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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that it is a myth that hospital births are safe

77 replies

reallytired · 22/01/2011 20:45

This poor woman could have died. Especially as it took 15 mintutes for help to arrive. She might have well given birth at home.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-12250049

What is the point of women being in hospital if this is the standard of care they recieve.

Maybe the nhs should employ doulas if they cannot afford enough midwives.

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 22/01/2011 20:47

Not a myth at all.

How ridiculous.

I would have not been comfortable with the idea of a homebirth.

Ormirian · 22/01/2011 20:49

Well in that case I have 3 mythological babies. All born in hospital. All safe births. All now healthy children now.

Shakirasma · 22/01/2011 20:50

This story shows an appalling lack of care given in this case, but is no reflection on the safely of hospital births from a medical perspective.

JarethTheGoblinKing · 22/01/2011 20:51

ridiculous.

hocuspontas · 22/01/2011 20:53

Why wasn't the mum holding the baby while dad rushed to get help? I don't understand why they both sat there for 15 minutes.

And dd3 would have died without an emergency c-section so I definitely am in the non-myth camp.

AnotherMumOnHere · 22/01/2011 20:53

I dont believe it is a myth either ........ with everything to hand (if needed) it is better to be safe than sorry.

toeragsnotriches · 22/01/2011 20:54

If I'd chosen a home birth for any of the DC's I'd have ended up in hospital anyway as they all got into varying forms of distress. This is one awful incident; most hospital births are safe.

Original poster
reallytired · 22/01/2011 20:55

My point expat is that this woman did not benefit from being in hospital. If care is not available then what is the point of going to hospital.

The hospital in the top 20% of NHS trusts. Surely you agree that the care this poor family got was truely shocking. What are the other 80% of hospitals like?

Maybe the blood loss would have been less, if she had not given birth unattended. It must have been terrifying for her.

It is unacceptable that she did not have a midwife for the birth and totally and utterly unforgivable that she had to wait 15 minutes.

OP posts:
bebemoohatessnot · 22/01/2011 20:55

Quite obviously that's not a typical hospital experience.

I'm sure it was very scary and stressful for them. And hopefully things get sorted and the neglect is corrected so no one need suffer the same.

expatinscotland · 22/01/2011 20:55

Same here, Orm.

I had DRUGS, too, for two of them.

Epidurals.

By choice.

With the third, I even travelled over a sea loch and then by ambulance, about 1.5 hours, specifically to get one because I didn't want to feel the pain I felt giving birth to DD2 with no pain relief (that was only because she came so fast and G&A gave me a massive panic attack).

So sue me.

Not everyone wants to have a baby at home singing Kumbaya.

expatinscotland · 22/01/2011 20:57

'The hospital in the top 20% of NHS trusts. Surely you agree that the care this poor family got was truely shocking. What are the other 80% of hospitals like?'

No, um, surely I don't get why the guy didn't run out of the toilets and GET SOMEONE.

I was fully dilated by for an anterior lip when I arrived at hospital with DD2.

DH stopped the car, RAN into the waiting room, shouted, 'My wife is having a baby in the footwell of our car!' and someone came out.

NoWayNoHow · 22/01/2011 20:57

Not a myth at all!

While my hospital birth was shocking for many reasons (both in terms of the actual labour and delivery, and in terms of some of the treatment I received), my son and I were both safe and healthy at the end of it.

If I'd been at home, we'd both have been dead.

southeastastra · 22/01/2011 20:58

i don't understand the question

lostinwales · 22/01/2011 20:59

Wanted home birth for DS3, couldn't for a variety of reasons, bloody glad about that as DS3 and/or I would probably not have survived the birth. Lovely NHS and your calm midwives and doctors I love you.

Imnotaslimjim · 22/01/2011 21:00

I don't agree with you at all, if either of my DC were born at home neither of them would be here now. DS was starved of oxygen at birth due to the chord being tight round his neck twice. DD had a full true knot in the chord. I'm grateful for everything the hospital did for me when my DC were born. What happened to that lady is horrific, but even MW's are human and can make mistakes

mutznutz · 22/01/2011 21:00

I had 2 hospital births and 1 home birth.

1st hospital birth = excellent care

2nd hospital birth = total calamity and formal complaint made

home birth = excellent care

I think this couple were just dreadfully unlucky.

altinkum · 22/01/2011 21:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

darleneconnor · 22/01/2011 21:01

'safe' is quite an ambiguous word. Some choices can be statistically 'safer' than others for some people over different periods of time.

eg all pregnancies and births carry a degree of risk, however women who remain childless have a shorter life expectancy in the end.

just because someone has a healthy outcome after a hospital birth does not mean that one caused the other. hospitals doo introduce iatrogenic risks to mothers and babies that they would not be exposed to at home. This then has to be balanced with the time to theatre/transfusion risks of homebirth.

I've had substandard and potentially life-threatening care at both home and hospital births, so I agree that the NHS should start providing doulas for all women who want them.

Violethill · 22/01/2011 21:01

I don't really understand the question either.

Most hospital births are safe.

As are home births/ MLU births.

Personally I wouldn't choose, for a straightforward pregnancy, to give birth drugged up to the eyeballs in a hospital - I find them impersonal, frantic places. But that's a separate issue

pointydug · 22/01/2011 21:01

Of course it's not a myth.

expatinscotland · 22/01/2011 21:02

I remember seeing a pair of feet and hearing an Irish woman's voice ask, 'Do you feel like you need to push?' And I hollered, 'I feel like I need to do a giant shit!'

I was instantly hauled up and rolling, even faster when they found out it was a second baby.

JaneS · 22/01/2011 21:02

Me either, SEA.

No one is stupid enough to think all hospitals are magically able to cancel out every single thing that makes birth potentially dangerous, so I think you're scaremongering with the title.

AnnieLobeseder · 22/01/2011 21:02

What a silly sweeping generalisation. Some hospital births go wrong. Some home births go wrong. Some home births would have gone better in hospital. Some hospital births would have gone better at home.

All we can do is make the best informed choice we can as to where to give birth, listen to the professionals and SHOUT if we need help!

chippy47 · 22/01/2011 21:02

Stupid. Just check the stats ffs

Chil1234 · 22/01/2011 21:07

YABU to take one poorly-managed case and extrapolate that to condemn the entire system. Childbirth comes with many inherent risks but thousands of babies arrive daily in hospitals up and down the country quite safely. I and my DS are two more candidates for 'dead without hospital intervention' status.