I'm 33 weeks pregnant and have had a trouble-free pregnancy so far. They discovered 2 fibroids on my dating scan but I've had no adverse effects from them so far and did not have particularly heavy periods previous to pregnancy.
As everything seems to be going well, I mentioned to the consultant today that I would like to have a home birth. Her response was, 'Have you ever seen anyone give birth? I'm sure you'd change your mind if you had.' Not terribly positive! She decided to do a scan to work out where the fibroids were to see if they would be in the way of the exit route or could affect the baby's position. The baby was head down and the fibroids were well out of the way. One was the same size as at 12 weeks and the other had grown slightly, though it was at the very top of the uterus.
Now, to me, that scan was reassuring in that the fibroids don't seem to affecting the pregnancy at all and seemed to be the best situation possible, given that they weren't going to have disappeared completely! The consultant however said that she hoped I'd put my 'romantic dreams' of a home birth out of my head and that it was a silly idea as I may have a postpartum hemorrage due to the fibroids so I needed to be in hospital. She tried to scare me with talk of losing pints of blood and needing transfusions etc.
Is there anyone who has experience of giving birth at home with fibroids? I can't decide whether it is her attitude which has got my back up and made me not trust her opinion, or whether I actually just disagree with her. Obviously I understand there is a slight increased risk, but I'm happy to wait and see what the situation is at 36 weeks when I have another scan booked.
Are there any midwives out there who can offer an opinion on how they would feel about attending a home birth where a woman has fibroids? Consultant said no midwife would touch me with a barge pole I thought most women had them at some point tbh and they didn't have to be a big deal.
So tell me: am I deluded and being selfish? Or could this consultant just be against home birth in general and erring on the extreme side of caution?
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Childbirth
Home birth with fibroids. Any experiences or opinions?
15 replies
Ihopeyoudance · 24/11/2010 16:45
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