I refuse to see doctors
This pregnant mom is nursing a grudge against doctors.
Kaytlynn Griem, 23, is a mom of two with one more on the way — yet refuses to be seen by a doctor, even for an ultrasound, or give birth with any medical professionals present. What’s more, she claims women are “actually safer birthing at home than the hospital.”
The Missouri “free birthing” advocate is a self-described “no-toxin” mom, and has had no blood tests or any prenatal care during her current pregnancy.
“Our bodies are so amazing and when left undisturbed in a comfortable environment, it will do exactly what it was made to do: give birth,” she said.
The hashtags #freebirth and #birthfree combined have drawn more than 400 million views on TikTok, with countless unorthodox moms sharing their stories of pregnancy on their own terms. In the US, free birthing is clinically referred to as an “unassisted birth” and, while legal in every state, it’s not recommended by experts as medical emergencies are not uncommon in pregnancy.
But in a TikTok posted Thursday, Griem explained she’d had a midwife deliver her first child, but claimed it “ruined” her dream homebirth. “Freebirth is one of the most normal things a woman can do,” she wrote in the caption. “What’s not normal is having someone interfere, especially someone that was supposed to support you. I tried a birth with trained medical professional and they did not allow me to have physiological birth that I wanted and deserved.”
In a video posted in September 2022, Griem listed the “controversial things” she does during pregnancy that upset people — “because apparently it’s their body,” she snarked.
“No prenatal care,” she said, and no “ultrasounds or tests” because of the “risks” involved, claiming in another TikTok post that the heat produced by the sonogram machine can harm the baby. “[Ultrasounds] can be wrong and either miss things or give false information so in most cases they are pointless,” she wrote.
Indeed, ultrasound readings can be misinterpreted by a doctor, such as predictng an incorrect pregnancy date or missing a potential diagnosis. And while sonograms have been deemed “safe” for the fetus by the Food and Drug Administration — as evidenced by the countless healthy children born following conventional scans — scientists have not concluded how many ultrasounds could be too many.
Griem also eats a “high, raw vegan diet,” which she admitted includes cannabis.
A vegan, raw food diet has the potential to be nutritious for mom and baby under strict supervision by a dietitian. Regarding the “high” aspect of her regimen, research is limited on the effects of cannabis on fetal development.
In another recent post, Griem jokingly issued a warning to other pregnant women who may visit her TikTok account, because she was going to teach them “how to birth babies alone at home, to not trust the government or doctors and that 99% of the food you eat is poisoning you.”
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has said it believes hospitals and accredited birth centers are the safest settings for birth. If someone does insist on a home birth they should have access to safe and timely transport to nearby hospitals in case complications do arise, and also be trained in neonatal resuscitation.
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