To want a home birth?

[InMemoryOfSleep]

I’m not pregnant (yet), but chatting to my mum and some friends recently I mentioned I’d like a home birth next time. Their reactions weren’t positive, to say the least - despite me explaining that, for a 2nd baby, home birth is as safe as an MLU, and both are safer than a hospital. They’ve made me really doubt myself - having read the research and stats I was convinced it’s the best option, but am I missing something?!

Just reading back over some previous comments and I see some posters like me have mentioned the intervention stuff.

It's put as the most awful thing that can happen with elc being worst of all.

This isn't true and until we get balance back.. Ie alot if intervention is life saving and neccsary.. T
As well as proper data collection and stats
. Then I couldn't rely on any stats.

A long time ago someone linked to midwife forum.. The comments were an eye opener and deeply shocking.. It's almost like brain washing.. Strange movement going on..

We need to bring truth and balance back.. And acceptance that actually a planned ELC is a wondeful way to give birth.

Apple the most recent death in media was because they were at home.

@TwittleBee do you have a link to the Birth location study that you mentioned.
I am pretty clear that statistics show better outcomes for Low risk pregnancies for a home birth in terms of reduced interventions, foreceps, c-sections etc. But to me this reduction is a nice to have, not a necessity. I’m interested in the statistics about maternal death or serious injury and stillbirth or serious harm to Baby comparing low risk pregnancy at home compared to hospital.
I had one fabulous birth on a midwife led unit attached to the labour ward of a hospital but it was sheer luck that I got the one available pool room. If I had a second I’d have to decide between a home birth (around 15 mins by blue light to the hospital) or pot luck of whether I got the one birthing pool available in the city again and even a space in the MLU rather than labour ward. Having a science background I like statistics but the ones I care most about are how safe my baby and I would be rather than how comfortable.

the most recent death in media was because they were at home.

This tells you a lot about media bias too.

As appleblossom points out, babies also die in hospitals. Sometimes they die in circumstances that a home birth may have prevented.

I wouldn't say anything to someone determined to have a home birth and I was born in one but I would think that it was a naive decision. Childbirth goes well until it doesn't and without very rapid medical support my dd would have died during birth. It was very touch and go as it was. My dm would tell you they are a great experience and I would tell you that she is lucky to be able to think that. The odds of it going wrong may be small but the consequences are life changing.

I would however agree that more staff would make hospital births safer and given the lack of staff I am surprised that the NHS is prepared to send out midwifes to home births.

I always thought the idea of a home birth was nice enough but didn’t think it was worth the risk if anything happened to me or my baby. That view ultimate saved me and my baby’s life. The birth was extremely traumatic, the whole labour unbelievably fast (first and last baby!) and without an immediate decision to be delivered with forceps with a huge staff team during and after, our lives would most certainly have had a different outcome. There would have been no time to get to a hospital in time had I been at home! My friend had a home birth and it was a lovely experience for her and all went well. It’s the luck of the draw and one, in my opinion, that’s too important to risk.

@lakeshoreliving home births save the Nhs money

I liked the idea of a home birth but decided to go for a hospital birth. So glad I did as I wouldn’t be here right now if I had opted for a home birth. I was low risk all the way until I had a massive haemorrhage after the baby came out. Had several transfusions in theatre and I was ok. Of course this is unusual but there is no way anyone could have predicted this. I’m so glad I was in a hospital and received amazing care and lived to tell the tale. Lots of positives to a home birth but if it’s your first baby I would err on the side of caution and have a hospital birth to be honest.

For #2 births with low-risk pregnancies, the overall rate of negative outcomes (a composite of outcomes of death or serious complications) was 4.3 per 1000 births and there was no difference between non-obstetric unit settings compared with obstetric units. This indicates that as a whole, home births are as safe as ones in medical settings.

Medical Interventions also do increase the rate of risks and negative outcomes.

Just to give balance on how there are risks associated with everything here is a (by no means exhaustive) list. Like anything there is also risk of death to both mother and baby in each of these.

Inductions:

• Infection
• Uterine rupture
• Increased chance of C - Section

Pethidine

• Difficult for baby breathing
• Distress Baby
• First feed difficult for baby

Epidural

• Failure to progress
• Increase chance of Instrumental delivery
• Episiotomy
• Increased chance of C -Section
• Nerve Damage
• Infection
• Fits and/or convulsions

Instrumental Delivery

• Tearing
• Episiotomy
• Blood clots
• Urinary incontinence
• Anal incontinence
• Cuts to baby

Episiotomy

• Severe perineal tears
• pelvic floor damage
• Infection
• hemorrhag
• Long term pain
• Cuts to baby

C - Section

• Infection
• Heavy blood loss
• Blood clots (in legs or lungs)
• Bladder damage
• Cut to baby
• Breathing difficulties for baby
• Future complications at next pregnancy/ birth, e.g. scar reopening, abnormal placenta attachment

Of course sometimes medical invention is required because it will save mother and/or baby's life. However, on a purely risk basis, it would be best to avoid having medical interventions. Therefore women should chose to do what is best for them by making them feel the most relaxed to aid the efficiency in labour.

