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?!

I had a horrific experience and started with home birth and was rushed to hospital, I’d still have another home birth (or try to!)

I had a home birth with my last child, the most amazing experience ever, a few thought id lost my mind but iv had 5 children so they all think im a bit bonkers anyway

The stats prove this must be the case. If the risks are the same for both hospital and home then for each death at home that wouldn't have happened at hospital there must be one a corresponding hospital one that wouldn't have happened at home.*

That’s not how stats work. You’re making a huge assumption there. You’d need to know cause of death.

Life threatening emergencies are regularly waiting up to an hour for an ambulance round here currently. Combination of crews not being able to offload due to full Emergency Departments, bad weather and not enough crews.

By all means choose a home birth but please don’t believe the bollocks about being able to get to theatre as quickly as being in hospital. Absolutely categorically not true.

Similarly, one of my friends is pregnant with her second. She was thinking about going to the MLU after they told her that they have an ambulance on standby outside at all times just in case they need to transfer someone to hospital. Why is it acceptable for midwives to peddle such crap, just to try and get people to use the MLU?

Loved both my home births! Best decisions ever.

I think we need to have more birthing centers to be honest, hospital environment isn't suited for most births and indeed not all the hospitals will have all the resources needed for each and every eventuality in any event.

I'd advocate a home birth for low risk pregnancy within a 'reasonable' distance of a good hospital. Out in the woods in the middle of nowhere I may have made a different decision.

Of course YANBU OP. You would also NBU to have an elective section, hospital birth with epidural or freebirth in a field.

Because it is YOUR BODY. Not a vessel. Your body, your agency, your choice.

If you have an uncomplicated pregnancy I'm sure home birth is safe but remember things can always go wrong suddenly. After four easy pregnancies and three very straight forward births my fourth child would certainly have died if he was born at home. As it was he's fine but had a long stay on CPAP and intensive care. Birth is never risk free.

This thread is making me quite sad.
I feel very guilty about stuff easily and thats my biggest fear. That something will go dreadfully wrong, my baby will die and it will be my fault because I chose a homebirth.

I dont really think any woman should have to feel like that if they have been told by the medical professionals they have spoken to, that a homebirth would be safe for them.
Of course theres always a slim chance that even with the lowest risk pregnancy things could go badly wrong. But you wouldnt get that assumption of blame on the woman in a hospital birth even if she made choices that may have contributed to the bad outcome. Some babies can die because of complications from a section or from pain relief etc etc would you also blame the women in these circumstances for the death or injury of their babies even though they had done nothing against medical advice and were told it would be safe? Im pretty sure not. Im pretty sure it would be considered the tragic accident it was.
When babies die or are seriously injured during homebirths it is no more the womans fault than in hospital. People are so prejudiced. Home birth is just one of many birthing choices that people make after weighing up varying risks. There are many choices you would also have to make whilst in hospital. Sometimes these choices do not pan out as expected and turn out to be the wrong choice despite there having been no evidence that they would be. No one is to blame for this.

You are not being unreasonable to want a home birth. It is your decision what will work best for you and your family.

Personally I wouldn't have a home birth. Through my GP training I did both obstetric jobs and paediatric jobs and in both situations I was one of the people waiting in the hospital while both mothers and babies with some pretty scary complications were rushed to us. Time has never seemed to pass so slowly. Also recently I have had some experience of ambulances taking a very long time to get to even true emergencies (not their fault but a sign of the pressure they are under). I think that because of what I have seen I couldn't put myself in that situation because if I did have a bad outcome I would be constantly questioning why I put myself in that situation where I knew it could happen.

However I very much see this as my issue rather than an issue with home births as a whole. I would encourage anyone to read and think about it before making up their minds as the evidence is mixed.

@Fishinthesink amen to that !

I had a home birth with DS2 in January. I was the best experience albiet a little scary beforehand due to well meaning comments from others.

My baby was OP (face up) and so labour was prolongued to 9 hours but otherwise went smoothly and baby was born in his waters looking at the world on the way out. All of the midwives said it was the nicest/ calmest birth they had attended.

I think it definately made a difference having bubs at home. I was able to visualise a smooth birth in lots of detail beforehand and swear that this helped (most people are shocked that I had a natural OP birth).

