Home Birth

[Anonymous]

OP would be well served to read the Failure to Deliver series. https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/failuretodeliver/about-the-investigation/.

Also, Kara Keogh was 4 blocks from a hospital. Proximity to
the hospital doesn’t mean anything in a critical situation. Seconds matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even though baby and I had no risk factors, my third would be dead if I had him at home. Don’t.

This is absolutely ridiculous and just the kind of histrionics I'd expect on this board. You have no idea what the issues were with her 3rd or if she really even needed medical intervention. Do you see how many women here claim they needed an "emergency cesarean", yet they weren't placed under general anesthesia? Here's a newsflash, that's called an unplanned cesarean, almost always done unnecessarily.

I've had a free standing birth center birth, homebirth and I'm planning another homebirth. I'm a big advocate for birthing at home.

I will say, it's not for the faint of heart. I doubt many of my friends have the pain tolerance to handle it. They'd likely demand a hospital transfer after a few mins of transition. I do believe it's almost always healthier for the baby and mother to deliver in the home environment. Also brings baby into a calm and loving environment, that's a much better way to be welcomed onto the earth side.

Plenty of necessary sections occur unplanned. Just because a csection isn’t a matter of life and death that very second doesn’t mean it’s not necessary.

You can be in JUST as much pain during an Unmedicated birth in a hospital as you are in a home birth, so can stop acting superior about that, plus, your baby is less likely to die.

[Anonymous]

When I hear “home birth” I hear “dead baby”. There is never, ever a Good reason to choose a home birth. There is no argument that is valid. When you choose a home birth, you choose your own “experience” over the life of your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anybody here ever done one? I am in my second trimester and have started doing research into it and am really interested in the experience. Don't know how to go about finding more DC specific information (have reached out to a couple of midwives for clarification) and would also just love to hear if anybody has had any experience with it.

Why??? This is a no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both of my kids were born vaginally but both came out limp and blue and not breathing. They each had a full NICU team waiting. Both are fine because of my medical team. I would never ever feel comfortable with a home birth after my experiences.

My first got stuck on my hooked tailbone (an issue never previously identfied), which had to broken and she needed a vaccum assist to get over the broken bone. Totally unexpected. Very painful and scary as her heart rate started dropping while they tried to solve the mystery of why she was stuck in the birth canal. She was crowning when the issue arose--not at good time for a hospital transfer.

My second was larger than her ultrasounds predicted. Shoulder dydystocia-i.e., she got stuck after her head had come out. Very, very dangerous and very scary. A midwife might have been able to get her out, but in the hospital I had 6 people assisting. Some pushing on my stomach. Some getting things for the doctor. There is no way a single midwife (or even two) would have been as efficient and every second counts as the baby is being suffocated. I am enormously glad for the NICU team who immediately treated my limp, blue, not breathing baby when she came out.

Do you realize it's super common for all babies to come out like that? They're getting oxygen from the attached cord. You just think the "full NICU team" saved the day.

NO. No, no ,no.

Babies usually cry at incision or perineum, depending on how delivered. Being limp is not normal. They may not be fully flexed and may be acrocyanotic, but they should be able to transition better than "limp, blue, and not breathing." That's a really low APGAR.

My first was hospitalized for several extra days because of jaundice caused by bruising from birth trauma. I don't recall her APGAR but it wasn't good and she had internal bleeding.

My second had an APGAR of 1 initially (only a low heart beat), rising to 4 at 5 minutes. She was in rough shape because she didnt get oxygen from the cord the entire time she was wedged in the birth canal.

Neither baby came out normal. Both babies needed serious attention immediately at birth. Both were natural deliveries.

[Anonymous]

When I was in my 20s I fantasized about a water birth, at home. I read about them, and knew it was what was right for me.

By the time I actually got pregnant in my 30s, I had seen too much sh*t in the world. Nature doesn't care if your specific baby dies or not.

In the end, the questions every parent has to ask: to whom does the benefit of this decision accrue? To whom does the risk accrue?

