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Natural Birth
Why would/did you choose a home birth?
I'm curious why you would want to give birth at home rather than a hospital. Is it more comfortable, or do you think the hospital would pressure you to use meds?
I'd be way to nervous that I'd have an emergency and need hospital care. But I'm certainly not judging.
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Re: Why would/did you choose a home birth?
I have read of many moms being able to deliver med-free at a hospital with no major issues.
However, the way I look at it is; hospitals are for sick people, I am not sick, I am pregnant! Unless a major complication arises, I can safely deliver my baby at home.
For me, delivering at a hospital is preemptive care. The situation becomes sticky when people try to define what an ?emergency? really is.
I am also aware that many choose a hospital or BC because their insurance does not cover a home birth but for me the monetary aspect (though we are not rich) is not as limiting as being in the comfort of our home welcoming our healthy baby.
This exactly! My first experience with a live birth was my best friend at a local area hospital when we were both in our early 20s. It was the most traumatizing experience for me! I didn't know a lot about L&D then, but even I felt uncomfortable with the care (or lack there of) that the nurses provided. It was one unnecessary intervention after the next ultimately resulting in a c/s. As I continued through grad school and did my master's thesis on L&D, I came to understand that my suspicions were correct -- none of what occurred for her was necessary, and with the right coaching and attention she could have easily avoided the c/s - it was like the staff just gave up on her and got annoyed at her inability to feel her contractions and properly push (which happened b/c the epi was sooo high she couldn't feel anything at all below her navel).
The next friend who gave birth also had a c/s after the epi caused serious complications for her. Her husband, whom has been one of my best friends since high school, told me afterwards of the story of how helpless they both felt b/c no one had warned them of the likelihood of these side effects for her. I had given him a copy of my thesis, but he hadn't looked at it, and actually said afterwards that he wished he hadn't dismissed my help. It really broke my heart. His wife (having had their 2nd child now), is fully supportive of my desire to do a homebirth and completely encouraging - and that helps a lot.
Now, I've had many friends since then deliver in hospital settings without the trauma involved of these first two, and whom are very happy with their hospital birth experience -- but none of them had the intervention free results I hope to have, and those 1st two really hit me hard b/c I'd known these people for most of my life. So that's what made my decision.
I had a friend recently give birth to twins after having kidney failure and going into labor a month early. This was truly an emergency, and for her I am so thankful that the care she needed was available to her as I am certain it saved her life and the life of her two beautiful boys. But as PP said, I just don't feel like hospitals have a clear enough understanding/line of what is an emergency. If my MW says it is an emergency and I have to transfer -- I will do it. But I don't want the hospital to declare an "emergency" when it really isn't one. Pregnancy is not a disease.
1.) I knew I would be most comfortable at home and believed this would make my labor progress well.
2.) We had just spent a year visiting my MIL and FIL in the hospital. I was sick of hospitals.
3.) My number one labor fear was getting in a car while having contractions.
4.) There have been good studies of home birth safety in my area and this was reassuring.
My DH (initially a skeptic) is now a believer and, should I have no complications, we will have our next one at home.
My first I had at a birth center (around the corner from a hospital). It was HELL getting there (only fifteen minutes at 2am). Then I had to come home. I am so looking forward to just being at home, with my own stuff, in my own bed, with nowhere to go and no interruptions to labor. So, I'd say for me, it's totally a comfort thing. Plus I now have my son, and so much easier if he can just stay at home with us as well. He can be in his room and then come to ours when the baby is born to meet his new sister.
I totally 100% trust my midwives and am not worried about an emergency situation. We have a back-up plan and can get to a hospital within 15 minutes, the paramedics can get here in less than five.
I just wrote like a Master's Thesis reply and, for some reason, it didn't post! Argh!
So, now, to be brief, my reasons are similar to pps.
Anecdotally, the only person I know who has died due to childbirth died from an infection she contracted in the hospital after a c-section. Hospitals, to me, are places people go to get "fixed" in some way. Neither me nor my baby are broken, so we should be just fine at home!
Not to be too flippant, if something really does go wrong, we're only 15 minutes from the hospital, even during rush hour, so there should be no problem getting there in time.
Also, as a designer, space is very important to me. I feel that it really does impact the outcome of events. Being in a space I'm comfortable in, with people I know and trust, gives me a much better chance of a positive outcome. The hospital feels very sterile and cold to me - not the place I want to welcome my baby into the world.
