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After three hospital births, I had my fourth at home in the water. I won't go into tons of details, but I will never birth in a hospital again as long as I have the choice.
As far as emergencies go, consider how far you are from a hospital. If you are delivering in a hospital, it would take on average 30 minutes to prep for surgery if you need a c-section. If you deliver at home and need to transfer, your midwife will call the hospital and they will prep the room while you are transported. If you are 30 minutes or less from a hospital, you may get there before they are even ready for you and it would be no different if you were in the hospital waiting for the room to be prepped. Midwives will not assist women unless they are low-risk and typically have a 1-2% transfer rate. That is a very low number, especially considering that hospital c-section rates are up to 30% in some places and rising every year.
Also, I have noticed many people in this thread using the term direct entry midwife or lay midwife. Please know that sometimes people use that term to refer to certified professional midwives (as opposed to certified nurse midwives). They are NOT the same thing. CPMs usually spend a long time studying and apprenticing and are NOT lay midwives.
Whichever route you go, take the time to educate yourself on natural birth if that is the experience you are looking for. I recommend Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, Birthing From Within, and Gentle Birth Choices. Also, google natural birth stories. They will inspire you and are a great antedote to all the horror stories we hear. Birthing can be a beautiful and peaceful experience. It was for me.
After three hospital births, I had my fourth at home in the water. I won't go into tons of details, but I will never birth in a hospital again as long as I have the choice.
As far as emergencies go, consider how far you are from a hospital. If you are delivering in a hospital, it would take on average 30 minutes to prep for surgery if you need a c-section. If you deliver at home and need to transfer, your midwife will call the hospital and they will prep the room while you are transported. If you are 30 minutes or less from a hospital, you may get there before they are even ready for you and it would be no different if you were in the hospital waiting for the room to be prepped. Midwives will not assist women unless they are low-risk and typically have a 1-2% transfer rate. That is a very low number, especially considering that hospital c-section rates are up to 30% in some places and rising every year.
Also, I have noticed many people in this thread using the term direct entry midwife or lay midwife. Please know that sometimes people use that term to refer to certified professional midwives (as opposed to certified nurse midwives). They are NOT the same thing. CPMs usually spend a long time studying and apprenticing and are NOT lay midwives.
Whichever route you go, take the time to educate yourself on natural birth if that is the experience you are looking for. I recommend Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, Birthing From Within, and Gentle Birth Choices. Also, google natural birth stories. They will inspire you and are a great antedote to all the horror stories we hear. Birthing can be a beautiful and peaceful experience. It was for me.
Good luck to you.
Nessatar, how did you decide to go from hospital to home? I would think after 3 hospital births you would have been so thoroughly indoctrinated that there would be no listening to any alternatives. Were your loved ones supportive? I'd love details of your home birth if and when you ever feel like relating them. And if not- that's ok too!
I was sick of trying to have the birth that I wanted in the hospital. Finally, in my third birth I swore at the nurse who was trying to force me to have an IV (which I asked about at the hospital tour and was assured that it is NOT hospital policy to make women have IVs) and she left me alone. So I was able to have a completely non-interventive birth but I had to do it in spite of the medical community. Add to that the glaring lights, the immeadiate bathing of the baby and cutting of the cord (which we didn't want), etc... I decided if I had another baby, I wanted the person catching it to have complete confidence in my ability to birth and I wanted someone who would listen to me and respect my wishes whole-heartedly. That person was my midwife.
I had my fourth at home in a birthing tub. I got into the tub at midnight and slept on and off until about 3 am. My MW was dozing on the couch and my husband was sleeping in our bed. I woke up to a lot of pressure and decided to check myself. I could feel my water about to break (mine always breaks just before I need to start pushing) and called my midwife. Soon after, I spent 20 minutes pushing and she was born before the back up midwife arrived! I highly recommend a water birth. It was so relaxing, really helped me manage the pain, and I was able to catch my baby myself. It was so quiet and I was able to just concentrate and do what I needed to do. I felt completely safe and not at all self-concious. I don't plan to have any more, but if I do it will be another home waterbirth for sure... My husband was nervous about the homebirth but he also knew he couldn't drag me to hospital and didn't want to be stuck catching it himself! My mom was not supportive, before or after, but c'est la vie. What can I say? I'm stubborn!
Also, check out this link on mother-friendly care. It will help you formulate some questions to ask whoever it is who will be helping you birth your baby.
I was sick of trying to have the birth that I wanted in the hospital. Finally, in my third birth I swore at the nurse who was trying to force me to have an IV (which I asked about at the hospital tour and was assured that it is NOT hospital policy to make women have IVs) and she left me alone. So I was able to have a completely non-interventive birth but I had to do it in spite of the medical community. Add to that the glaring lights, the immeadiate bathing of the baby and cutting of the cord (which we didn't want), etc... I decided if I had another baby, I wanted the person catching it to have complete confidence in my ability to birth and I wanted someone who would listen to me and respect my wishes whole-heartedly. That person was my midwife.
