Would you consider a homebirth if the hospital was a 2 minute drive / half a mile away?

[Prickled]

First baby, in my 20s and low risk. Hate hospitals. I either want a total no intervention vaginal birth, or an elective section.

Very worried about induction, interventions and instrumental delivery as friends and family have had horrific births with these.
I only know one relative with a straightforward birth in hospital and hers was 10 years ago. I know so many maternity units are in a dire state with poor CQC ratings.

I am wondering about a home birth but don’t know if the risk of that is huge given that I’m a FTM.

Your thoughts please :)

I knew one lady who decided to have a home birth on her 3rd child. She would not listen to her husband who was against this. She ended up in an ambulance during labour as their were problem's and rushed to the local maternity hospital 10 miles away. She was lucky that everything was ok for her and the baby.

I know another lady in her 20's who was thin and fit. She got pre ecampisa at 6 months. She was sent to her local hospital for bed rest and medication. Due to a nurse quick think after seeing her blood pressure reading she was examined by a consultant. They arranged for her to go to a bigger hospital for a c section and that had better facilities for a very pre term baby.
Both her and the baby were lucky to be alive when she arrived their as her blood pressure was so high. She recovered and her baby was a little over a 1lb weight. This baby had to stay in hospital for a long time but is now a healthy adult.

I know a midwife. She has delivered babies at home but at times she was worried about how things were going even with fit, healthy woman with no blood pressure issues.
She said I would advise woman to have births in hospital because you have immediate medical help if you run into problems.
She has also had woman who have gotten cross when advised to have a c section due medical need. She said ideally it's better to have a normal birth but sometimes woman need a section for both their and the babies health. She said I want to have a healthy mother and baby after helping with the birth.

I had two wonderful home births and was an hour away from the hospital with both (different counties). Just my experience obviously but it was incredibly positive and midwives were amazing even though they didn't really need do anything other than drink tea and watch baby arrive 😅

There was a great BBC documentary about community midwives in Yorkshire. It was balanced and reflected the reality of homebirths in the UK, including a change id plan and a transfer to hospital.

Talk to the homebirth team, they will give you a balanced view. For many people, it is absolutely the right place to give birth in the same way as hospital is the right place for many people.

As mentioned above, the facebook homebirth group is also a good place to ask questions.

Have a look at the birth places study, birth and homebirth is generally very safe but it's important to know the stats.!

For first births there is a higher risk to the baby (approx double the risk to 9.3 per 1000) vs other settings.
For second and subsequent births homebirth is as safe for baby and safer for mum.

You will have a dedicated midwife in early labour and a second midwife for more established labour. There is a high incidence of hospital transfer for first time mums at around 45% but much of these are due to non emergency reasons (pain relief, complex stitches etc) eg with my first I was transferred after birth for a non emergency reason.

I have had 2 amazing home births with 2 children and will recommend them all day long.

No. We lost my ds (only child) heartbeat during delivery. The crash team arrived at a run. From the moment they hit the panic button it took 1 min 45 seconds to get him out.

If I'd been at home, he would have died. It's that simple for me.

I'd never consider it for the first birth. you have no idea if you are someone who is physically able to give birth without assistance - I'd only consider it for second births onwards if it was clear my first was problem free.

I did plan one in the same circumstances! If you are a low risk pregnancy, then it's not too risky at all even for FTMs. They will also transfer you in at the very slightest hint of an issue, I got transferred because I had been in labour for about 3 days and was exhausted. The plan was a pethidine rest - but something about the journey kickstarted labour and pushed me into the active stage. I had a really nice birth in hospital, and I actually think it was better for having been planned as a home birth, because the midwives were really keen to support me in having an experience as close to how I had planned. I was able to use the birth pool, I only had intermittent monitoring, I even went home the same day.

Defo recommend going to any local home birth groups and the Midwives' Cauldron podcast.

DC1 was a low risk pregnancy & I was early 20s. It went so horribly wrong & I needed constant monitoring and then an emergency c section. I was so glad I was in hospital.

If things did go wrong, & I hope they don't, you would go to hospital ASAP but I was in so much pain I would have struggled being moved to get there, even if it was jmly 15 minutes away. You'd also have to wait for an ambulance & goodness knows how how long that might take.

