Why I am glad I opted for a hospital birth

mysticporter · December 2009

I hadn't posted this, because the decision for home vs. hospital birth should be a personal decision for every mother. This is just one story (the odds really are against something like this happening to you). I'm genuinely not 'advocating' hospital birth, but I want to take some time to post this after reading another pro-home birth post.

I had a low risk pregnancy with DD, and no signs of problems. I went into labor naturally a week past my due date, and I would have been considered a good candidate for home birth from the standpoint of home birth advocacy groups. My labor/delivery progressed rapidly, and ended up being drug free. My water did not break until 15-20 minutes before DD was born. At that time, the doctor noted the presence of meconium, and a specialist team was brought in to evaluate her post-delivery for respiratory distress "just in case". As it turned out, she did have meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), and required intubation and suction to clear her airway.

It's impossible to say what would have happened if we had been at home. Even living a short drive to the hospital, the 15-20 minutes between water breaking (when a potential concern was noted) and birth would not have been sufficient to get from our house to the maternity ward and the specialist team, and it's possible she would have asphyxiated or suffered brain damage from oxygen deprivation before we got there. I firmly believe the quick action of hospital staff prevented this, and I am eternally grateful.

At any rate, my case is the exception. As the advocates are quick to point out, if you intend to have a home birth and actually have one, studies show there is no more danger for low-risk mothers than a hospital birth. There's also less risk of medical intervention (of course, I'm damn glad the medical staff intervened for my DD after birth). However, 10-15% of home births require a transfer to a hospital, and some studies have demonstrated an increased risk in those cases as opposed to planned hospital births (there's limited data).

There's a fairly comprehensive article at https://www.obgmanagement.com/article_pages.asp?AID=7776.

ikissedthecook · December 2009

My fear of something going wrong like this, no matter how small the odds, is exactly why I want to give birth at a hospital. Probably wouldn't happen, but I'm just paranoid like that. Thanks for sharing!

DNO · December 2009

Thanks for sharing - Thank goodness everything worked out for your baby! Congrats to you & your family!

Donniesgrrl · December 2009

I had a very similar story except I was induced becasue DD was showing some tachycardia the day before so they figured lets get her out just to be safe.
Although my pregnancy was very normal as was my labor and delivery, the cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times and she spent 8 days in the NICU due to her aspirating a large amount of amniotic fluid.

We almost lost her as she did not breath on her own the first 10 minutes of her life and if we did a home birth we would have.

Bride2bMO · December 2009

Thanks, I didn't see the homebirth posts that prompted this, but this was a very balanced and rational post (and those debates often get emotional and full of distorted facts).

Even though I had no complications, I'm still grateful for my hospital birth. I never felt pressured to "hurry up" as is a popular myth, and I definitely felt no pressure to receive unnecessary interventions. I was allowed to push for more than 3 hours without a mention of c-section, and I tore naturally and no one dared try to give me an episiotomy. My practice almost never does those anyway.

Livelove0507 · December 2009

I'm just lurking, but I'm glad you posted this. Unfortunately, I don't think you are the exception. So many people on these boards mention meconium present at birth. I'm glad your baby was okay!

CarolEvans · December 2009

i was considering a home birth or even one at a birthing center, but my friend who's a pediatrician helped me reconsider, those being one of the reasons. my DS had meconium in the water (no probs tho) and both my kids were born w/ jaundice. she said to rethink it not so much for my sake but for the kids' sake.

itsmevkb · December 2009

I think it's important that stories such as this are told. I just hear so many women talk about how they are young, healthy, having a normal, healthy pregnancy and so homebirth doesn't present risks when we all know that things can and do go wrong even in otherwise healthy mothers.

My son's shoulder got stuck during his birth which was a totally unforseen complication. After the delivery he also experienced breathing troubles and was rushed to the NICU. I will be forever grateful that I was giving birth in a hospital where he had immediate access to specialists.

Every women has the right to choose how she wishes to give birth but I just think they also need to know that sometimes things do go wrong and accept that risk when they make the choice they do.

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