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

[everychildmatters]

Because clearly evidence says otherwise!!

I had two complication-free births with my first two children, if I'd then had a home birth with my third I'd have died. Same with my fourth. But I didn't because I'm not an idiot who would put my own comfort over mine and my babies life.

This is a classic example of people saying that they/ their friends etc would definitely be dead if they'd had a home birth when it clearly is not the case! A 20 hour labour with babys heart rate decreasing would have been picked up by the midwives attending and they would have arranged a transfer to hospital. Home birth midwives have a low threshold for hospital transfer and as you are attended by two midwives who perform all the checks etc that you'd get in hospital, they are in a much better position to notice when something's not going right.

We lost my ds heartbeat during birth and the proximity of the obs crash team - 30 seconds from hitting the alarm to them coming through the door - mean I have a healthy child, safely delivered.

What part of "no crash team" should I consider "not risky"? 🙄

I didn't share a midwife on hospital - she never left side. The Dr's afterwards said they nearly lost me during the emergency c section.

If it's all going to go well, a home birth is probably better than a hospital birth. However, I think it's a bit strange to say 'home births are always better!' because, if you need medical intervention, it's better to be in a hospital where that medical intervention is available - and until you are giving birth, you don't know how that birth is going to go!

They are more risky. Even the most low risk women could suffer an unexpected obstetric emergency.

A complete placental abruption or cord prolapse could happen to anyone and you have ten minutes to get the baby out before brain damage begins. If you're in a hospital you can have an emergency c-section. If you're at home your unborn child is likely to suffer a catastrophic and life changing injury.

No, but you can argue that it's safer to be in the same building as medical professionals just in case anything does go wrong.

The fact remains that the risk in hospital or home is the same. However, if something goes wrong in the home it is more dangerous as you would then need to go hospital while if u did it at the hospital you are already there.

You never know how your birth is going to go, even if previous births went well. Therefore, it is riskier to give birth at home.

How can you not think that's reality when people are telling you that's reality?!

I had four home births. I had my first baby at 22yo and was very determined to have my baby at home away from all the chaos of hospital. My GP was against it because I was young and it was my first baby. He refused to prescribe pethidine (the strongest pain relief they could provide for a home birth). However, I had a wonderful midwife. I saw her for all my pregnancy check ups and she was on duty when I gave birth, along with the midwife who’d done my birth classes. So I think it helped that I knew her and was comfortable with her and she already had a good idea of what my preferences were for labour. I had a great birth experience and used a TENS and a little gas and air (which I didn’t really like).

My second baby I also had a planned home birth and it is as well I did as she came within 40mins of my waters breaking - the first real sing I was in labour. The midwife arrived as she was crowning.

My third and fourth were born at home. Fairly quick labours - although not quite as quick as their sister! No pain relief and it is the only time I have experienced endorphins (don’t get them through exercise).

I appreciate I was fortunate but aside from obvious physical problems with mum or baby I think mindset and being focused and calm does help birth go smoothly.

Better care - because nothing went wrong.

If it does, if you get a shoulder dystocia or last minute noticing of a cord prolapse - you have three minutes of reduced oxygen to your baby's brain before they are brain damaged for life.

@NorthernMum2021 Because you cannot say, with absolute certainty, that your baby would definitely had died if you did not labour and/or birth in hospital.

I think a lot of people probably feel like that would have been the case, even though they cant really know. I had a hospital birth, baby's heart rate dropped and there was a huge crash team, panic, rush to theatre, prepped for section but delivered with turning forceps. It felt really frightening, then I talked to friends afterwards and realised it was a pretty run-of-the-mill standard hospital birth experience.

I did used to think along the lines of 'thank goodness we were in hospital with the big crash team on call' but I can't really know how a home birth would have gone. Maybe signs and signals were actually apparent at an earlier point and, rather than being watched and waited, I would have been transferred into hospital at an earlier point. Or maybe the environment would have been more conducive to having a straightforward birth and those issues wouldn't have happened in the first place. Maybe the intervention wasn't actually 100% needed, more erring on the side of caution, and things would have been fine anyway.
I found it interesting that my midwife and all the medical advice was to 'stay home as long as possible' and not arrive in early labour, the reason being monitoring at that stage leads to more intervention. So when you consider they look at women in early labour, who are monitored and end up with intervention due to heart rate dips etc. and believe they would have been better off at home, away from the monitors picking up these 'issues' says a lot.

Obviously im not denying anybody's experience but as I said upthread tens of thousands of women are managing to have home births in the UK every year. 1 in 33 births. And when it goes wrong it literally makes headline news. So that doesn't quite line up with the insistence that even low-risk women are putting themselves at massive risk.

Erm I can actually!

@NorthernMum2021 You actually can't-because you didn't experience any alternative.

I don't remember you being there when I gave birth to my child.

Yes, I am fed up of it. Anyone that thinks home birth is unsafe is misinformed.

Nonsense. In my case what went wrong went wrong over three days. Even I could get myself to hospital in three days.

Birth often does go wrong slowly. And is less likely to go wrong when mum is calm, happy and not overly medicalised.

Home birth is better with medical advice and support. Even if you eventually need hospital.

@NorthernMum2021 Forget it - you're missing the point.

No I'm not. I just found it a bit rude for you to be dismissing others' lived experience. That doesn't take away from your point that home births aren't inherently riskier than hospital births. It just depends how they go. I find it incredibly disrespectful that you are telling me how my birth went when you weren't there.

Ask any birth injury solicitor and they could assure you that the majority of cases where injury occurs do not make the news.

In my experience of home births that go wrong the parents switch from "I'm low risk and I understand the risks" to "I wasn't properly advised and I'm going to sue the Trust" almost instantly.

@everychildmatters what is your opinion on issues like mine where everything was going swimmingly until the moment of birth? There's also things women have like placental abruption, which happens without warning and you only have minutes before the baby experiences life changing brain damage - or when baby's shoulder gets stuck, etc.

Personally, I'm not sure it's worth the risk. I think it's great we have hospital teams of doctors ready to help birthing women and babies within minutes/seconds when things go wrong

You can't tell her that she's wrong about her child almost dying in child birth, just like you can't tell me I'm wrong for saying I would have died if I'd birthed my third child at home.

Yes, I’ve always felt that the whole ‘doctors push c-sections and interventions’ narrative doesn’t accord with reality. Most of the recent maternity scandals have been underpinned by a drive to reduce c-sections and to push ‘natural’ birth at any cost.