Low intervention - homebirth

Are you still practicing in the NHS?

I ask because you do seem awfully biased.

Forgive me, but I won’t be taking advice on misogyny from a woman who uses phrases like “girls girls.”

So it comes down to this whole 'whole birth will be fine as long as I trust my body' rubbish. I'm not sure why we see so many maternal deaths in countries with few midwives then, if what's required is trusting your own body.

You've not given birth before. How on earth will you know if it feels right or not? That's just ridiculous.

We are one of a handful of animals who have highly risky births. I think we're number two just below hyenas, who frequently die giving birth, and their first babies don't survive even if mum does. Nature doesn't care about your survival from childbirth, as long as enough of us survive. Trusting your body can only take you so far.

By the way, you say that a midwife should be able to spot from a distance if something is wrong. You also say you'll accept intervention in an emergency. How do you get from one of those to the other? If the midwife expresses concern, are they to wait until it becomes life-threatening? Or will you allow them to examine you and see if it's okay to continue? The reason that home births are safe is because there's a low threshold for moving you to a hospital. Nothing you've said indicates that you will follow midwives advice, unless it's an absolute emergency, at which point it might be too late.

I think (although this has been explained) that saying so definitely that you are having a home birth, does appear naive. As ultimately, you might not be.

MN is also the kind of place where if you’re going to post evidence, people will assess its robustness (have you ever seen FWR?), and 20 year old articles probably won’t pass that test.

Someone did post that, and that is an awful thing to say, but continuing to post so defensively and rudely to people who didn’t say that, makes no sense.

You’re the one continuing the combativeness and arguing. You’re fuelling your own fire, and then saying “people are arguing with me!!” Yes. Because you’re starting arguments.

@ToKittyornottoKitty
depends what you define as an intervention. I won’t be having any unnecessary interventions that put me or my baby at increased risk of harm. Any intervention requires a risk vs benefit decision.

I’ve consented to routine scans (dating and anomaly) plus the entirety of the newborn screening programme.

I guide all of my decisions by good quality, peer reviewed evidence rather than clinical guidance. Most people would be very surprised to learn how little NICE and RCOG guidance (which is what governs antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care in the UK) is based on good quality evidence. The most recent estimation which I haven’t fact checked myself, was that just 9% of RCOG guidance is based on good quality evidence.

There are huge aspects of maternity care, for example the use of vaginal examinations to assess progress in labour which is based off of the results of an entirely unreliable study from half a century ago. The results of this study aren’t applicable to women in normal labour but VE’s inform so many interventions that happen today. That’s just one brief example.

The amount of new methods of antenatal surveillance and interventions that have begun in the last 5/6 years alone is astounding. With all this increased monitoring and interventions you would have expected the maternal and neonatal mortality rate to reduce… not increase exponentially as it has done.

I am 9 years a midwife, I’ve practiced in most areas of gynae and obstetrics, high and low risk, specialist areas, different locations. I am confident I am knowledgeable, that my decisions are based on good evidence, and that I am doing the best for myself and my baby.

This isn't a game, this is literally how you handle the most dangerous thing you and your child will ever do.

It's that you can't even bring yourself to say, that if the midwives have concerns, you're happy for them to examine you and for you to go to hospital if necessary. Instead, the talk is about a plan B in an emergency, without any indication of how the midwives sitting across the room will find out if there is an emergency, given there to stay away from you and not talk to you.

You can't even bring yourself to say whether or not you'd allow the midwives to stitch you up afterwards, if needed.

This isn't about us dampening your positivity, it's about your attitude.

It would be better to be realistic. To hope that you can have an experience of childbirth that exactly matches what you want on your birth plan,but to also have a plan B and to understand that labour can be very unpredictable. That's not the impression you are giving, you are giving the impression that 'be positive' will be enough.

I thought it was interesting if she is planning low intervention etc as a midwife because it shows she has confidence in that process even as a medical professional. Which is not something I’d expect. Clearly you didn’t though and just enjoyed another opportunity to moan about people not agreeing with you.

Which she still has.

Encouraging people to come to the thread by sharing info on it elsewhere, defensively cross-answering posts not aimed at her in a way that at least appears argumentative.

Home birth itself doesn’t sound like it’s for me, but provided OP’s baby isn’t at risk - whatever, as far as I’m concerned. The attitude however is off the charts.

I have been ridiculed for opting for a homebirth from the outset.. even though the question was literally on my self referral form
No. You have had lots of people misinterpret your words when you stated you would 100% be having a homebirth as actually meaning that. You gave every impression of being utterly inflexible about that and not realising that indicating a preference on the booking form wasn't setting anything in stone. Nobody thinks you are ridiculous for wanting a homebirth or mocked you for it. You were given lots of advice on managing your expectations and considering all the options. Which you have since said you were anyway.

🙄🙄🙄 no one has ridiculed you got wanting a homebirth. We have expressed concern over your attitudes.