Homebirth

107 replies

SamLDN · 01/05/2021 22:05

Looking for home birth stories. Positives/negatives....
I’m thinking about it. The thought of the mess puts me off and also needing to rush to the hospital if anything goes wrong. At the same time would be nice to be at home, especially with all the COVID restrictions etc at the hospital.

Would love to hear your stories to help me decide 😀

OP posts:

Historytoo · 08/05/2021 13:29

But as an actual percentage rather than the unquantifiable "small"?

finallymightbehappening · 08/05/2021 13:39

I had my 4th child at home. It was lovely. I ended up with 3 midwives in attendance. I had a history of fast uncomplicated labour and literally sat the kids in front of the tv and went upstairs and had a baby. Best bit was getting into my own clean bed afterwards. However, my 5th child was born in hospital and I'm very glad he was. Was unexpectedly my worst labour by a long long way. I panicked hugely and honestly thought I was going to die. So all I'm trying to say is even with a good history all labours can be different and be very careful that you will be able to get emergency help quickly if you need it. In actual fact I didn't need that sort of help but I'm still traumatised by the experience and I didn't even have gas and air for numbers 3 and 4.

Hardbackwriter · 08/05/2021 15:59

I don't know why posters are always so desperate to deny the truth: there is no way that a home delivery can reproduce the emergency care of a hospital. Would an emergency in a hospital be left to two midwives? No - because two people cannot do all the things that an obstetric emergency requires.

This is clearly true. But given this, and given that outcomes are as good at home for low-risk women at home as in hospital, isn't the obvious question what the additional dangers in hospital are that counterbalance this? Statistically for every woman who has a bad outcome at home that she wouldn't have at hospital there must be another who had a bad outcome at hospital that she wouldn't have had at home - and no one knows in advance which of those you could be.

teezletangler · 08/05/2021 19:18

You could also easily say, I don't know why posters are always so desperate to deny the truth: the statistics consistently demonstrate that for low risk women home birth is safer than hospital birth (and just as safe for baby if second baby- some more recent research shows it is as safe for first babies too). I don't think anyone is denying that the ability to deal with an emergency is the same. But most emergencies can be effectively dealt with and timely transport to hospital arranged.

fattymumbum · 10/05/2021 19:32

I just had my 1st home birth at home yesterday. 2nd baby. And although I went a bit crazy trying to stop the labour myself. Everything progressed very quickly. Baby is very happy and I feel so much better physically than my first xxxx
I had 2 midwives here with me and my mum and dp. Should have had a student too but they were off. That is like 4:1 care. In hospital you can only have 1 partner and only one midwife for most of it. X

PopsicleHustler · 25/12/2022 09:34

What a lovely thread!

Oher · 25/12/2022 10:14

I had a homebirth. I’m not sure if I’d have one again. It’s a very difficult decision. The truth is, if things go wrong a baby can die at home who might have survived in hospital, BUT things are much more likely to go wrong in hospital because it is not an environment suited to a woman in labour (noise, strangers, interruptions, strange smells etc - it all slows and can even stop labour) and you may eg need a cesaerean you wouldn’t have needed at home. Plus my friend’s newborn baby died of an infection it caught in hospital.

If you’re under 30, and live less than 30 min drive from a hospital, and will have a partner with you who can drive you to hospital if needed, I’d do it at home. If you don’t have all of those things I’d recommend hospital.

And my homebirth made a massive mess despite all the sheets and towels etc! And I got a serious infection and always wondered if I’d have avoided that in hospital.

If I did if again, I’d borrow the money and go to a private hospital. Peaceful quiet and private rooms, respectful staff, etc.

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