almost convinced by homebirth article in the Guardian this weekend...

[elportodelgato]

I don't know if anyone else saw this article by Sali Hughes about homebirth on Saturday in the Guardian Family section? probably there is a whole thread about it somewhere but I can't find it...

I've never considered homebirth before but this article has really made me think again. I had a straightforward pregnancy with my DD but she was induced at 41+3 so I was in hospital so they could monitor the induction. Besides, it was my first baby and I would not have wanted to be anywhere except hospital. The whole labour was 7 hours in total and I did without any pain relief (not out of choice btw, would have loved something to take the edge off) until G&A for the pushing stage - I tore and had stitches but otherwise all was normal. It's entirely possible that I will be induced this time around too but if I'm not then I am really considering homebirth - can someone come and tell me if I am being silly and it's my hormones?

I almost cried when I read the bit about her being tucked up in her own bed in nice clean pyjamas with her new baby. It has made me really realise that my hospital experience last time was 'OK' but not amazing - busy London hospital, laboured for the most part behind a curtain in a ward which was not at all private or pleasant and I remember being hugely embarrassed when my waters broke on the floor. In the night following the birth the call button in my cubicle didn't work and no one came to help me. Because of my stitches I needed help to get to the loo etc but no one did this. I'd like to avoid all these downsides if possible and suddenly homebirth looks attractive. Can anyone offer a view?

3 home births for me here- and not one regret.

For me, birth is not a medical process but a natural one. Personally you don't need to be in hospital unless something goes wrong.(at which point you transfer to hospital). Things rarely happen that fast in birth so the mw's can always see a potential problem.

I'm considering it.. but wary due to living in a flat and on the first floor. Will be a winter birth too, and last winter my husband couldn't even get the car out of the parking lot cause of snow and the roads were a shambles.. I would really like a home birth though.. I hate hospitals and would love to be tucked up in my own bed after it all. I have read as well, that if things took a turn for the worse, say if the baby was still born, there is some peace to be had for being alone with your baby at home. :( and having that time together rather than in a hospital.

Homebirth sounds nice but too much mess for me

Birthing centre provided a great alternative option and I'm glad I chose it. They could only take a max of 2 people in labour so for most of mine I was the only they had in. Great care, friendly surroundings and when it all went tits up at the end I was 10 minutes ride in an ambulance from hospital. I'm gutted they won't let me go back for any further pregnancies but I also know I'm lucky to have that facility in my area.

I would definitely have considered it, but had a c-section with DS and for me personally a HBAC is outside my comfort zone I know I'd be worried about it and that would get me in the wrong frame of mind. I actually felt in many ways I had the best of both worlds with DD's VBAC I laboured at home for the majority of the time, got into hospital 9cm dilated, had DD fairly quickly and then was discharged straight from the delivery room after a couple of hours rather than transferring to a postnatal ward, so I was back home in my own bed by lunchtime.

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread, so hope I'm not repeating anything, but just wanted to say that you can book a homebirth and still go into hospital if you change your mind later. You can't do it the other way round though. I booked a homebirth for my second, but, as it happened, there were complications and I had to go into hospital. It was fine in the hospital and I never minded having given birth there instead (lovely midwives ran me a deep, hot bath after the birth - best bath of my life). I didn't stay overnight, so I was back at home by the evening.

I have had two in hospital and two at home and am a midwife. I work in big hospital 4000 deliveries a year so have a good understanding of the risks of hospital delivery.
Many low risk women and babies would have better births if they were allowed to labour at
thier own pace, not one dictated by hospital policy.
Many emergency situtions are directly contributed to by interventions applied in the hospital setting.
Nowhere and nothing is risk free, as usual in life there is balance of risk and probability.
If you are low risk, homebirth if it appeals to you, is a reasonble choice.

There is a first time homebirthers thread here if you are considering it.

DD2 was born at home in February and it was lovely. And DH (who was really nervous and sceptical) couldn't stop telling everyone how great it was to be at home. I think it was a lot to do with the fact he was in his own space and felt he could contribute (which he did my making stacks and stacks of tea and toast constantly). On the thread I mentioned is a post by Boobz, Mon 01-Feb-10 09:53:41 which includes a Dad's view of homebirth - it really helped my DH and afterwards he concurred with much of it.

