"Spud - you had a great home birth experience but please dont preach to people about the big bad hospitals. Let people make their own decisions."
Errr, where did that come from. We're debating the risks and benefits of different birth environments and types of care.
I'm making a case for homebirths by pointing out the KNOWN problems associated with birthing in a medical environment.
"If Riven's chances of something going wrong were so high why would the midwives have allowed or encouraged her to labour at home? "
There is no such thing as 'allow' when it comes to a woman's choice to give birth out of hospital. If a woman requests it, and understands the risks then she'll usually be accommodated if she pursues it. HBAC is actually usually safe - women are less likely to experience scar rupture at home than in hospital because their labours tend to be shorter. Riven just got unlucky.
"I think you should be able to choose but taking 2 midwives away from the hospital must not be good for staffing."
Many areas have a dedicated homebirth team who wouldn't be working on labour ward anyway. If labour ward is short staffed they usually snaffle staff from antenatal or postnatal, then call in agency staff to plug the gap.
Would like to ask by the way, do you think that epidurals should be restricted for low risk women? Given that maternity may well be sharing an anaesthetist with ITU. And not to forget all those high risk mums - the ones with pre-eclampsia, clotting disorders, OC etc, who might need very quick access to theatre.
And then what about all the additional emcs that happen to low risk women giving birth in hospital? Doesn't that put higher risk women in danger?
No - low risk mums birthing in hospital, as a group, are gobbling up more theatre time, bed space and medical input than mums giving birth at home.