I say go for it and trust your body to do what its meant to do. Just be an observer along the way

@windchime Babies dying from pain relief in hospitals ?? Point to any evidence. The only form of pain relief which has been shown to kill babies is water birth, which is hugely encouraged at home births.

Cba to start digging for research journals now I'm at home and without PC.

But there is evidence about how more risky medical intervention is and when there is a planned birth at a hopsital this dramatically increases. Medical intervention leads to more complications and deaths. And you're far more likely to have unnecessary medical intervention in a hospital. Which is partly why the stats show hopsital births also have some complication and death risks. These interventions would have been prevented at home. But just unlike we are able to predict whether a home birth gone wrong could have gone right in a hospital with certainty we can't say the same vice versa for hospital births either.

No one can say what could have happened with certainty. There's too many variables. You can only look at the statistics and see the risk is equal in both circumstances and understand that there is a some chance that homebirths gone wrong could have been saved in hospital and vice versa based on what we can generalise from other research.

We all have the right to choose how we want to have our birth and I think everyone should respect that choice. No one should be pushing their views onto anyone else or judging them, like I have seen on here.

I have made my views clear enough (I'm having a home birth but anyone is free to do what they want) now and presented enough stats and facts to support my rationale and for others to weigh up their own choices too.

I hope everyone has great births and good luck to all with them. X

I have here kids - baby number 3 was a home birth, delivered by my best friend who is a midwife. Best thing I’ve ever done. There’s nothing more relaxing than giving birth in your own home.

What people don't seem to be accepting is that the over medicalisation of hospital births actually results in poorer outcomes for baby and mother.
I'd give you the whole sorry tale of one of my births but, again, anecdotal evidence counts for nothing. Look at the stats and the research behind them.

epidurals can slow down labour which can have negative results for the baby. Many pain relief options can slow down labour and/or cause breathing difficulties for the baby. They can also cause feeding difficulties. There is lots of evidence for this and for cases where these types of interventions have led to a cascade of intervention which has lead to the death of the baby.
Im in no way saying medical intervention is bad or should not be used... my point was that you make choices based on the evidence and advice you have at the time. These choices can still end up being the wrong ones and everything can go terribly wrong. I dont see why women having a homebirth are 'responsible for their babies stillbirth' whereas women in hospital whove made choices contributing to a bad outcome are rightfully seen as just having had very bad luck and it being tragic?

Good post twittlebee.

Funny how those arguing home births are fine are the ones who chose them. No bias there.

I had a Home birth with my second. It was actually recommended to me as I had a fast Labour with my first. (2.5hrs) and definitely good advice as I 100% would not have made it to Hospital in time with my second!!! (1.5hr Labour-but would need to wait for babysitters who were over an hour away!) I much preferred the security of having a planned home birth over a potential unplanned one.

It was so much more relaxing being at home, getting to use my own shower, climb straight into my own bed, all the home comforts! If you're low risk-I am totally pro home birthing.

However I am only 10min away from a hospital in an emergency-which I found very reassuring!

Voilette - but doesn’t that also say that they can be good for some (obviously not all)?? If they were as terrible as all that then people who had chosen them wouldn’t advocate them!

They can be great, my worry is if they go wrong, the results could be awful.

FYI i have never had a home birth. I had a hospital birth and hope to have a homebirth in the future. I just think that every woman should weigh up the risks for her individual case and those risks will not always come out as a hospital birth being safer.
I have had this experience of medical intervention making things worse for me and my baby so I know that that actually CAN happen.
You cannot argue that home births are some sort of irresponsible indulgence any more than you can argue that an epidural is an irresponsible indulgence. You do what seems to be best for you and your baby based on the evidence in front of you at the time. Sometimes that can still have a tragic outcome but you cannot label that as irresponsible when the woman has listened to medical advice and thought about her options.

If I’d have had a quick or easy first labour I’d think about a home birth for subsequent deliveries. I was far more relaxed at home and didn’t enjoy the hospital environment one bit. After a heammorage and moving very quickly from low to high risk I wouldn’t be happy with anything other than the consultant-led unit or a co-located MLU for my next delivery. I needed pain relief, constant monitoring etc. I thought I’d have a calm hypno birth. For me, a safe outcome was and will be more important than experience. For those who are proper low risk though a home birth seems lovely.

They can be great, my worry is if they go wrong, the results could be awful.

My hospital birth went wrong. The outcome was substantially worse for me than if I'd been left to labour naturally.