To be fed up of the "home birth is risky" misinformation?

[everychildmatters]

Because clearly evidence says otherwise!!

And that would probably be improved by employing far more midwives,

Yes I think it’s tricky to know.

I arrived at hospital at 7-8cm (after being strongly encouraged to spend most of my ‘hospital birth’ labour at home with zero monitoring or healthcare professionals present), baby was soon picked up as being in ‘distress’, I was rushed to theatre, prepped for a section but they managed to get him out with rotational forceps. He was born 40 mins after arriving. It felt very scary, panic, big team of people, rush to theatre etc. but then you speak to friends and it seems like a pretty standard experience.

I don’t know how it would have played out at home. Perhaps I would have been monitored from a much earlier point, and actually been taken to hospital much earlier and it wouldn’t have been so dramatic. Perhaps all the issues wouldn’t have actually happened if I was having planned homebirth and I would have got a straightforward birth.

Obviously I’m not denying there ARE incidents where homebirth would have meant severe consequences. I just mean the type of birth I experienced at hospital seems so standard now that most women feel like ‘I/my baby would have died if it was a homebirth’ when you can’t know that for sure. The hospital environment, monitoring, cascades of intervention can and do mean a lot of ‘emergency’ situations wouldn’t have occurred at home.

What has the 2 years got to do with the support?

🙄

This is the research I referred to:

https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/birthplace/results

Yes time to the hospital is a factor, but lots of people will be in different positions here.

I haven't personally made any comments about what is riskier, but the stats show that low risk, second time births do have better outcomes at home.

People always seem to forget to consider the risks involved in being in hospital, but not being properly monitored. Which is probably exactly why low risk second time mothers are better off at home, as they're exactly the people who might get overlooked on a ward.

One of the midwives sat down with me, sorted out my latch by coming in every 90 minutes or so, gave me advice on mixed feeding which I started at about 6 weeks and showed me various ways of feeding while cosleeping. I think I would have given up much earlier with the complete lack of help on the postnatal ward.

Sometimes I wish I didn't bother posting!

This is absolutely crucial to factor in

look at wait times for ambulance / rapid response cars

they are scary

midwife shortages are high, especially for specialties like home birth -

how many have been transferred to hospital because there is not the midwifery cover to provide a safe home birth ?

we don’t have the safe levels of staffing for community home birth teams and emergency response back up when required -

there is a huge gap between ideal and reality and women should be supported to factor that in when doing birth plans - I fear that is not done explicitly enough, maybe as that leave midwives open to complaints about not being choice / pressured to not have home birth etc

It’s not misinformation. It is risky. That’s why maternal and infant death rates are higher in countries without access to hospital births

Maternity payouts ….

and how many fuck ups don’t get to pay out

childbirth is a risky time

midwifery pressures / lack of resources is an absolute scandal

I just wanted to be where the doctors are. I figured something may not go wrong but if it does I want them close by. It’s undoubtedly more appealing to just be at home, but my priority was having my baby safely and I can’t imagine how it isn’t safer overall to be in hospital.

This happens because community midwives make home births seem like the ultimate success and going into hospital is somehow a failure. I know this sounds like hyperbole but this what they believe and pass on that belief. It is in the same way that some women are made to feel that formula feeding is in some way a failure.
The whole thing is nuts but so emotive that it can be difficult to rationalise.
My birth plan was: DH to be present, have the baby, ideally in hospital if time to get there, any medical interventions needed.

@surprisebaby12 No confounding variables there at all?!

i was so traumatised by having my baby in hospital (hostile, abusive midwife who mocked and bullied me and told me I was "fussing about nothing" "silly and stupid" needed the labour accelerating when in fact I was fully dilated) that I never had another child. Had I been brave enough to have another child I would have done my best to have a home birth as I very much doubt that any midwife would behave like this to a woman in her own home. I am sure that bad experiences inform many of the choices for home births. I have several friends who had their second at home without any complications and I really envied them.

Thank god somebody has said this. I think the high/low risk label for women is a completely meaningless binary that feeds the lack of nuance seen on this thread as it is a concept used to gate keep access to very real medical interventions, types of health professional and settings.

