Rixa Freeze has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral studies focused on the history of healthcare and medicine with specialization in pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity care. Her dissertation examined why women in North America choose unassisted home births. She worked as a visiting assistant professor for 9 years at Wabash College before founding Breech Without Borders in 2018. BWB is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to breech training, education, and advocacy.

She has published about why women choose home birth (JMWH 2009) and attitudes towards home birth in the US (Exp Rev ObGyn 2010). In 2018, she co-authored a study of breech and cephalic home births (BMC Preg Child). The following year, she published an article about outcomes of breech at home, birth centres, and hospitals (Midwifery Today). She co-authored a chapter “Freebirth in the United States” in the 2020 book Birthing Outside the System: The Canary in the Coal Mine. Her analysis of 100 sets of twin home births, co-authored with Stuart Fischbein, was published in December 2024 with PLOS ONE. She is the lead author of the textbook A Guide to Physiological Breech Birth, now in its 2nd edition.

Current research projects include a video analysis of 207 physiological breech births, a qualitative analysis of the obstacles American physicians face in supporting vaginal breech birth, a review of the effectiveness of an international vaginal breech training program, and outcomes of an initiative to increase the vaginal twin birth rate in 2 Italian hospitals. She also oversees bachelor and doctoral research projects relating to breech birth.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30305050/

https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijgo.12033

https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.22541/au.175044419.92924866/v1

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16580289/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16099580/

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