Did anyone here have a home birth?

LCass

I can't remember if any of you lovely Oct '11 ladies had a home birth.  If you did, would you mind talking about it with me?

This time around I'm using a midwife instead of an OB.  I was completely sure that I still wanted a hospital birth, though.  The midwife pointed out that based on how quickly Lily came, it might be a good idea for DH and I to attend the home birth info session that their practice does, just in case there isn't time to get to the hospital.  So we went, and it was very helpful, but as we walked out DH was like "why don't we just PLAN to do a home birth?" and I keep flip-flopping on it now.  Seriously, I'll think of one reason to do hospital and it is IMMEDIATELY followed by a reason to do home.  I've heard stories from women who had home births, but I was hoping that maybe somebody I "know" would be able to talk to me about hers.

karinothing

I did not a home birth, but had a birth center birth which was basically the same as if I had the baby at home (I would have access to the same things at home or at the birth center).

I don't know if I would do a home birth, it has more to do with feeling more comfortable than safety issues. Anyway, if I were to do a homebirth I would use my same midwives. I believe only certified nurse midwives should attend home births (at least the way things are set up in VA).

My midwives have nurse training and have access to life saving medical equipment and procedures. First, they require another trained nurse at the birth so one can attend to mom and one can attend to baby. They have the ability to use pitocin (to stop bleeding), narcotics, and oxygen. They can incubate baby or mom if necessary. They have malpractice insurance so they are required to meet the standard of care for the area (meaning the same standards that are applied in hospitals.). This means they have to be able to get you to the hospital for a c-section in a certain amount of time. They are also extremely cautious and the first sign of trouble they recommend hospital transfer. They are not the type of midwives that push things to the limit.

 They also take only very low risk patients. No GD, no twins, no breech, no high blood pressure, no fever on delivery day, no VBACs, etc. They also partner with an OB at a hospital.

In the state of VA, there are also direct entry midwives (no offical nurse training, learned from other midwives). They are not allowed to administer oxygen, can't incubate, etc. I would not feel safe in this situation.

LCass

Thanks for the input, ladies.

First, to address Mack's concern, we're 10-15 minutes by car from a level 3 hospital.

I guess things are different here in Canada for midwifery care (example: we have no birth centres, although 2 are currently being built).  What we have sounds a lot like what kari describes with her midwives, but the "direct entry midwives" style doesn't exist.  At the home birth session we attended they showed us the equipment that they bring with them, which is the equivalent of what you would have at a level 1 hospital.  There are also always 2 midwives at every birth.  And I'm very low risk and had a very quick, easy l&d with Lily, which is why they say I'm the perfect candidate for a home birth.  They explained that only 30% of midwifery patients plan for a home birth.  5% of those end up being transferred to hospital, but only 1% are emergencies.  They always call an ambulance for the transfer.  And they're all extremely well trained, and have to keep up-to-date on absolutely everything every year.

karinothing

Those numbers sound similar to ours. Although my center's transfer rate is 15% for new mom's 5% for not new moms and 1% emergencies. Anyway, plenty of other countries have home births for their low risk patients as part of an established system of care.

 I would do it in your case, if you are comfortable