Women's health is done in such a vacuum that doctors or midwives simply don't have the context to meaningfully label a woman 'low risk', particuarly a first-timer.

Then when it all goes Pete Tong they say that 'childbirth is unpredictable' and blame women for not correctly perceiving risk, when it was them who came up with the meaningless false dichotomy in the first place.

I think the problem is there's a battle between Dr's who want to give everyone a csection or induction and then medical professionals who are pushing back (rightly so) and advocating for home births, less intervention, vaginal breech etc so sometimes it feels as though maybe you are safer away from the hospital, obviously in this poor lady's case she wasn't.

Don’t know, you’re just going to get survivors bias here either way.

Lots of babies & mothers have had complications and/or died during home births and hospital births. Saying I had five kids in hospital and they all needed intervention or I had my five kids at home and they’re all fine proves nothing really.

I think there will always be a stigma around it just for the people who are cautious. I’m a nurse & I trust hospitals and wouldn’t ever think of having a home birth, but people who want them are amazing & there’s absolutely situations where that’s the best option.

Being pregnant and giving birth are some of the riskier behaviours a human can partake in regardless of what way you do it.

I just think women need clear and balanced information, not to be pulled in either direction or have care influenced by some sort of birth ideology.

I do think birth plans can be important though. I had a similar plan to you for my first baby, but afterwards I realised the hospital had taken steps and actions that I wouldn’t have chosen if I’d known the risks/benefits/alternatives. I realised it’s not always straightforward and what happens can even differ depending on what hospital you’re in, so I think it’s good to be educated on what might arise and what choices you would make in certain situations.

I'd also just like to say I wanted a home birth (but was breech so advised against), the homebirth midwifes are all highly experienced and trained, this is what outweighs the risk. I hope noone gets put off home birth but I do hope they follow advice. My breech baby would have died if I was at home, I'm sure of it, I'm so glad every midwife on that team firmly told me they did not feel confident doing this.

Im glad I wasn’t too far from the operating theatre or I could have bled to death

although perhaps if I had better care during the birth
perhaps wouldn’t have had a 4th degree year and pph

I was under the homebirth team and this simply isnt true. I knew I was going to be going into hospital form about 37 weeks because I was breech and they were wonderful and I stayed under their care. If they were in the hospital (they were at another birth so I wouldn't have got my home birth anyway!) then they would have come and supported me there.

I would put money on the woman on Instagram using private midwives.

That's true, though even 20 years ago in my first (very small!) NCT class I was 29 and the other mums were both 39 having their first babies. One of them had another baby at 42. They both had interventions unsurprisingly though.

Well, my baby got stuck, no reason to think this would happen until half way through labour. He would have died if I could not have been rushed to the operating theatre at 5am.
My other baby breached in the final week of my pregnancy and he also would have died if I didn't have a c section.
I also could have died in both instances if ai wasnt in hospital for the births
I also know people that have home birthed and it was all fine and lovely.
I think it is a risk to home birth.

I agree, although a lot of it is probably down to money and funding.

I see the idea behind separate MLU and labour ward but not sure it really works. With my 2nd baby I remember getting comfortable in the room on the MLU, only to be transferred near the end of labour which was just annoying, disruptive, also quite undignified being wheeled along corridors all exposed and in pain. Detrimental to the labour process IMO.

There was also a nearby town that had a midwife led birthing unit built.. nowhere near to a hospital! So anybody needing a hospital labour ward would have to be transferred. They only admitted lower risk women but still. I have no idea if it’s still in use, will have to look it up.

And I totally agree about the environments. A midwife friend was telling me a while ago that she hated how the MLU had been refurbed with homely rooms, birthing pools, low lighting etc whilst the labour ward was just all harsh bright lighting, completely clinical atmosphere. Sad for the women who have to start off on labour ward, it seems unfair. There’s no reason why you can’t combine the two.

I thought the same but not so sure, I had a textbook pregnancy up until 38 weeks, no problems at all until I went in for reduced foetal movement, I had an emergency c section that same day. My baby would have died if I didn’t go in or if I had a vaginal birth. The cord was wrapped around her neck 5 times but we only knew that when she came out at surgery. The doctors knew something was up though and I’m so grateful for how fast they acted. This is coming from someone who did a hypnobirthing course.