I had my fourth at home in a birthing tub. I got into the tub at midnight and slept on and off until about 3 am. My MW was dozing on the couch and my husband was sleeping in our bed. I woke up to a lot of pressure and decided to check myself. I could feel my water about to break (mine always breaks just before I need to start pushing) and called my midwife. Soon after, I spent 20 minutes pushing and she was born before the back up midwife arrived! I highly recommend a water birth. It was so relaxing, really helped me manage the pain, and I was able to catch my baby myself. It was so quiet and I was able to just concentrate and do what I needed to do. I felt completely safe and not at all self-concious. I don't plan to have any more, but if I do it will be another home waterbirth for sure... My husband was nervous about the homebirth but he also knew he couldn't drag me to hospital and didn't want to be stuck catching it himself! My mom was not supportive, before or after, but c'est la vie. What can I say? I'm stubborn!
Nessatar, this thread has given me so many new heroes and you are definitely one of them. I'm so jealous that you caught your baby yourself. I never even thought of that as an option. What a beautiful thing! Do you know any other people personally who have had home births? Also, I'm curious, why weren't you intimidated by the threat of "something going wrong" that gets everyone else to go to the hospital? How did you dare go against conventional wisdom?
Last edited by laysayfair; 09-30-2008 at 10:28 AM..
Reason: typo
I had my DS in a birth center attached to a hospital with a midwife. I see a lot of people (including my Nurse mom) insist that an OB is a safer option no matter what. Perhaps if you had the perfect OB, in the perfect baby-friendly hospital! But when some OB's do things like routinely schedule early inductions for the sake of patient/OB convenience, that's not exactly putting safety first.
So I went with a midwife who is trained in all childbearing emergencies but also believes that birth is normal. It's not something to be rescued from.
No one ever said "your baby is too big!!" because they believe that you will grow a baby you can birth. So I never had fear that my baby was too big for me to push out, and he wasn't. He was 9lbz 7oz and I didn't have a single tear. It took me quite awhile lol, but he came out when he was supposed to!
Education is so important anyway you go. Even if you want to go to a hospital and get an epidural, you better know what your getting into. This is your birth! A really good friend of mine said, I don't need to know all that stuff, I'll just go and have a baby! You don't necessarily go in and get an epi, have no pain (before or after), and have a birth you'd smile about for years to come. She found that out the hard way unfortunately!
Nessatar, this thread has given me so many new heroes and you are definitely one of them. I'm so jealous that you caught your baby yourself. I never even thought of that as an option. What a beautiful thing! Do you know any other people personally who have had home births? Also, I'm curious, why weren't you intimidated by the threat of "something going wrong" that gets everyone else to go to the hospital? How did you dare go against conventional wisdom?
That's funny! I looked at the numbers, plain and simple. Hospitals with 30% c-section and 90% epidural rates? Induction rates are scary as well. Now THAT is something going wrong. That's what I was afraid of. I read and read and read and the facts simply do not support the safety of hospitals over homebirths.
I know plenty of people who have homebirthed or had a midwife attended birth at a freestanding center. I am quite active in the birth advocate community.
Both my grandmothers had two hospital births each. My mom had 5 hospital births, I had 5 hospital births, my daughter had one and I am sure there will be many more as grandchildren come. Had numerous friends that had all their children in hospitals. The only scary story I know personally was a home birth with complications and the baby died and the mom almost did....my vote is for the hospital births. If we are voting.
the rates of induction and c-section scare me the most. I think both home and hospital are safe. My worry is not my safety because I know either way I will be in professional hands. But my concern is unnecessay intervention. I strongly believe babies come when they are ready, when their lungs are ready. I hate the thought of so many women being induced. So many women know at 7 months pregnant the day their baby will be born, because it is already scheduled in the doctors calendar. I also do not like the high % of c-section either. It really is so rediculous. If I could know with 100 percent certainty I could go to hospital and not be hasseled for an induction or c-section, I wouldnt mind the hospital thing. But those are the biggest issues in my book. Those are the only reasons why birthing centers appeal to me more.
Both of my daughtlers were born in the hospital .They were both deliverd by c-seation so ididnt get to experance with natural birth.My mother inlaw told me i wasnt a real woman because they were both delivered by c-section and nephew who was 19 at the time when both of my daughtlers were born that i was lazy.Like i realy ask for a c-section it wasnt my choice and if i had to do it al over again i would do it because my first born was a breech
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