My midwives have a 2% c-section rate vs. 33% at the hospital I would transfer to, so I feel like I am paying for better statistics!
All this being said, I do believe that women can have fantastic experiences at the hospital. My mom had four natural births in a hospital, and, other than the standard episiotomy of the time, has great memories of her birthing experiences.
For me, home is just the right choice.
i want to give birth at home for a billion reasons, here are a few:
~ i feel safest at home
~ i trust the birth process and my body
~ i trust my birth attendants
~ in my opinion the hospital is for sick people and labor does not automatically equal an emergency
~ home birth is designed for low risk healthy women with no medical complications
~ i prefer to be in control of myself and my birth
~ i don't want the dreaded rush to get to the hosp in time
~ i would like to be able to eat, drink and move around as i see fit during labor
~ i do not want my baby taken away from me
~ i have a big ass garden tub that would be perfect for labor/birth
~ i don't want to be tempted to use pain meds
~ i want my baby born into a peaceful environment
i could go on and on but those are some of the most important reasons for me. i am not anti-hospital and i think they definitely have a place and if i should need one i am glad that they exist.
When I started looking into who I wanted to get my prenatal care from and where I wanted to birth, I had read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth and knew I wanted a natural birth.
I saw 4 midwives from 3 different practices and talked to them about my desire for a med-free, natural birth. After a lengthy discussion with each I asked one question "If I were to come to the hospital in labor and my labor stopped or slowed, what would be your first step." Without even thinking about it all four of them said the same thing "I would start you on a pitocin drip." That right there told me how good my chances were of actually having the natural birth I was seeking.
I continued researching by asking 23 of my friends to submit their birth stories to me in writing....and I was amazed to find that more than half had had at least one c-section and all but one was given pitocin.
My home birth allowed me to labor in a way where I was able to walk freely without an IV, to do so in my own clothing, in the home where I had been living for a month, without shift changes of my attendants, restricted food, strangers present, the noise and confusion of a hospital, without fetal monitoring, drugs, and interventions.
My baby was delivered in a peaceful, sane, safe environment with emergency help less than 15 min away if needed. I agree with PPs I was not sick. the statistics on our birth culture are right on. After spending time on the bump all through my pregnancy I saw the outrageous number of women having tons of interventions for "emergency" reasons....nearly all of them had problems in their pregnancies, so many were induced before 40 weeks it was unbelievable...and almost none of the women I saw seeking natural births in the hospital setting without doulas actually succeeded in having natural births.
I have no regrets.....my birth was gentle, beautiful, and transformative. I knew it would be....that is why I chose homebirth.
Because:
I didn't want to have to fight for a natural birth
Everything I wanted from this experience for myself and my baby, would be a battle at the hospital, but was normal at home
I got crappy care from the hospital MW practice I was seeing before switching to a homebirth
Hospitals are full of sick people and diseases
When I took the hospital tour, there was nothing comforting about the place
I hate needles
I wanted a water birth
I truly thought it was the safer option- I personally believe most of the emergencies that happen at hospitals are the doctors/hospitals fault.
I know it was the best decision for me. I would have most definitely ended up with a unnecessary c-section if I had gone the hospital route.
Just a lurker but thought I'd throw in my two cents. Sorry if it's too much.
My main reason is chemical allergies! I'm Severely allergic to chemical stabilizers (polysorbate80, and 60 if you were wondering). These are cheap stabilizers and consequently have become very popular over the past 5 yrs. They are in everything from beauty and many dairy products, to pills and most medicines & immunizations! Since it's an inactive ingredient it doesn't show up on the computers and I have to read the doctors insert to make sure it isn't in a medicine. I don't want to be at the hospital with the nurse trying to give me something and having to say Wait, go find the pharmaceutical insert and bring it to me so I can make sure that I'm not allergic to it!
I can see issues there and I don't know who will be available to do that for me without wavering.
The next reason is when I need to eat, I Need to eat (low blood sugar). No room for argument.
I don't want my baby immunized right away, that can wait. (see first reason).
I haven't found a good OB here, the one I was going to always had a 1-1.5 hr. wait after your slotted time, before you could see her.
Other than those main reasons, it's comfort and cost. I don't have health insurance and natural births are a lot cheaper.
My husband watched 'the Business of Being Born' and agreed that natural is better. However my parents and grandma and against it--but they are on the other side of the country-- and my sister's and SILs are supportive of it.
