Homebirth for first baby? Anyone done this - good or bad?

[pippinleaf]

I met with our doula for the first time yesterday, I'm 23 weeks, and we chatted about what my feelings were around birth. I'd not considered a homebirth really but she got me thinking. We live less than a mile away from the hospital and I'm not keen on hospitals (who is?) she has her own water pool that she would bring round and set up etc for me which we could use regardless of whether I intended to deliver at home or go to hospital just for the later stages.

My thoughts on pain relief are that I'll go for gas and air and reserve the right to go for an epidural if I cant cope. I don't think any other drugs are for me as previous experience says I don't like anything which messes with your head. I know I would need to be at hospital to get an epidural but my understanding is that I can change my kind at any time and transfer to hospital so getting an epidural should be ok proving the anaesthetist is around.

My husband is happy to consider home birth but is anxious about anything going wrong and the need to be at hospital if it does. I'm 38 and there are no complications in the pregnancy but it is my first. We could be at hospital in less than five minutes if there was a problem but obviously if I'm bleeding to death or the baby isn't breathing then five minutes is a long time.

I'd be really interested in your experiences and thoughts?

I want a home birth. This is my first baby and I have just always wanted that. It is fairly common over here to have a home birth. I just like to be in my own environment, do what I like, have a big bed to move around on. Just me, DH and my midwife.

I had all three of mine at home - first 2 in London, and then I flew out my UK midwife to Kenya to have my 3rd home birth when we had been posted there overseas!

Honestly the best decision I've ever made (short of choosing my husband). There is a really positive thread (which is a bit old now but does have tons of positive HB stories, reading lists, advice of what to have at a HB etc.,) which a lot of us who were gunning for our first home births found very useful... maybe you might like to read a bit of that thread pippin to hear a few more of the positives to balance out the negatives you've read here? I end up with a bit of a live labour on the thread at the end (and given I had a 4 day latent stage, it did give you a bit of an idea of what labouring and birthing at home can be like!)

Thread for First Time Home-Birthers or thinking about it

I hope you haven't been put off - the facts are that HBs for low risk pregnancies are as safe as hospital births.

Just wanted to add another positive hb story. It was lovely and chilled out; I loved snuggling up in my own bed with Dh and ds afterwards. I don't think my Dh was 100% sold on the idea but he kept quiet since I was the one giving birth; he said afterwards that he was so glad ds was born at home because it was such a positive experience.

I work in women's health and my experiences at work were what gave me the push to have a hb.

I don't think it's scaremongering op wanted opinions she's never going to get 100% hb is lovely nothing ever goes wrong etc

I wanted a home birth and I didn't get one, glad I didn't cause me and my ds nearly died, I developed hypertension in labour once they broke my waters and had to do everything possible to bring my blood pressure down (it didn't work) I was then rushed off to theatre before I knew it due to ds hb lowering. I had a cat 1 c-section under general and went into cardiac arrest. From my room to the theatre it took minutes If I had been at home we wouldn't of made it it took 45 minutes for an ambulance to pick up my grandpa and get him to hospital when he lived 5 minutes away!

LaVolcan I can't really use my experience against my hospital can I? It wasn't the hospitals fault, I had a midwife an consultant and a consultant anaesthetist in my room from the moment they broke my waters not one of them left. If anyone's fault it would be my body and my sons so should I avoid having to give birth myself in case it happens again?

I don't think anyone ever says that birth whatever the location is 100% safe - as I said earlier, we none of us can 100% say that we will still be alive tomorrow, although the vast majority of young people don't suddenly die.

What needs to be got across is the balance of risks, for the various locations, and what level of risk you are happy to take yourself. But I would like to see the idea debunked that if it goes wrong at home you were selfish whereas if it went wrong in hospital it was just one of those things.