To be fed up of the "home birth is risky" misinformation?

So are you going to share any of this evidence or just tell us we are wrong?

Of course it’s riskier. The reason home births have predominantly low infant or maternal morbidity or mortality is because the risk is assessed and only low risk can proceed. However, is it less risk than hospital birth? Absolutely and definitively not. Hospital births have risk but the risk is mitigated by the advanced level of immediate care available which is not only equipment but experienced highly skilled specialist staff. That will never be possible in a home therefore risk will always be greater no matter the assessed risk of the mother/child.

Right, I nearly bled to death during my first birth. I remember the sensation of the blood rushing out of me after pushing out the placenta, and the gyno pushing his fist against me to try to stop the flow of blood. I remember him telling the nurse to give me a clotting medicine - I had to ask him what it was. I remember him telling her to be quick about it, I want it into her fast (or words to that effect). I'd almost certainly have bled to death without that immediate intervention.

I don’t think we would even be having this conversation if maternity care wasn’t such a complete mess and oftentimes downright dangerous.

Im still angry about my experience that was an unnecessary induction that led me to labour for nearly 3 days and ended in an emergency section anyway. My treatment on the post natal ward was also abhorrent. Including being left for hours without pain relief. I completely understand why women are terrified of that happening to them.

People who are rational don't start threads like this

People who are rational understand that having medical help on hand during the birth process increases the chances of a healthy mum and baby

People who are rational understand that neonatal mortality reduces with hospital births as do post partum deaths.

People who are rational understand what survivor bias is.

Those people don't start threads like this sadly. People who start threads like this are more concerned by the birth process and thankfully have never known anyone who has had preventable still births

The issue for me would be if anything detrimental happened to my baby during a Hb, I would never ever beable to forgive myself.

Neither of my babies or I, would be here if I had had home births.

Is this about the latest story of a woman and her baby dying?

Having a baby is always risky. I think if you choose to have a baby at home then there will be other risks, but sometimes babies come along very quickly either way, I have friends who have had babies in cars and at home within an hour or so with no plans for a home delivery. Baby plans often go awry. What is risky is when pregnant women ignore medical information given to them, don't go to scans when recommended etc.

If you are considering having a home birth, then you need to understand whether it’s sensible for you, and if you are having a low risk pregnancy and have given before, then statistically it is not any riskier than if you give birth in hospital. If you are not in that situation then a home birth is riskier. Of course you need to look at specific samples because the risk profile changes. I’m not suggesting a skewed sample, I’m saying that when they separate out the populations, there is one where a home birth is not riskier, and for the rest, it is.

Have you taken into account the fact that most women considering a home birth are talked out of it if they have any obvious risk factors? It ends up being nearly all women who have no risk factors as the others go to hospital. So the 'evidence' does not compare like with like.

You seem to be - ironically, for someone who claims to understand data and analysis - to be arguing against a complete straw man. Absolutely nobody ever has said that high-risk pregnancies should be home deliveries or that this is an equally safe choice. So of course it's fair to compare low-risk births at home and in hospital.

You can however surely see that if complications arise transfer time to hospital is a significant risk factor to both the mum and the baby?!

A paramedic i know, who isn't prone to sharing opinions simply told me 'Community midwives don't carry TXA'. I found this very sobering and fact based.

Yep, home birth is - always - riskier than a hospital birth, obviously. Not because that particular birth is inherently risky by itself but having trained medical staff with access to medical equipment and drugs and an operating theatre within arms reach, more or less, is in itself always the safer option.

Nobody rational could argue otherwise.

I did and have, which is why I know that home birth is as safe as hospital birth in many circumstances... Also, this is established medical fact, not a question of opinion.

I think it would definitely be riskier at home in lots of cases. I was 26 and had had a textbook pregnancy but it all went very wrong in labour and my baby and I would probably not have made it had I chosen a home birth because we live about 45 mins from the nearest hospital.

As they say, labour is only ever normal in retrospect.

I do remember a very sad MN post from someone who’d wanted a home birth for her first baby. But there were complications, help couldn’t be reached quickly enough, and her baby suffered brain damage. Unsurprisingly, she felt appalling guilt.

Yes, I know such cases will be rare, but…

Oh my goodness, this!!
Did anyone see the Dispatches programme on Ch 4 last night?
999 : Undercover NHS in Crisis. This was shocking!

I suppose the problem with this though is that you don’t know you’re going to have a normal birth until the time comes, and by then it’s too late to change your mind.

I had my daughter last year, no risk factors, no reason to believe there would be any issues, perfectly normal and healthy pregnancy & baby. We’d both have likely died if we hadn’t been in the hospital but there were no signs in advance that would be the case. Even the less than 30 seconds between the emergency buzzer being pulled and what felt like an army of people arriving in the room to help us felt like forever, nevermind waiting for an ambulance, blue light to hospital etc.

Feel free to speak to your midwife, and consultant, just as I have, to get all of the facts and make your own decision ☺️

I wouldn’t recommend even then to be honest, I was age 24, bmi also about 24 no complications, fit and healthy, second child after a regular delivery the first time and still almost died thank god I was in the hospital

No, but I also know clinicians studies tend to be into a specific subset of something, not the very general question being asked here. What are you saying they do?

For example I was just skimming an article about a British Medical Journal study that confirmed some planned home births are less risky than some hospital births. You can see in that study they weren’t trying to prove if ALL home births are safer, they were trying to prove a specific point. That’s what I’m saying, most studies look at specific things rather than a
more general question like is being asked here.

I'm really sorry that happened to you.

IMO..
normal pregnancy, normal birth.. riskier at hospital but only because of HOA

pregnancy with risk factors and normal birth.. riskier at home
Pregnancy with risks and problems in labour and delivery.. riskier at home.

I had a unplanned home birth which worked out fine and I didn’t need to go to hospital at all, had something gone badly wrong it would have been a race to the hospital

Why don't you supply some stats, OP, with sources, so that we can actually engage with your argument?