FBS, which promotes an extreme version of free birth in which women abandon any form of prenatal care and give birth without doctors or midwives present, is estimated to have generated more than $13m in revenues since 2018. A recent Guardian investigation identified 48 cases of late-term stillbirths or neonatal deaths or other forms of serious harm involving mothers or birth attendants who appear to be linked to FBS.
(Yolande) Norris-Clark has not responded to repeated requests for comment about the Guardian’s investigation, which is told through The Birth Keepers podcast series. She has previously defended her partnership with Saldaya, saying FBS is “the most ethical kind of business you can run”. Critics of FBS, she has said, fail to understand the commitment to women taking “radical responsibility” for their births. And she has said it is unfair to hold her responsible for the choices of a mother who consumes her content.
Many of the women who follow Norris-Clark on social media, seeking advice in their pregnancies, are unaware of her more extreme views, which she sometimes revealed to FBS students. “I actually don’t believe that gravity is true,” she told FBS students in 2024, adding: “Maybe that just makes me crazy and that’s totally OK.” In another class, she told students they could cut a baby’s umbilical cord with an “old rusty fork”. “I don’t believe in germ theory,” she said, “I don’t believe in contagion,” adding: “But even if contagion were real … there would be a pretty much 0% chance of anything happening.”
This is so interesting to me. I had a theory that a lot of the free birth movement stemmed from the financial barriers to medically supported birth in the US, and wanting to reclaim some kind of control. If it’s their choice to not seek medical care it’s empowering- if they can’t afford it, they are disenfranchised. In a nation of “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” nobody wants to admit they are too poor for healthcare. Being able to curate an image on social media of how this is the “better” option- even if they convince themselves to genuinely believe it!- let’s them keep self esteem.
Canada doesn’t have the same financial barriers but we are so steeped in American media that I’m not surprised it’s caught on here.
What I am surprised about is how are they making money??? What are you selling??
They sell books and memberships, of which the latter is expensive IIRC. Like hundreds of dollars a month expensive.
how are they making money??? What are you selling??
Keyword: “social media”
It’s almost like it’s coincidentally at the center of every modern grift out there.
I had read a conspiracy theory somewhere that “freebirth” is all about being “anti-establishment”.
In this picture, everything that has to do with the federal government (including being a “certified” medical personal) are seen as being “top-down”, and it’s “seeking independence” to reject that. That’s why they don’t even want any medical professional to see the baby, because they’re worried that the baby is going to be implanted a chip to make it adhere to future state ideology or sth, and that can only be avoided by basically giving birth at home and not even telling the state that a pregnancy is about to happen (so they can’t forcefully transfer the woman to a hospital), so there’s a bit of secrecy about it too.
Personal comment/interpretation: I mean, it’s interesting to watch how these ideas of “anarchy” and “self-determination” unfold here. It’s very interesting to see how the same idea of “wanting to be independent” can manifest itself in completely different, and often opposite, ways. It’s like if somebody told you that the establishment is bad, and you’ve heard these words your whole life, how do you know it’s not true? How do you go to a hospital if everybody around you is wary of that and says they might want to poison you or idk what? How does a medical system (that is financed by the state) build the trust that it is actually safe to go there? How do you reach the people that don’t know you yet?
Absolutely. In central Europe, were homeschooling is often illegal, it’s also a way of making sure the kid stays off the radar of the school system, the CPS, is not part of any society - and therefore cannot leave your scene.
Which is a wet dream of the sovereign citizens.
The anti-medicine/anti-vax/anti-professional intervention crowd need to get in the fucking bin
They are working on that.
Evolution is a slow process, but it will eventually take care of the job.
Humans have supplanted natural selection. Evolution will not fix this.
Eventually it will when enough people die.
Well in this specific case where people are choosing to have their children die in birth or via going unvaccinated I would say it’s pretty direct.
Children don’t automatically inherit their parents’ political beliefs.
No, but nature doesn’t have political opinions either. These children dying because their parents can’t make smart decisions for their birth is the harsh reality of natural selection at work.
No but that doesn’t matter if they die before they can change anything.
Humans have supplanted natural selection [with modern medicine]. Evolution will not fix this.
It might still if you refuse to go to the doctor.
Apart from that, the majority of evolution today happens through sexual selection: The potential partner that appears fitter is chosen and reproduces, it’s not necessary for the less-fit potential partner to die.
Whoosh! It’s a darwin award joke.
🐆
They made $13,000,000 without the use of any medicine, medical supplies, doctors, or training apparently… that’s insane.
“I don’t believe in germ theory,” she said, “I don’t believe in contagion,”
Ah, yes, I agree. It’s definitely the four humors that actually cause disease. “Covid-19” is just caused by a build up of phlegm. I just haven’t figured out why the build up of phlegm spreads from person to person… hmmm.
I don’t believe we should save these people.
Ah, yes, I agree. It’s definitely the four humors
I think for these people it’s probably less the four humors and more “your personal soul that’s judged by god” or sth like that.
It’s miasmas.
Also, gravity isn’t real, everything is just weirdly sticky. Even at very long distances.
Sorry about that 😔
Bringing back “dying in childbirth” at the ripe old age of 24.
Back to the good old days. It’s the natural way, just as god intended.
Yet another example of the bubble-wrapped child-safe world allowing evolutionary dead-ends to survive to procreate.
Read some history hoss. There were plenty of morons when child mortality was high.
Read some history hoss.
I did not have Bonanza on my 2025 Bingo card. 🐎
Yeah that comment took a surprisingly dark turn. I expected it to be something about survivorship bias leading people to do more stupid shit because they’ve been so protected they haven’t had to face danger, but like…“oh see what happens when we don’t kill off those people”?? Wtf how do you get there
No, you can fuck right off with that moronic social darwinism.
Nah I want to see these oxygen wasters injure and kill themselves to remind the ones with enough brain cells why humanity developed technology like medicine and germ-theory.
Please feel free to waste your empathy and time trying save them, I’ve given up.
They’re perfectly free to write their own story and if that story happens to be a sad tragedy serving as a warning others what happens when you ignore medical advice, then great, they’ve contributed to humanity!
I’ve been thinking about this a lot.
Not everybody trusts what’s written in the textbooks. And it’s actually likely that things have to be proven over and over again for some people to actually believe it. That means that there has to be a continuous flow of “bad examples” to incentivize learning how to prevent them. It might not actually be avoidable.
