Freebirthing Mother Has Children Taken– You Can Help!

You have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, but think of what it is going to be like for this family. Imagine having 3 breastfed, happy, healthy babies snatched from you right before Thanksgiving and the eldest’s first birthday. Not because abuse is happening, but because your choices differ a little from the mainstream.

I’m gonna give you the quick bullet points so you can act now, but you can read more about it here.
Medical Kidnap

• Erica & Cleave Rengo of Bellingham, Washington have 3 healthy, happy babies under 1 who were being breastfed, removed from their home.
• The only thing they are “guilty” of is having a completely lawful homebirth and not using steroids to treat their baby’s eczema (who was being treated successfully by gentler herbal remedies).
• Nothing else was “wrong” in the home.
• No crime has been committed by the parents.
• One of the newborn twins developed pneumonia after being taken earlier this month; his older brother has screaming episodes since being taken.
• This is the first Thanksgiving for all of the children and Levi is about to miss his 1st birthday.
• The parents have no custody or visitation until next month.

Here’s what you can do.

-Let Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State know this is unacceptable and inexcusable and you expect those children to be returned now before the situation grows exponentially worse with each missed precious day and special occasion. Tell him our children do NOT belong to the state and our people are FREE.

You can contact him here: His Facebook page. Leave a post on his Wall demanding immediate justice to correct the embarrassment of his state. The number to his office is: 360-902-4111. You can e-mail him here.

-File a complaint against CPS here: Complaint Start Page
“According to the training manual below, mandated reporters should contact Constituent Relations at 360-902-8060 if they disagree with CPS’ decisions. I urge anyone who disagrees with CPS’ decision to take away Erica May Rengo’s children call this number until we have a resolution.” (quoting Jamie Ellsworth)

-Contact News Sources in the media to draw more attention and heat to influence expedited action. Consider local news sources within Washington State and Bellingham specifically, but also large national media outlets.

-Spread the word through social media, the internet, etc. Share this post or any of the other links you see here to get word out. Let people feel the outrage with you and take action along with you. Start a ripple effect that makes us heard.

Do any of these. Do all of these. They’re not going to ignore us while a family is suffering for no reason. We won’t let them.

If you could do just one good deed this Thanksgiving, what would it be? I feel incredibly moved to try to do my part to reunite a family that should never have been split up in the first place, and even that would be only one righteous step towards a just direction. What has done cannot be undone but it can get a LOT worse. Let’s jump in and help before this family’s hell is increased.

Let’s send a clear signal to our officials and politicians– you’re not going to kidnap MY children! Go help the children who are actually being abused and leave our healthy families alone!

Enjoy your holidays.

How Much Say Should the Government Have In Your Birth Choices?

It’s really hard because the system SHOULD be in place to protect us and to know better than the laypeople, to be the authority in terms of wisdom for our health. They pose as this, but they are not. Common sense is gone, and the average person may often know more about their own health than the doctor they visit. It’s about profit$$$. It’s even about misogyny or patriarchy when it comes to maternity care, although few see it that way.

If I walk into a hospital and demand heart surgery even if I don’t need it, should it be granted because a) I’m the consumer and b) we’re afraid I’ll go do my own back alley heart surgery to myself? If a woman walks into a hospital and demands a C-section at 28 weeks, what of that? I know that’s far fetched, but my point is that we obviously intend to draw the line somewhere. This time, in Oregon, that line is generous at 39 weeks. Big whoop.

You can’t allow potentially off-balance medical consumer$ to order any drug or procedure off the menu like it’s Burger King,

Birth King– have it your way.

and at the same time, our docs and midwives shouldn’t treat us like idiots and force us into procedures or prescriptions that are actually violating and damaging.

Education, education, education. For both doctors and consumers. We need to radically overhaul the whole system, but the system is built on medical arrogance as it is. I won’t hold my breath, and in the meantime we should stop forcing mothers to do things that don’t sit well with them. We are maiming our society.

As for me, I know better, and so I birth outside the corrupted system. Myself and my babies will not be hurt by the essentially crazy practices now standard to “normal” maternity care. And yes, Florida sucks for this topic. But so does the US and lots of places. I wish women knew just how deceived they were and just how actually simple birth was. We would heal the planet and have a million times more peace. We are terrorizing women and babies with false fear, sadistic authority, and brutal practice.

Re: childbirth in its minimal, natural state, free of coercion or assistance, it reminds me of this paraphrased Buddhist quote:

“When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back at the sky and laugh.”

I need to see more women laughing.