Home or Hospital?

[LisaMJCook]

I am a student at college where I'm writing a report and essay about home and hospital births. It would be great if I could get your opinions on this subject because it is important to me that I take into account a mothers perspective. I would like to know how you came to chose that option, why you chose one option over the other, and were there any other alternatives available.

If you could help me I would really appreciate it.
Thank you :)

I had the option of MLU, CLU (same hospital, different floors) or a home birth.

I went for a home birth with a pool after thoroughly researching it and the statistics (before the last lot came out that suggested a very slightly elevated risk to first timers) and talking it through with a couple of supportive midwives. Only my very lovely doctor was bit about home birth.

I felt that I would be more relaxed and have a better chance of a natural birth at home. I know that I get stressed at the thought of getting anywhere on time and just the thought of timings for going into hospital put me on edge. I have also had a few experiences of our local hospital for other things and I'm not overly confident in them. I also know that if I had needed to transfer to hospital then it was 10mins away in an ambulance. Other choices for hospitals were at least 45-1hr away, so for me not really a choice. The balance to this was that I was well aware that I had a high chance of transferring and felt fine with this possibility.

I had a lovely home birth. I used the pool but had to get out deliver as needed an episiotomy. 2 midwives, 1 student, gas and air. Without doubt I was far more relaxed being in my own environment and had a quickish birth, under 6 hours start to finish. Real plus points were showering in my own shower and getting into my own bed with my newborn afterwards.

HTH

Noeydear I hope you don't mind me barging in but I just wondered where you found the statistics for homebirth? I am considering it for my first (due July) and am struggling to find where to go for accurate information. Also was the midwife able to administer the episiotomy and did they stitch up after?

Cheeser www.homebirth.org.uk, and the Yahoo homebirth group are helpful for info and stats.

Lisa don't you need permission from
MN to collect data for research purposes?

Cheeser - both the websites Flisspaps linked to,www.birthchoiceuk.com, and info from my midwife and NCT class.
The midwife did the episiotomy (needed to be done quickly as DS had his hand up by his head) and also stitched me up at home afterwards. They also had local anaesthetic with them.

That's really helpful both, thank you