Would you have a home birth, if you lived across the road from the hospital?

[VanillaIce1]

Recently moved to a lovely new house and I'm pregnant.
Baby is due end of December. We live across the road from the hospital. I've had 3 terrible births there and just don't want another birth spoiled by them again.

I'm wanting to know of people who's had one, what was it like? How did it go? Did you feel it was the right choice?

I'm worried that god forbid something could go wrong or that it would be too stressful as we have 3 other kids who would be here too. (Hopefully in bed) and who's to say it would happen at night it could be during the day. But also I have precipitate labour.
My first was 45 minutes,
Second 15 minutes and third 25 minutes so I'm also worried the midwife wouldn't make it in time.
Just don't know what to do?

What I mean is, with 15 minute labours, how do you even get to a hospital and get to a giving birth area and get hooked up with gas and air.

I’ve never been in labour long enough to try it with my births, quickest 1 hour 45, so I wondered how you’d even managed to be given it. How are you getting your kids looked after, getting partner or friend home and everything sorted and transporting yourself to a hospital and jumping through all their hoops and having babies in 15-45 minutes. With labours that short I’d be assuming they were all unattended home births to be honest as most people I know labouring under an hour don’t have chance to go anywhere or get help to them or try and administer pain relief. Everything is just being frantically organised to basically catch the baby, I do understand as I’ve only had medical assistance for the very last seconds of a labour twice. Have you always lived across the road from the hospital and that’s how you’re manageing to get there?

I was upset I never got to try gas and air as I hear its good!

@USaYwHatNow Hey.
The first birth was awful when I finally did go into labour because it happened so fast. They kept saying I wasn't in labour and had hours to go and wouldn't give me an internal is it to check dilation?. I was screaming in agony and kicked my leg back as the burning pain was so so bad and my mum spotted my daughters head.
They managed to help deliver her and she was fine but that was a really bad experience and they blamed my age (21) for a fast delivery and denied that they'd refused to check the dilation and said it was spontaneous when it wasn't. I'd been screaming for ages about this burning pain and they just ignored me.

The second I was in for reduced movements and felt funny they said they'd induce me and start of the labour. I started getting that burning pain again and really thick contractions and within 15 minutes he was out and they again never once examined me.
And we only had one midwife in the room who seemed really freaked out by the whole experience!.

The third time I was induced again for reduced movements and they broke my waters at 3cm which turned out I was only 1cm. It took them 10 minutes to break and was really painful. They put me on the drip at 4am and the pain was manageable but sore.
The cannula was in wrong so my arm and hand was so painful I couldn't even bend it.

After 9am I was getting fed up hadn't slept and asked for pain relief and the contractions had tailed off.
The drip ran out and they examined me and said only 3cm.

By 11am I felt that burn and knew I was in proper labour and was screaming for an epidural they examined me and said I was 6cm and if I really need one they'd get me one. they had me sitting with the bed right up, With me at the end of the bed. I was screaming for them to look down there and they told me there was no need. I said to my husband please look down there what does it look like. And the bloody babies head was out! I obviously couldn't hold the baby in and with another push he shot out.
My husband caught him and me as I was coming off the bed.
And they turned around and started panicking and pushed the emergency button and then the man came to deliver the epidural, which wasn't needed then. It was just horrible. Sorry this post is so long. A midwife came and saw me after and said she was aware of what had happened and she was more than willing to write a statement with me if I wanted to make a proper complaint. But I never did.
I just sort of left it
I

my DS and I nearly died with one of my births. Perfect pregnancy, low risk, no indication that anyone would go wrong. Once we knew something was wrong the birthing suite filled with doctors and nurses and baby was out within minutes. It was a traumatic experiences but being in the hospital saved our lives. So for me, no, I would never home birth, I would rather be in the safest place possible when every second counts.

@VanillaIce1 that’s sounds extremely tough, I can completely see why you would prefer a home birth after that. Have you made a decision yet about whether to go with a home birth? I haven’t had a home birth and personally wouldn’t risk it for a variety of reasons (mostly that there’s a higher risk of mortality for mother and baby, 40% of first time home births end up transferring to hospital anyway, and we’re not as close to hospital as you are). I have opted for an elective C-section though, which has its own risks but anyone I know who has chosen it speaks very positively about their experience, though the recovery is a bit longer the birth experience itself was more calm and predictable in their cases anyway. Have you considered this as an option?

If I had no risk factors, yes. If I had risk factors, or was more than a few minutes drive from the hospital, no.

Please ask the relevant doctor, not people of the internet.

@Changemynamee to be fair I’m sure OP will also do that, it can just be useful to get input from people who have the direct experience or who decided for/against it for whatever reason. If the findings of the recent Ockenden report are to be believed at all there may be good reason to go wider with research on these issues. Though I agree an obstetrician is likely to be your best advisor on these matters, there are issues/taboos around the perceived medicalisation of childbirth which mean they might be reluctant to persuade a woman one way or any other despite having strong opinions.