But like the woman in the article, by far the best bit was that DD2 arrived at 6am and by 8am I'd had the best shower ever and was tucked up in my clean fresh bed with my baby which is where we atayed until lunchtime the next day. DD1 arrived at 9am and got into bed with us. We watched a film and ate chocolate and we were so chilled out. My neighbour popped in at about 11 because she had seen the commotion and she couldnt believe she was perched on my bed drinking tea with a 4 hour baby in her midst.

It really is such a personal decision but I am so glad I had a homebirth. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

notasausage -- we bought a tarpaulin b/c of worries about mess! in the end, there was v little mess despite poo and blood, and the midwives dealt with it all.

HB was truly wonderful:

• much much calmer environment
• DS went to bed and woke up the next morning with a new sister. No stressing about what to do with him
• (a small glass of) champagne in our own bed 20mins afterwards while cuddling/feeding DD is a highlight that will stay with us forever
• oh, and we had lots of fun with visitors who asked "where did you have the baby" and we pointed to about where they were sitting and said "there". Always caused jaws to drop

notasausage, I can honestly say there was no mess to clear up. My waters had already broken the evening before so I suppose we didn't have that to contend with but although i covered everything with sheets, there was really no need.

Lol! the second question people wanted to ask me about my home birth was 'but what about the mess??????????????'

There was NONE! no mess at all. Did the whole job on a huge sheet thing the midwives bought along with them. They just folded it up at the end and took it away. Fantastic - Aggie and whatsit could learn something from them. And I hired a pool (fantastic, filled it up nightly from 38 weeks and watched tv in there with ds (3)).

The first question was 'how did you convince [x]dp?' well, I told him that he was most welcome to go to hospital for the birth if he wanted to but that I would be staying at home unless and until the midwife recommended I went in.

We stayed home, it was brilliant.

It sounds lovely but it's not for me - both times I had incredibly painful contractions from very early on, I needed serious pain relief, babies got stuck, I had C-sections and all in all I'm very glad hospital is there for people like me. So I think if people feel that way they should be unashamed to say so. But I have a few friends who have had home births, they have all gone very well and I know they were thrilled to be at home. If I had every reason to expect a straightforward birth, I would go for it.

My midwives are all well up for a HB, but my consultant said he will try to talk me out of it at some later stage in my pregnancy! I said, "I'm sure you will...you're a consultant, aren't you...the midwives and I might share a different opinion! " and we had a bit of a laugh about it... I am happy for him to share his concerns about HB with me, but I expect that by the time I speak to him about it, I will have already completed my research and made my final decision, which I expect to be for a HB.

I find the transfer to hospital stats to be quite reassuring, because the majority are for pain relief or failure to progress, rather than emergency, and I would like to have a hospital transfer as an option anyway.

The most important thing for me is that my baby and I get the proper, undivided attention of a medical professional during the birth, and as far as I can tell, I can only be assured of that at home.

Often when people express concern about HB they can talk about specific situations, such as 'what happens if X or Y happens' and you don't get to hospital in time, but when things go wrong in hospital, the fact that the birth took place in hospital is never cited as part of the problem, despite the fact that low risk HB with a medical professional in attendance is considered as safe as a hospital birth, and requires less damaging intervention.

Not read all thread so sorry if repeating.

I have had both my DC at home. First time was very intense, painful labour and long second stage - I did beg to go into hospital at one point! I had a pool and laboured there but delivered on the floor. But it was great because I had two MW's and a student there for the vast majority. I had G&A the whole time, and even had a 4th MW turn up with fresh supplies when I had guzzled it all. There was no mess and it was great being tucked up in bed.

The second birth (one year ago) was AMAZING! I felt very calm and in control (hypnobirthing CD) and had a three hour labour during which I felt only one small moment of panic. The MW's just stayed in the room - DH and I did it together and DD was born in the pool with very little assistance from them. I took DD up to our clean cosy bed and when I came down a few hours later the house was spotless (cleaner than when we started!)

It was a great start for all of us and I would say that if your first labour was relatively short and uncomplicated, and your current pregnancy is problem free, go for it! MW's are completely focussed on you and will call for assistance if there are complications.

Finally, you can book HB then change your mind and go into hospital, but you can't do it the other way round.

My first child (now 5) was born in a hospital. My second (3 and a half) and third (almost 2) were born at home.

I'm fortunate that the same person delivered all my children and I hope she delivers my 4th (due 31/12).