I will link you to this brilliant and very funny birth story I read on MN a few years ago - unfortunately the blog is gone, but the wayback machine has it archived. It's normal for the page to take forever to load, it is working, leave it loading while you do something else, it's worth the wait. I'm linking because the writer had the same feeling as you ie wanting a straightforward experience.

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170516080754/havingitall.family/2017/birth-number-one-a-k-a-the-slowest-birth-of-all-time/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Test to see if this works better

Oh no I'm sorry, I forgot web archive links break on MN.

If you can't use the link in the preview, try copying and pasting this (you'll have to manually remove the two spaces in the 2x http.)

ht tps://web.archive.org/web/20170516080754/ht tp://havingitall.family/2017/birth-number-one-a-k-a-the-slowest-birth-of-all-time/

Nothing would convince me to home birth with my first. I hate hospitals too, but luckily I have friends who’ve had positive hospital experiences. I want everything on hand just in case. You might need an emergency C-section, you can’t possibly anticipate that. And particularly at the moment with ambulance waiting times, no way id risk it

@Nospecialcharactersplease

You can take everything to the extreme but this was obviously a question asked of people who had already had children. This wasn’t a discussion about the pros/cons of having children but a debate on how and where they are born.

I stand by my original comment about resources. Most women who have commented mention having two midwives with them at home. I can’t help feeling that having two midwives just for you, when many women in active labour struggle to see one in a hospital setting, is ‘hogging resources’.

We were asked our opinion on an anonymous forum and I gave it. 😐We can agree to disagree.

I didn’t realise mumsnet was so against home births.
On the suggestion of a midwife I had a planned home birth with my second. I would chat through with them and see what they say, if you have no reason to be considered high risk, are not overweight, generally fit and well why not consider it.

Not with the ambulance service in the state it is. How close you are to the hospital makes no difference if you’re a two hour wait for an ambulance with a dodgy fetal heart.

Mumsnet is generally very anti home birth. But maternity services are in crisis atm and I think a home birth can actually be safer - weirdly - because you get two midwives dedicated only to you, whereas in hospital you'll have one midwife looking after you and other women. They will have a low threshold for transferring you into hospital at any sign of complication, or labour taking too long, etc. Of course you won't have access to an epidural at home and will need to plan for a birthing pool, maybe a TENS machine, etc.

Oh and FWIW I had a hospital birth (awful) and then a home birth (fast but otherwise fine).

I considered home birth for my first pregnancy.

Now I think it’s better to go into hospital for the first time. You can see if the hospital has birthing pools/more relaxed spaces. But as it’s the first time, you can’t know if there is any tendency in you for a more difficult birth, and have no experience of birth yourself.

I wouldn't for a first baby, but subsequent ones yes

I’ve had two unmedicated hospital births, two home births, and one planned though unwanted csection. Home birth all the way in my opinion. It was easier, I was more relaxed, more comfortable, had the full attention of the midwives for the entire time, and got to get into my own bed and eat my own food with my lovely new babies.

I had my first in hospital. I needed to do this, as it gave me peace knowing medical professionals were all around me.

I was my besties birth partner. She had her first at home. She needed to do this, as it gave her peace to be in the place she felt most relaxed.

You know you best. What will make you the most peaceful? As when you are the most peaceful and comfortable, you're likely to have a smoother birth.

I’d highly recommend a home birth after having 2 and I do live 5 mins from the hospital.

relaxed, great midwives and very positive experience for me, husband and baby.

I wouldn’t have felt confident in doing a home birth with my first. For my second if I was that close I absolutely would have chosen home birth.

Wouldn't have even considered it!

Anything can go wrong in hospital, too

Depends on the community midwife team. But yes I would, as long as you're really open to plans changing if necessary and expecting it to hurt either way (sorry).

Because the hospital setting itself (heating, lighting, plumbing, buildings, maintenance, equipment, receptionists, cleaning staff, caterers, porters, etc) is far more resource than an extra midwife. And even though one midwife can look after multiple women in hospital, once you get into the end stages you generally have a midwife or two and often a gynecologist and/or anaesthetist in the room as well. Community midwifery varies in how it works between areas, in some areas they will be on shift and switching between any home birth patients in active labour to community duties such as antenatal check ups or postnatal home visits. In others they will be on call, which is cheaper than paying someone to work a shift and be present in a maternity unit.

At home there's one midwife who only stays with the woman once she's in the active labour stage. If they come out earlier to examine you, they go away again - much like in hospital. The second midwife only comes at the end once the woman is close to giving birth.