, perforation and hemorrhage. Such a procedure should be performed by a trained professional, she said, adding: The idea that a postpartum fever can be ignored is “ignorant and life-threatening.”

Saldaya told FBS podcast listeners last year that some babies came out “howling and rosy” but others it took five minutes or more to transition to breathing. She said she has heard of babies taking up to 10 or 15 minutes to breathe.
Downe said it was dangerous to suggest it was OK to leave a baby for 15 minutes without intervening. If a baby wasn’t breathing after a minute, it was time for resuscitation, she said. If a baby was still not breathing after five minutes, there was a high risk of long-term neurological damage.

During a 2024 module of the MMI (which has been renamed in recent months MatriBirth Mentor Institute), Norris-Clark said her son was born “completely white, limp and lifeless”, but she did not think about resuscitating him. In her 2023 book, Portal, she describes medical resuscitation as a “form of sabotage.” During an appearance on the Alec Zeck in 2024 podcast, Saldaya said she would never resuscitate a baby while attending a birth and that doing so would be “cuckoo banana.”
Dr. Michelle Telfer, an associate professor of nursing at Yale who specializes in midwifery care, said fewer than 1 percent of babies need extensive resuscitation, such as chest compressions, to breathe at birth. However, up to 15% needed some form of assistance to breathe on their own, such as ventilation with a bag and mask or mouth suction. These interventions, she said, saved lives and “spared the brain.”

Saldaya said in a module in The Complete Guide to Free Birth, which FBS has sold since 2018, that she couldn’t imagine a scenario in which she would see a doctor for a urinary tract or kidney infection “because I would never take antibiotics during pregnancy.” She said she felt the risk of using antibiotics outweigheded no benefit.
If left untreated, urinary tract or kidney infections can seriously harm mother and baby, for example leading to premature birth, low birth weight or even sepsis. Downe said it was dangerous to suggest women never take antibiotics and, while she believed they had been overused in maternity care, they could save lives when truly needed.

Saldaya told FBS podcast listeners in 2024 that he you could give birth safely at home, outside the period of time that medical advice usually recommendsed (between 38 and 42 weeks). She said she knows “a lot” of babies who are born at home as young as 33 weeks and “survive and thrive” without any medical intervention.
A baby born at 33 weeks cannot survive without urgent and intensive medical support. Littlefield said out-of-hospital delivery before 36 weeks could lead to neurological damage or neonatal death due to lung immaturity.

In The Complete Guide to Free Birth, Saldaya told students not to worry about babies “born blue” because although “it may seem scary… in reality, a blue baby is an oxygenated baby!” »
Kenga Sivarajah, senior obstetrician at King’s College Hospital in London, said this was false; a blue baby could suffer from a lack of oxygen. Telfer agreed, warning that if a baby was born blue and no intervention was performed, there was a high risk of asphyxia and organ damage, including the brain. (However, blue hands and feet were usually nothing to worry about, but babies with these symptoms should be observed closely.)

In a module of The Complete Guide to Freebirth, Saldaya said: mothers who If women are bleeding a lot and feel dizzy after giving birth, they should squeeze their umbilical cord, cut a small piece and put it in their mouth to absorb the hormones. “It sounds disgusting,” she said said, but could help “stop the bleeding”.
Experts have said there is no evidence to support this claim. Telfer said it was dangerous advice that was “just being put out there.” There were no bioavailable hormones in a cord and it would not contribute to bleeding, she said.