Word for word, this is why I'm hoping to do a home birth this time too (except we were driving at 6 am, not 2 am). I spent the whole car ride trying not to push, and DS was born so fast after we arrived at the birth center. I used to be afraid of the mess and the planning for a home birth, but after laboring at home last time, it just seems to make sense to stay put and birth there.
I had a great pain-med-free birth experience in a hospital with DD. And when I was pregnant with DS, I started off with a group of midwives who delivered at a hospital well-known for being natural birth friendly. They were wonderful. I have no hesitations about recommending them to anyone interested in natural birth.
Still, the idea of homebirth never left me. I just felt that it was where DS needed to be born. A couple of concrete things that I liked about homebirth:
- The natural birth friendly hospital was about a 30-minute drive from my house, with no traffic. I was NOT looking forward to that drive while in labor. (There is another hospital about 5 mins away, but it has the highest c-section rate in my area. I'd be fine with transferring there in case of an emergency during homebirth, but it's not at all what I'd want in a non-emergency.)
- It was just more comfortable. For example, I got through most contractions on my hands and knees. If I wanted to walk around my house in between contractions, I did, and when a contraction hit, I just dropped to my hands and knees wherever I was. It was nice not having to worry about what nastiness might be on the hospital floor, or what other people walking by me in the hall might think.
- I actually felt safer being at home. At home, I had two experienced midwives who knew me well, who were completely focused on DS and me, who were by my side the entire time. At the hospital with DD, over the course of my labor, I had two different OBs (neither of whom were at the hospital for most of my labor, nevermind in the room with me) and five different nurses (who spent little time in the room with me, mostly monitoring me remotely via my fetal monitor tracings, and who had other patients to care for). In order to respond to an emergency, you have to recognize that there is an emergency, and I trusted my midwives to do that much faster than the hospital staff.
- I was free to parent based on my intuition, right from the start. For example, I quickly figured out that DS liked to co-sleep. The hospital where I originally planned to deliver doesn't allow co-sleeping. My home didn't have those restrictions
- I spent a lot more time resting/relaxing in bed after DS's birth, and I think that's because I never had that transition from hospital to home, if that makes sense? It was like, well, I obviously NEED to be in bed on the day of his birth, and so why would I get out of bed on day 1, day 2, day 3? Whereas at the hospital, it was like, well, I do have to get out of bed on day 2, so I can go home. I don't know if that makes any sense at all, but the rest was great and I think it really helped my recovery.
I really had a fabulous experience about homebirth, and barring any complications, I can't imagine myself ever giving birth in the hospital again.
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)
Matthew Kevin
7/31/83-7/20/11
Met 1/8/00
Engaged 4/21/06
Married 9/29/07
Two beautiful legacies: Noah Matthew (2 yrs) and Chloe Marcella (8 mos)
Day Three
I was a bit nervous about it, but I was nervous about birth in general, bc it was my first time. I had a great MW and I trusted her a lot more than the OB I met in the beginning.
I ended up with an induction in the hospital at 43+ weeks. I had a great OB then and my MW was there the whole time. The OB used to teach Bradley method, trained as a MW and then went to Med school.
After having a hospital birth, I look forward to a quiet birth at home with no monitors (even walking monitor was a pain) and with just my DH and MWs.
At hospital, DS was born during shift change so double the nurses in the room, plus a few extra people interested in seeing a pain med free birth. It was bright and crowded and one annoying nurse (that was new on shift and didn't have a clue what our desires were) jumped on me when I was pushing and then pushed DS's mouth to my boob and tried to get him to force-fed (didn't let him do it on his own...no breast crawl, etc).
I felt like homebirth was the best way to get the care and birth that we wanted and I still feel that way.
Morgan's Birth Story: http://www.fullcirclemidwifery.com/2009/06/morgans-birth/
Chloe's Birth Story: http://www.fullcirclemidwifery.com/2012/04/chloes-birth/
for my first birth i was in the "no F-ing way would i ever homebirth" camp.
for my second, i was in the "i'm going to go intervention free at the hospital" camp.
after my doctor made a rude comment to me after i successfully accomplished my intervention-free birth, i'd gladly consider homebirth. i don't think i'm having any more kids, but i'm definitely taking my well woman care elsewhere.
for me, i didn't need the hospital, and i definitely didn't need the grief. at home you can do whatever you want and not be at the mercy of whatever nurse or dr happens to be on shift. i am very healthy and have had 2 successful pregnancies/birth, so i'm confident i could do it at home with no problem. i don't think i would have been confident enough to do it at home with the first kid.