- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Natural Birth
dangers of home birth
Hello everyone, Ok so I'm planning on doing an at home water birth but my regualar OB said that he's sure that I'll be 95% safe because Im young and healthy but that the baby's chance of dying goes up 3x. Is this true? I've tried googleing it but I cant find anything. I was really excited and looking forward to having the baby at home but now this is bothering me. I live maybe 10 min away from a hospital but is that enough time? What can go wrong with the baby? I know that there might be a cord wrapped around the neck but the midwives said they will just pull it off if its possible and to remember that babies use the umbilical cord to breath while in the stomach. Am I putting the babies life in the line for wanting a home birth? :-( I know that if something is meant to happen it will happen no matter where I am at... now Im just worried about the baby. -Scared pregnant lady
This discussion has been closed.
Re: dangers of home birth
Seriously?
Consiering it is your first post, I suspect mud. Anyone considering home birth would do homework on it and have an idea about statistics.
If this is not mud, do you own research that makes you feel comfortable with whatever decision you make.
Absolutely not true!
If you are considered "low risk", it's just as safe as being in the hospital giving birth with an OB! I would highly recommend watching the documentary called "The business of being born" which was my introduction into the world of midwives and homebirth.
Things like this make me angry at OB's, you would think they would respect the woman's wishes! As an OB, they would absolutely know the statistics of homebirth vs hospital birth so I almost feel like your OB lied just to sway you into a hospital birth. Definitely do your research, and find a midwife asap if that is the route you plan to go.
I'm pregnant with baby #2, and this time around I'm going to a midwife and planning a homebirth (waterbirth). I went to an OB last time with my son and had a hospital birth. While my OB was always nice and respectful of my wishes and never rushed appointments and I really have nothing negative to say about him himself, I would NEVER go back to an OB after being with my midwife! Completely different experience, I feel so comfortable with her and just LOVE the experience far more then I did with my son.
Good luck!
The Wax home birth study found a 3x higher risk for the baby with home birth. Now, a lot of people debate whether the methodology of that study was legit, and there are other home birth studies that find no significant increase in risk. But ACOG used the Wax study to bolster their most recent recommendation against home birth, so the OB probably is taking his information from them, which isn't surprising since they are his professional organization.
In case this isn't MUD, this is a direct quote from the website of the hospital that I will be delivering at. I went to the website, highlighted this text, copied, and pasted it here. No alterations:
"Home delivery is another option for low-risk pregnancies. Some women believe home is the most comfortable and natural place to give birth. However, at-home births are not recommended by most doctors because birth can be unpredictable. While this is true, studies of over 500,000 low-risk women who gave birth at home or at the hospital found that there were no differences in infant illness or death. This suggests that there is no advantage to delivering in a hospital for pregnancies at low risk for complications."
Your OB may have been referring to this study that concludes that planned home birth is associated with a tripling of the neonatal mortality rate.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20598284
The thing is, these studies are really flawed. And you have to be careful with terms like "twice as" or "three times as" likely...b/c they don't really give an accurate picture of risk unless you know what the risk was of your, in this case, hospital birth. Without real numbers, saying your baby is 3 times more likely to die if born at home doesn't tell you at all what that means.
What I mean is this..."Neonatal death occurred less than once in 1,000 hospital births, compared with two in 1,000 home births, said an American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology meta-analysis published in September 2010" (from here) ...using those numbers, your chance of neonatal mortality in a hospital are 0.1%, and in a planned home birth are 0.2%. Only you can determine if it's worth going from 99.9% to 99.8% survival rate to have a home birth.
The (flawed) studies DO tend to demonstrate that risk of death is higher in planned home birth. But all it points to for me is that I'd have to live inside of a total bubble to not do something that has a 99.8% chance of a positive outcome. We'll be having a home birth with baby #2. I think I could probably determine there to be more risk associated with the car ride to the hospital than having my baby at home. Obviously a very personal decision though.
Is this an unassisted or assisted home birth? Meaning, are you having a midwife attend?
I would urge you to do some research on possible complications either way. If you're doing an unassisted home birth, you need to be comfortable w/ how you would handle each type of complication that might come up. Having a game plan will calm your fears. If this is an assisted home birth, you need to discuss w/ your caregiver each type of complication and what her plan would be for each case. Write everything down. Memorize it. Be ready w/ an action plan.
I think most birth anxiety comes from lack of knowledge.
Just responding to the distance worry:
I'm 40minutes from the nearest hospital and that's perfect timing in cause something goes/is wrong. When your in the hospital you still have to wait anywhere from 20-50minutes for a room to open up, set up, anesthesiologist to be called and administer drugs, etc.
When you come from outside the hospital you get moved to the front of the line because they have no idea what your medical situation is. Still have to wait, but much shorter.
My wait time was 45 minutes, and I was IN the hospital. Try being told not to push for that period of time when you have the urge.
You should know that you were not in an emergency situation. Believe me, in an emergency situation (weather you are in the hospital or coming from outside of it) those rooms open up a WHOLE lot faster and the anesthesiologist shows up a whole lot quicker. When a true emergency occurs people RUN to make sure things happen as quickly as possible. To get an idea of this, if you do a tour, ask how long it takes to get a baby out if there is a prolapsed cord. They won't say 45 minutes.
A 45 minute drive in a true emergency would be something to be concerned about. Do you have any idea what emergency response time is like? If you needed to call an ambulance, how long would it take them to get to you? The chances of a true emergency are small, but IMO worth considering.
My mom did a home birth in 1975, all was well. My sister did a home birth in 2010, all was well (her DH is a first responder and just in case they had an ambulance in the driveway). I would have had a home birth but after a previous ectopic pg which scared me, chose a natural delivery in our relatively progressive hospital. My babe was well; on the other hand I had a retained placenta with heavy bleeding. From these posts it might or might not have been handled at home: https://community.babycenter.com/post/a27480729/retained_placenta .
Thanks for your post, because from researching I see now that I was at risk for retained placenta (previous uterine procedures), so if I chose a homebirth I would ensure my caregiver is experienced with this in particular.
Unexplained IF/RPL
TTC#1 2003 BFNs, 2004-2009
5 angels above
2010 IVF-PGS-FET#1, DD b. Aug-2011
TTC#2 2012 BFNs, 2013 FET#2, DS b. Nov-2013
TTC#3 2015 BFNs, FET#3
(my 6th and last angel above)
Journey Complete.
Just responding to the distance worry:
I'm 40minutes from the nearest hospital and that's perfect timing in cause something goes/is wrong. When your in the hospital you still have to wait anywhere from 20-50minutes for a room to open up, set up, anesthesiologist to be called and administer drugs, etc.
When you come from outside the hospital you get moved to the front of the line because they have no idea what your medical situation is. Still have to wait, but much shorter.
My wait time was 45 minutes, and I was IN the hospital.
::shakes head in disbelief::
uh, what?
There is a risk with everybirth. The aforementioned study categorizes "homebirth" as any birth not in a hospital. This included births that were not planned, took place in cars, and who knows where else.
With planned homebirths (low risk pregnancy) with a midwife, your chances are even with a hospital.
Consider reading "Birth Matters" by Ina May Gaskin. Its her latest book and it features a LOT of medical studies about natural and home birth.