For those of you who plan to have home births...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not OP, but how is this picking a fight? If I were planning a home birth (which I'm not), I would be interested in knowing this.

If you were planning a home birth you'd already know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Having a home birth was the best decision I ever made. It was exactly what I needed to finally feel 100% in control of my life. Even though my child's arrival wasn't easy, it happened the way it was supposed to, surrounded by wise women and in the comfort of my own home, where I was "in charge" of myself, and no one questioned my knowing exactly what my baby and I needed.

If I had gone into a hospital and been subjected to all their regulations, I would have come out feeling invaded and less of a respected human being, and not very empowered to take on the profound task of parenting.

I'm all for options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks OP.
I believe women who opt for home births in this day and age are ignorant and frankly, the decision to do so borders on negligence vid a vis their unborn child.

I believe women who make statements like the one above in this day and age are ignorant.

I am so unbelievably HAPPY with my decision to have my two children at home. I could not have made a better (or safer) decision for ME. My choice impacts no body. If you want to make a different choice so be it, but don't come here spouting your uninformed and ignorant claptrap. I had enough bullshit of that type from acquaintances when I was pregnant with my first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks OP.
I believe women who opt for home births in this day and age are ignorant and frankly, the decision to do so borders on negligence vid a vis their unborn child.

Are you saying that if you opt for a home birth, that proves you are ignorant? Of what, exactly?

And how can it be negligence if there is no scientific consensus on the outcomes of planned home births compared to the outcomes than planned hospital births?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think it's really creepy that we treat birth as some experience to optimize. The modifier "great" in your post makes me shudder. It's not ABOUT you. It's about the baby being delivered safely. Your need for a "great" birth is immaterial and secondary.

Actually, it is about me. It is about the baby, and it is about me. I am not a vessel.

[Anonymous]

OP, you convinced me! I read the research and I've changed my mind! Sign me up for a c-section, stat!!!

[Anonymous]

I'll say it again, I know with absolute certainty that most OBs in hospital settings would have responded to my perfectly natural and normal labor process with some interventions (Pitocin for example) that my body would not have reacted well to and the result would not have been good and would have reduced the possibility of an optimum outcome for both me and my baby.

Are you usually this "absolutely certain" when all you have to go on is wild speculation with no evidence? No wonder you're ignoring the study OP linked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'll say it again, I know with absolute certainty that most OBs in hospital settings would have responded to my perfectly natural and normal labor process with some interventions (Pitocin for example) that my body would not have reacted well to and the result would not have been good and would have reduced the possibility of an optimum outcome for both me and my baby.

Are you usually this "absolutely certain" when all you have to go on is wild speculation with no evidence? No wonder you're ignoring the study OP linked.

The medical high holy one has spoken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll say it again, I know with absolute certainty that most OBs in hospital settings would have responded to my perfectly natural and normal labor process with some interventions (Pitocin for example) that my body would not have reacted well to and the result would not have been good and would have reduced the possibility of an optimum outcome for both me and my baby.

Are you usually this "absolutely certain" when all you have to go on is wild speculation with no evidence? No wonder you're ignoring the study OP linked.

The medical high holy one has spoken.

Ricki Lake?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll say it again, I know with absolute certainty that most OBs in hospital settings would have responded to my perfectly natural and normal labor process with some interventions (Pitocin for example) that my body would not have reacted well to and the result would not have been good and would have reduced the possibility of an optimum outcome for both me and my baby.

Are you usually this "absolutely certain" when all you have to go on is wild speculation with no evidence? No wonder you're ignoring the study OP linked.

The medical high holy one has spoken.

Ricki Lake?

Damn her. She exposed your lies.
What was that documentary,

"The Business of Birth" ?
Was that it?

[Anonymous]

And there's that "Orgasmic Birth" lady, Debra... something.

She teaches OB students about normal birth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll say it again, I know with absolute certainty that most OBs in hospital settings would have responded to my perfectly natural and normal labor process with some interventions (Pitocin for example) that my body would not have reacted well to and the result would not have been good and would have reduced the possibility of an optimum outcome for both me and my baby.

Are you usually this "absolutely certain" when all you have to go on is wild speculation with no evidence? No wonder you're ignoring the study OP linked.

The medical high holy one has spoken.

Ricki Lake?

Damn her. She exposed your lies.
What was that documentary,

"The Business of Birth" ?
Was that it?

My lies? My own, personal lies? Shit.

And I believe it's "The Business of Being Born".

[Anonymous]

Poster who has so much vitriol for home births, tell us more about yourself. Why do you care so much about what other people do? 1 baby in 10000 has a slightly increased relative risk for a bad apgar score at 5 minutes out, according to a study from a biased author who used nothing more than the admittedly flimsy documentation provided by birth certificate information to reach the conclusions? Is this really a reason for your derision of someone who does something different from you? Do you have the same scorn for folks who get amniocentesis, which carries similar risk? (That is, if you accept that this risk is real; many of us have provided very compelling evidence to the contrary). Do you really not think that a hospital carries ANY risk? Do you think that people who don't want a c-section performed if they don't need one are truly reducible to selfish creatures who are all about some metaphysical birth "experience?" Is nothing legitimate beyond your narrow frame of mind?

Or are you just slinging shit?

[Anonymous]

Homebirth advocates won't find anything new in what I'm about to say, but everything is fine with your uncomplicated pregnancy/homebirth...until it isn't.

I never even considered homebirth (thank god) but would have been a fabulous candidate. The issue, you see, is that when baby came out, he collapsed a lung with his first breath and was aspirating thick meconium into his lungs and chest cavity. So basically, he was choking on his own shit. Had I not been steps away from a NICU he would be dead, no question. (and I live 3 blocks from Georgetown Hospital). Midwives couldn't have saved him, and a hospital transfer wouldn't have been fast enough.

A collapsed lung happens to one out of every hundred babies, so this isn't even that rare, and I was a young, healthy mom with no induction. And yes, I am telling this story to scare you out of a home birth, because it isn't just your choice that affects no one else, it affects your baby and your entire family. Thanks to the hospital, this common but deadly complication was easily solved and now I have an amazing one year old. But man, I'd probably end it all if I'd been home and this had happened. The guilt...oy fucking vey. How stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homebirth advocates won't find anything new in what I'm about to say, but everything is fine with your uncomplicated pregnancy/homebirth...until it isn't.

I never even considered homebirth (thank god) but would have been a fabulous candidate. The issue, you see, is that when baby came out, he collapsed a lung with his first breath and was aspirating thick meconium into his lungs and chest cavity. So basically, he was choking on his own shit. Had I not been steps away from a NICU he would be dead, no question. (and I live 3 blocks from Georgetown Hospital). Midwives couldn't have saved him, and a hospital transfer wouldn't have been fast enough.

A collapsed lung happens to one out of every hundred babies, so this isn't even that rare, and I was a young, healthy mom with no induction. And yes, I am telling this story to scare you out of a home birth, because it isn't just your choice that affects no one else, it affects your baby and your entire family. Thanks to the hospital, this common but deadly complication was easily solved and now I have an amazing one year old. But man, I'd probably end it all if I'd been home and this had happened. The guilt...oy fucking vey. How stupid.

Oh jeez. Why on EARTH is it your responsibility to scare pregnant women? Are you aware that babies die in hospitals from rare complications too?