Would you consider a homebirth?

LTMama

I would never consider a home birth.  The "what ifs" are just too scary.  I have a couple of friends who would have lost their babies or died themselves if they hadn't been in hospitals when they went into labor - I can't imagine gambling like that for my own comfort.

My DD was born at 32w4d, so my delivery was pretty unusual and obviously couldn't have been a home birth either way.  But she came easily (3 pushes and she flew out and hit the doc in the shoulder), but even then I never got any pressure during the entire delivery process to do anything that made me uncomfortable, or to have any extra intervention.  Actually, after my water broke and the neonatologist (sp?) got a chance to do an ultrasound, the docs decided it was best to advise me to just let my body do what it was doing, and let the baby come out if she was ready.  It all worked out very well.  No one ever mentioned a c-section, either, and I didn't even have a birth plan at that point.

One of my friends was laboring when her baby's placenta detached.  They had her in surgery within 5 minutes.  Another friend of mine started hemorrhaging the day after her little guy was born, and if she hadn't been in the hospital for emergency surgery then she probably would have died.  Those kinds of stories make me shudder at the thought of a homebirth.

My philosophy with medical care is to be careful choosing providers that I like and trust, and then to trust them!  I adore all 3 of the OBs in my practice, and would have been perfectly happy being delivered by any of them.

rlyttle

Never in a million years. There are just WAY too many things that could go wrong. Those same things can go wrong in a hospital, but they have staff & resources right there to help. A home birth in my eyes is WAY too risky.