Please help me with moving question - avoid vax and homebirth easily?

[elliemae8]

Hi everyone,

I know this forum is focused on unassisted childbirth but I was wondering if you could help me with a decision on where to move based on where I would be the most free home birthwise in general and also avoiding vax. I am planning to marry a man who is from France, but am not too keen on living there because I feel I would not be as free as here regarding birth options and vax avoidance. He is willing to move here with me and is saying I can choose where we can live but I am overwhelmed!

I know also that some websites say vaccines are not mandatory, but I still
am very afraid of getting in trouble for wanting to avoid them. I fear
doctors and nurses at hospitals and otherwise trying to call social services
or otherwise making my life horrible if I tell the truth that I wish to
avoid them. I live in Tennessee where there is no philosophical exemption
allowed, and although I plan to homeschool I was thinking it might be easier
if I just moved to another state altogether in case I decided for public or
private school out of financial necessity later. Is this unnecessary?

I have checked a few sites online for the states that allow philosophical
exemptions and I am also looking for states that allow lay
midwives/certified professional midwives (not just nurse-midwives). I would like to have a UC but I think he will not go for it because of his fears of something going wrong. I had a horrible hospital birth experience with my first and want to be in a safe state and environment with my next baby (babies?). I want a state that allows CPMs (not just nurse-midwives) and hopefully where I can do unassisted birth also (although I guess that is legal in all states?) Do you know where I can get the best ideas for the 'freest' states for me?

Thank you so much!

[jennmk13]

Do you have any idea of where you would like to live? Or even a region?

I live in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and its pretty fantastic here.

We have a Philosophical vaccine exemption here. Also, our Doc. has been very supportive of our choice not to Vax. our DS.

We are lucky to have a very large natural birthing community here.
I had a homebirth with a lay Midwife with my DS and we're planning a second one for this Nov. Honestly, we have more lay and professional Midwives here than I could count. Here are a few websites for you to get started...

http://www.mfmidwifery.org/
http://childbirthcollective.org/
http://www.blooma.com/

Also as a plus I believe that the French community here is fairly large and active. http://www.afmsp.org/
Our next door neighbors are French so we have a small window into that community and they all seem very tight!

Good Luck!!!

[elliemae8]

Hi Jenn! Thank you for your reply - I guess I should have mentioned regions too. I can't stand the humidity in TN - it is killing me, and also I would like somewhere with less crime than here as well. I love the idea of moving further northwest, somewhere near mountains or hills where it is cooler, even further north than here but I am not crazy about further south (like FL or AL because of humidity) or extreme northeast (like Maine). I would like somewhere I could have a little (very small) homestead if possible.

[lovestolearn]

Oregon and Washington State are great places that have what you are looking for!

[babyjelly]

Here in Utah I have had no real issues with refusing vax, I think we have the highest hb rate in the nation (2%?), we def have the lowest section rate (22%), and although summer can be hot, it's dry heat, and we have awesome snow. On the downside, the line seperating church and state is very fuzzy, giving us crazy liqour laws, businesses that don't open Sundays, and laws that prohibit dancing after two am.
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[Pirogi]

Don't go to Georgia. Everything you don't want.

[MyBoysBlue]

Canada! Vaxes are not required for school. Only 3 provinces require an exemption form and they are even philosophical exemptions. All provinces have midwives, some are even paid for by our universal health care. Though some provinces have have very few midwives making it almost impossible to get one. But I guess that's too far north for you.

[laohaire]

I wish I could offer a positive recommendation, but you can rule out New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina.

[Juvysen]

I'm wondering the same thing. Definitely not NY for Vax or homeschooling... our homebirth law just got better, at least.

[Sijae]

In both Oregon and Colorado it is easy to homeschool, not vacinate and birth at home with a direct entry midwife. I've done all three in both states :-)

ETA: whoops! I should say I have attended births in Oregon... all my kids were born in CO :-)

[zapzipzee]

I'm in Oregon. It looks super easy to get the birth certificate for a UC. Just fill out some papers. We'll see what happens though.... should have a baby soon! There are also lots of midwives available, though I chose not to use one. I'm a DIY sort of person, and dont see any point in paying someone to do what I am perfectly capable of doing myself.

If you chose to do public schools here, you can have you children exempt from state testing, you just have to request it. I'm a teacher, and plan to home school or do private for other reasons though.

I plan to do only one or two of the vax's. I've found a couple of homeopathic pediatricians to interview...I asume they'll be ok with this.

Also, we have an ocean, clean sand dunes (actual sand, not dirt or dust), lakes, and mountains.

Good Luck!

[AJP]

California. It's easy here to claim vax exemptions for school, and many areas have lots of parents who don't vax or selectively vax so finding health practitioners who accept that isn't impossible. I think most medical personnel know full well that parents have the legal right to opt out of vaccinating their kids, and while they may express their opinions about that, the law is on the parents' side.

There are licensed CPMs as well as CNMs, and home birth is somewhat common in certain parts of the state. I feel very free in terms of birth options and health decisions.

There's a huge variety of climates, some parts of the state have very hot summers but humidity is typically low, some parts have cool summers (coastal or mountain). Some have mild wet winters, some mild dry winters, some cold and snowy, some cold and dry.