In-Depth: Motherhood Movement

Over the decades we have watched the role of wife and mother evolve from full-time homemaker to working mom trying to have it all. And now the FOX 9 Investigators have discovered a new and controversial motherhood movement.

This movement means lots of kids, some moms having the babies at home and then keeping their kids out of school, away from society as most of us know it. Believers say it creates strong family bonds, others say it can put moms and babies at risk.

Four sisters who say they were so isolated, so insignificant. They said they didn't fit in with any body. They said they weren’t allowed to wear pants or allowed as girls to consider going to college.

But now they and their mom are independent. “It's been good for my kids, they are doing really well all of them.”

Vyckie Garrison, a mother of seven now divorced, says she was drowning in a lifestyle that was dangerous for her and her children.

“There's this fear that you are not going to be right with God if you don’t go along with it.”

The lifestyle is called quiverfull. Vyckie writes a successful blog about breaking free from it. “I know families in Minnesota who are quiverfull, it's pretty much everywhere.” As modern as a blog is, the word quiverfull comes from biblical times: psalm 127 Behold, children are a heritage from the lord...happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. Meaning children and lots of them.

“The quiverfull movement really stresses biblical gender roles, which would make the husband the leader of the home and the wife is to be submissive, to be supportive.” Vyckie, who lives in Nebraska, says her belief in the quiverfull movement nearly cost the life of her daughter Hazelle.

“It can really blind you and lead you and put you in a position of taking some risks that are really unnecessary and very dangerous.”

Pastor David Watkins heads a small congregation in Blaine called the Heritage Baptist church. He says, “In my view, the biblical role would be that the husband is what's called the head of the home.”

Vyckie suggested we contact Pastor Watkins because she says he preaches elements of the quiverfull movement which include modest dress for women, home schooling for children and home delivery for babies.

He says he is not part of any movement but does preach some of the tenets. He says he is just somewhat familiar with the term quiverfull “That's kind of a new thing I've become familiar with but I don't know a whole lot about the mindset.”

Vyckie says if you're deep in the movement that means having your babies at home with little or no medical help. “I went ahead and planned on having a home birth and it turned out a disaster.”

In 2005 Vyckie was pregnant with her fourth child.

“I had problems from the beginning and everything that could go wrong did go wrong in that pregnancy. She says she worked with an unlicensed midwife who reassured her. “You are fine, you need to just trust the lord, calm down.” She says she asked her why she was so big and she told me she believed that I was having twins.

Vyckie was not having twins. She ended up in the emergency room. “They couldn't believe the condition I was in. This just doesn't happen in modern day when people have access to good medical care.”

Daughter Hazelle survived but Vyckie says because she was so enmeshed in the quiverfull movement she planned an unassisted home birth for her seventh and final child. She ended up in the hospital with a partial uterine rupture.

“I don't think that it wasn't that I was not an intelligent woman, it's just that I had this programming in my head, this mindset, that you can think all you want within this box and as long as I stayed there, my mind was going like crazy, but I couldn't see what the real situation was.”

Reporter Trish Van Pilsum asked Pastor Watkins about home birth.

“Does your church support unassisted birth at home?” He said, “Some of our families have been involved with a midwife and some use midwife in hospital some will use a hospital it just depends on the need of the family and what their thoughts are.” Vyckie says the Quiverfull movement encourages women to wear long dresses. Pastor Watkins followers do wear long dresses as they entered a school where their church service is held. Van Pilsum asked, “Do you forbid women from wearing pants?” Pastor Watkins replied, “No.” She asked, “Do the women of your church wear pants?” He said, “Well some do some don't. That would be a decision for a family.”

And if, as pastor, he’s needed for guidance he speaks to the head of the household. “It's the husband's role to communicate with a man really so I try to be very careful about giving a woman counsel.”

Watkins also heads MACHE, the Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators. Watkins says home schooling is good for parents and children.

"There's a family cohesiveness the strength of relationships, they're able to communicate with anybody really, age wise.”

It is through home schooling, Vyckie says that many moms are introduced