Many people on here have been like "I don't see how you can risk your baby's life" yet I never hear people saying this to those who chose to have an epidural or pethidine?

Overall, we are very lucky in the UK that we have a good birth rate and we have many options available to us because all the risks, whatever the option, are so small due to our amazing medical teams.

I don't understand women who say it's more relaxing. Even if you are more relaxed...it's not a spa weekend. The aim is to deliver the baby with mother and baby both alive at the end of it.

I'd imagine there's women in the developing world who'd think we were completely mad to consider this when we don't have to.

👍🏼

People who treat birth like a day out piss me off lol. It’s not an experience or empowerment. Do you feel empowered getting a blood test?! It’s ridiculous.

I never hear people saying this to those who chose to have an epidural or pethidine?

Because if it goes tits up there are experts who can quickly address it, instead of fannying around at home not knowing what to do.

I'd more liken it to a bowl movement to me honest. The basic expelling of something from the body.
I had amazing first labour apparently the mw were in awe. I wasn't at all.. I was merely a by stander as my body wen through a process. And I was lucky.

People who treat birth like a day out piss me off
Who does that?

@VioletteValentia midwives are experts in childbirth

midwives are experts in childbirth

They are not doctors who can preform emergency measures.

VioletteValentia no treats it like a day out but it is something special. Each women is entitled to have their own birth experience, no one is forcing you to have yours any differently to how you want one.

For some women, taking control and feeling relaxed enable them to feel confident and have less chances of suffering with PD or PTSD.

No one fannys about and there are of still MWs with you at a homebirth who will know what to do just like they know what to do in a hospital.

For example if a baby did need to be resuscitated at home then it is okay because MWs in the UK bring resuscitation equipment to home births, and all are required to be trained in newborn resuscitation.

Rarely, a baby may die after a homebirth, when he or she might have survived after a hospital birth. Perhaps a crash caesarean is needed, and transfer to hospital is delayed. And the converse is true - sometimes babies die after hospital births, when they might have survived after a homebirth. This could happen because of breathing difficulties after caesarean section, hospital-acquired infection, birth injuries from assisted delivery, severe reactions to drugs given to the labouring mother, or stress or injury resulting from labour being induced or augmented.

This is why the statistics show there is NO difference in the risk between homebirth and hospital birth.

@VioletteValentia be pissed off all you like, but I felt like a bloody goddess after I’d huffed my baby out. And I’ll say it again - it’s not a selfish decision to have a home birth, it’s the option that would be statistically safest for me and my baby.

Home births are fine as long as there are no indications of complications. There's always the possibility of something unanticipated going wrong, but it's unusual. If you were being advised against it by your midwife or your consultant, that would be different, bus as things are with you, go for it.

All hail the mighty doctor

"....the controversial 2011 Birthplace Study, which reported that, for low-risk women having their second or third child, a home birth or midwife-led unit was as safe as a hospital. Leading doctors lined up at the time to point out that half of the women in the study who gave birth in midwife-led units or at home were subsequently transferred to hospital, and that groups of women in the study were selected to give a favourable impression of midwife-led units.

Dr Antony Falconer, then president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, wrote, with colleagues, to the BMJ to highlight the flawed research, including the alarming fact that 20 of the 32 neonatal deaths in the study occurred in low-risk women giving birth at home or in free-standing midwife-led units.
(Source- Victoria Lambert in the Telegraph)

it’s not a selfish decision to have a home birth, it’s the option that would be statistically safest for me and my baby.

The statistically safest is elective cesarean.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584671/Women-choosing-caesarean-have-low-death-rate.html

I've had 2 home births, had a birthpool with both and neither were born in it lol. They like you to home birth round here it saves money. Both great the second one i ended up getting transferred because of retained placenta. There is a lot of clearing up after if you have a birth pool ie soaked towels and sheets the birth pool to empty and fold down. Thats a lot for a dad whose been up labouring with you as well. You could organise someone else to help clear up tho. Do your reading and decide what you want to do.

I never had a birth pool, don't see the point, tbh. Plenty of people have home births without a pool.

YANBU, with supportive care it can be a good experience. I think supportive medical staff and having someone on your side who can talk and fight for you if can't are vital.

In my experience, it was far more the people involved than the setting that made the birth what it was. I've had a bad hospital birth (just generally unsupportive and yelled at me a lot), a great home birth (very nice and funny midwives), a horrific home birth caused by unsupportive midwives going against best practice and ignoring me which landed me in a high dependency ward even after the birth went fine (no issues until unsupportive midwife who had been saying for a while that something was going to go wrong yanked on the umbilical cord repeatedly until it tore part of my placenta away), and a pretty good hospital birth even though things went wrong repeatedly (I was told that birth was the most more than one midwife there had seen the red button pushed) and it all came down to the staff involved. Sadly, that's pretty much down to luck on the day no matter where you go.

The idea that midwives who attend home births are all supportive and less likely to push intervention I think is unfortuately unrealistically optimistic. Some are and some aren't, just like in hospitals.