The first birth was a positive experience but afterwards I felt I didn't get any rest - I seemed to be woken up every 20 minutes or so for some reason. All I wanted to do was sleep and have a cup of tea and be left alone with my baby.

My DH doesn't drive and getting to the hospital, though only 12 minutes away, is problematic and coupled with the fact that my first labour was short enough at 4 hours, it seemed to make sense to plan a homebirth, luckily as our second baby arrived 20 minutes after my waters broke. I think we'd've still been trying to find the delivery suite. One thing I will always remember about her birth is just after she was born being snuggled up in my bed with her, while listening to the really heavy rain outside.

My 3rd baby arrived in pretty much the same time scale (1 hour 45 minute labour from start to finish). And again, I was soon tucked up in bed with him, with a mug of earl grey and slice of toast. My girls were downstairs watching DVDs while all this was going on - then they came in to see their brother. I felt like the whole family was included.

I'm not sure about whether I'm going to homebirth with DC4. Not that I didn't have wonderful experiences, but the main reason is that this one is a boy and I'm really worried about his size. His brother was big enough - and this one is likely to be bigger. So I need to have a chat and a think about what we're going to do.

The selling point, if I was asked to find one, is definitely being in your own home with your own things surrounded by your family (I mean DH and DCs not ILs or parents!) and being able to have a cup of your favourite tea and catch up on sleep without being disturbed.

We're hoping for a home birth for our first but at this point obv don't know what'll end up actually happening (am 39 weeks + 3 days at present). I know other people who have had HBs for their first babies so I did want to consider it, at least. What made up our minds (both mine and DP's) was going to a couple of local HB meetings - full of enthusiasts, of course, but talking to other ordinary-looking parents (quite far from all being hippy granola-eating beardy sandal-wearers, which one might assume) made us feel like it's a perfectly reasonable and normal thing to do, if the circumstances are right.

The MWs locally have all been really positive about it - two different people have called it "the gold standard of births". Obviously, as referred to above, you do get a biggish divide between consultants (who see complicated births and think of birth as something that can and does go wrong) and community MWs (who see straightforward births and think of birth as somethat that most women's bodies can do without too much intervention). And in my case, the pregnancy has been really really straightforward, I feel great, and the hospital is very close, so I think I'm in as good a position as I can be. But it's all still ahead of me so let's see!

DP and I went for a walk the other day and coming back I felt quite a few twinges, in a "is this it all starting" kind of way. And the feeling of pleasure I felt at the fact that all I'd need to do, if this was it, would be to get back to my lovely comfy home and take it from there, was quite something! It didn't start up at that point, but the image of being able to do as much as possible at home is still an amazingly positive one to me.

i have just had my third homebirth and yet again, a relaxed experience - the tensest bit being the 5 minute wait for them to say 'Yes, we have a MW ready for you, they'll be with you shortly!'

I decided to have my first at home....for definite after having bad news there - a totally unexpected foetal abnormality on my first pg - they didn't do anything wrong, but i felt utterly utterly lost there, and knew i never wanted to be there again whilst in pain or upset - so I set my mind on a HB then.

the stats on transfer are a bit questionable - i noted they found them an increased risk by comparing transfer stats with average Hospital stats for low risk births rather than benching reason for reason e.g transfer because of meconium in waters vs meconium in waters in low risk Hospital birth....So not really a fair comparison.

also I knew people intending to have hospital births who were asked to transfer in late labour anyway because the hospital was busy and wanted them to wait until full labour established (as late as cont-x 2 mins apart), not to mention those who gave birth unattended in hospital.

If my husband had objected, it wouldn't have counted with me as he isn't the one giving birth (nor indeed is he a MW!). Also the statistical evidence for HB is good and strong. As already stated Doctors and consultants are prejudiced agaist HB by only encountering those that go wrong.

As it was DH was totally onboard, in fact he himself was born at home (as a 10lb whopper!)

My MW also said Births proceed much faster and with fewer complications because the mothers are more relaxed.