It was clear to me that the benefit of a home birth would be mine, and the risk would be my child's. I had a hospital birth. Damn good thing, too -- after 3 hours of pushing while fully dilated, and a complete failure to descend, it was determined that my labor was obstructed. In a 3rd world country I would've ended up with a dead baby and obstetric fistula. Here in the US I was able to try until the risk became too great; then I was whisked away for a c-section. Another 15-30m would not have been good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP would be well served to read the Failure to Deliver series. https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/failuretodeliver/about-the-investigation/.

Also, Kara Keogh was 4 blocks from a hospital. Proximity to
the hospital doesn’t mean anything in a critical situation. Seconds matter.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I hear “home birth” I hear “dead baby”. There is never, ever a Good reason to choose a home birth. There is no argument that is valid. When you choose a home birth, you choose your own “experience” over the life of your child.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just NO. I was driving by the Birthcare place in Alexandria last week and it had 3 ambulances outside. NO NO NO. Look at what happened to poor Kara Keough.

Yes, this, the rate is extremely high at places like Birthcare.

[Anonymous]

I know someone that lost a baby with a home birth, The child did not have to die. Never for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP would be well served to read the Failure to Deliver series. https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/failuretodeliver/about-the-investigation/.

Also, Kara Keogh was 4 blocks from a hospital. Proximity to
the hospital doesn’t mean anything in a critical situation. Seconds matter.

Yep infant rescusitation procedures are meant to be timed in seconds, with hospital equipment and drugs only a MD can administer on hand, and with multiple professionals involved.

[Anonymous]

I recently read that 10% of babies require help to start to breath at birth. you REALLY want to be in the hospital if your baby is one of those 1 in 10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP would be well served to read the Failure to Deliver series. https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/failuretodeliver/about-the-investigation/.

Also, Kara Keogh was 4 blocks from a hospital. Proximity to
the hospital doesn’t mean anything in a critical situation. Seconds matter.

Yep infant rescusitation procedures are meant to be timed in seconds, with hospital equipment and drugs only a MD can administer on hand, and with multiple professionals involved.

'

exactly. even if midwives can do some of those procedures, they in no way have the set-up to be able to do it as effectively as in the hospital (infant warmer standing by, good lighting, all the instruments to measure pulse & O2), and all the trained people to help them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even though baby and I had no risk factors, my third would be dead if I had him at home. Don’t.

This is absolutely ridiculous and just the kind of histrionics I'd expect on this board. You have no idea what the issues were with her 3rd or if she really even needed medical intervention. Do you see how many women here claim they needed an "emergency cesarean", yet they weren't placed under general anesthesia? Here's a newsflash, that's called an unplanned cesarean, almost always done unnecessarily.

I've had a free standing birth center birth, homebirth and I'm planning another homebirth. I'm a big advocate for birthing at home.

I will say, it's not for the faint of heart. I doubt many of my friends have the pain tolerance to handle it. They'd likely demand a hospital transfer after a few mins of transition. I do believe it's almost always healthier for the baby and mother to deliver in the home environment. Also brings baby into a calm and loving environment, that's a much better way to be welcomed onto the earth side.

Earth side?

Lemme guess...you didn’t have labor pains or contractions, you had “rushes”, amirite?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is anecdotal but a friend of mine nearly died along with her baby, giving birth to her first at home. She is incredibly fit and healthy, no family history of complications, had a great smooth pregnancy during which she ran and did yoga every day.

She had to be rushed to the hospital for an emergency C-section. The baby was stuck behind a bone in her pelvis and never would have made it out without intervention.

+1 This happened to my friend, too. She was a FTM and they had to rush her in an ambulance for an emergency c-section when the baby got stuck and the heart rate dropped dangerously low. It was so traumatizing to her and her DH that she didn’t even want to talk about it for a long time. This isn’t a powerful-mama-game to play, and I find it incredibly irresponsible that posters here are encouraging a FTM to have a home birth given the statistics and stakes (human life!). I asked my OBGYN about my options for doing a home birth (I am young, healthy, already had a healthy live birth) and she told me this: most home births go perfectly, but the ones that go wrong, go very, very wrong.