Homebirth vs Hospital (pain, bleeding, doctor, heart)

[happeemommee]

I was just curious on the opinion of others on this subject. I've had five daughters, three at home, two in the hospital. Four with no pain meds. My homebirths were planed and a midwife attended.

[christina0001]

I am open-minded to home births. I brought it up to my husband a while ago, and he almost had a heart attack. I think for peace of mind (for both of us), I would want my first child at the hospital, but if all goes smoothly, I would try to encourage him to be more open-minded to an at-home birth for future children. I hate hospitals, they are so noisy, cold, and germy. I also don't want any pain meds. I would be terrified to have a giant needle stuck in my spine...and I pray I will never need a C-section.

[country pride]

All mine were c-sections (thank GAWD!!) so they were all hospital. Thats the ONLY way Id ever go, if I were going to have anymore.
I was there when both my girls had their babies and believe me, there is nothing pleasant about your doors tearing and ripping while theyre trying to pull that baby out! In fact, at one point, her husband started feeling a little queezy (lol!!!!) so they made him sit down.
Anyway, my point made. C-section. Period.

[South Range Family]

Our first two were homebirths with midwives. Our third was in a hospital because of a different insurance. All three were easy with no rips, tears, or stitches.

We made the original homebirth decision because of a doctor in Atlanta that made us feel really uncomfortable by some of the things he was saying. We later found out that he is a butcher that does nothing but C-sections. He likes to schedule them for his convenience. Homebirthing was the right decision for us.

Now that our kids are in highschool, and college, they get a big kick out of telling their friends that they were born at home while Mom squatted on the floor next to the bed. You should see the looks on their faces.

[gentlearts]

I would not want to take the chance that something might go wrong and my baby would die, or I died because I chose not to go to the hospital. Even if you've had several children without incident, that doesn't mean that something can't go wrong.
I know the whole idea of the earth mother thing is appealing, but civilization didn't crawl out of caves for nothing, and I see no need to behave as though we're in a third world country.

[Wi_Girl]

I was MORE than happy to be in the hospital when I had my daughter. I had a wonderful set of nurses who made me feel comfortable and made the experience great. I would not have changed a thing. It just depends on what people feel comfortable with but I was just fine being in the hospital setting. My next child will also be born at the same one my daughter was.

[eddiek]

Home births are fine- UNTIL and UNLESS something goes wrong.

Remember that midwives do not have the same training as the obstetrician, and that your home does not have the availabllity to emergency procedures or equipment as may become necessitated by a birth gone wrong.

For the safety oy you and the baby- I would stick to the hopistal setting.

[Padgett2]

And if your baby is one of those that needs oxygen right after birth? Suppose you start to bleed uncontrollably? Or the placenta does come out like it's supposed to?

How's the traffic between your house and the hospital? How long will it take to get you or the baby there if you need help?

Many babies are successfully born at home. It can be done with no problem. You simply have to be sure that you want to take the risk that something may go wrong and your baby may not make it.

It boils down to whether or not you can handle feeling guilty about it.

[irishmom]

L&D nurse here....hospital, hospital, hospital. I've seen too many normal low risk routine pregnancies result in complicated births. The only compromise to this would be a well equipped and staffed birth center...but I would still recommend a hospital, preferrably with a level 3 NICU to give birth in.

[Earniefan]

I always thought I wanted home birth over hospital, I'm so glad I didn't. I also always thought I would have my children without pain meds, then the contractions hit, how any woman goes through that without an epidural is beyond me! My delivery was perfect with my daughter, my placenta delivery was perfect. Then I proceeded to bleed, alot. By the time the doctors figured out what was wrong, I had a lobe that was still attached to my uterus, I had lost a lot of blood. I needed four pints and was still low. I was so glad I was not at home, it would have been much more traumatic. Between the loss of so much fluid etc. because of the drug they gave me to stop the bleeding, which didn't work and the loss of so much blood I was in the hospital for four days total. I wasn't able to get up and walk around until the day I was released. After going through this I will never deliver a child at home, what if something was wrong with the baby that required immediate medical attention, I would feel horrible if something happened to my child as a result of that.