Haven't read whole thread, but just to offer my experience - I had a planned homebirth with my DS in December 08. Relatively quick, no pain relief except tens, I was pretty happy to be at home. Ds was born with cord round his neck, not breathing, had to be resuscitated and taken to hospital in an ambulance. I had a haemorrage, duly followed him to hospital in another ambulance. DS had brain damage due to lack of oxygen during the birth, I believe due to the midwives ignoring warning signs. He has cerebral palsy as a result. Could this have happened in hospital? Yes. Would it have? I don't know - I will spend the rest of my life wondering if things would have been different if we had been in hospital. I didn't even realise things like this could really happen during birth after an uncomplicated pregnancy - it certainly wasn't something all my NCT and yoga classes or any of the home birth books had prepared me for. And I know that everyone thinks it won't happen to them, and chances are it won't - but then it shouldn't have happened to me either after a totally normal pregnancy, no risk factors etc. So I suppose if you go for a homebirth, the one thing I would say would be - if you have ANY inkling that something might be wrong - ANYTHING - make them get you to hospital before it is too late. Don't necessarily trust the midwives, as they will want you to stay at home.

badkitty, thanks for your post, I can't imagine what you must have gone through and I really appreciate you taking the time to post on here. I do think about the 'what if?' side because no one wants to be left wondering if things might have been different in a hospital setting.

From what you say at the end, did you have an inkling that something was wrong during the labour which the midwives dismissed?

Haven't had time to read the thread, but I had a very straightforward, relatively short birth with DS1, no stitches, only tens machine and gas and air. After such a positive experience I was determined to have a home birth with DS2. Labour was shorter, but much much more painful, bigger baby, less straightforward, he got distressed, the midwife got panicky, I tore, the gas and air ran out, and the stitches were HELL.

Knowing now how easily a labour can tip from being 'normal' to 'problematic' I would not opt to do it again. It seems mad, in retrospect, to have all the benefits of modern medicine and emergency intervention, only to settle for what our great grandmothers had to put up with, and all its associated risks and flaws.

DS3 was born in hospital because I flipping well wanted an epidural after my experience with DS2. Didn't bloody get one though.

oh novicemama!! I remember feeling as uncertain and excited as you. We chose a home-birth after my dh chatted with a bloke in his cricket team whose wife had their baby at home. It really was a lovely experience to be at home where everything was familiar and to feel confident that I would be taken to hospital the instant that either midwife felt concerned about my labour or birth.

We had lots of visits at home from the mid-wife before the big day. They also delivered a couple of sacks of equipment which we were too scared to peek in! On the day, they brought more stuff which hubs had to help bring in. The midwives were so prepared.

It was divine to be at home afterwards. My only advice is to limit visitors. I guess people think that all is ok if you are at home and I regret allowing visitors to call in later that day (dd2 born at lunch time on a Saturday, friends came on their way home). Also, place similar limitations on yourself - it was too easy to try to slip in to routine and think that you can do everything as normal... cleaning, cooking etc just because you are there and they need to be done.

I haven't read all the posts thoroughly but I would definitely recommend considering it. Talk it through with mw and family. Make a plan! Know that if anything is not going well you will be transferred to hospital and be prepared (mentally as well as practically) to go.

I'm not suggesting we should all have medical intervention as standard procedure, BTW, I agree birth should be as natural a process as possible, without putting mother and baby at risk, but I like knowing that emergency medical intervention is on hand should I need it.

badkitty I am so sorry to hear your story and am not now going to post my positive experience of homebirth because I don't want to detract from what you've said.

i am planning my 3rd homebirth, my last 2 were fantastic, if anything the 2nd was too quick and i left hubby sleeping in bed too long cause i knew we didn't have to worry about going anywhere or doing anything other than relaxing in my own home.
if there is no medical reason why a pregnat mum to be should be in hospital then i don't see any reason for them to be. my attitude from the start was i'm not il, don't want medical intervention and want to let my own body be in control without any medical professionals telling me what to do and when to do it.

i also fully knowledge that i was very lucky to have low risk pregnancies and 2 very 'normal' and natural births. i have friends who planned home births who ended up in hospital.
i was very confident in my lovely midwife who assured me that the community midwives in my area were experienced enough to have plenty of warning if something was going to go wrong so i would have plenty of time if i needed to transfer, and they could immediately deal with any issues in my own home just as well as hospital staff could.
my sister was doing a rotation on a gynae ward 1st time round and was horrified, as were all the consultants she worked with but she wasn't treating low risk pregnancies and natural births.

I'm sorry about your experience BadKitty. I hadn't read through properly. I do hope all the experiences that have been shared do show novicemama that there are many positive birth stories as well as advising about what to do if or if you think something could go wrong.