Would you recommend a homebirth??

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

And do you end up dripping slime, goo and yuk everywhere????

"Unless you are fully sold on the idea I think it can perversely create more anxiety than being in hosp. I shouldnt have been at home."

I was very anxious about my homebirth - very. Basically because I was categorised as high risk (gestional diabetes) and was carrying a large baby. I'd had A LOT of negativity from my consultant which had really upset and unsettled me. The only thing that kept me at home was that I was even MORE scared to go into hospital because of the lack of control I experienced there first time around.

Even though the homebirth was complicated by shoulder dystocia and an ambulance was called (was sent away as didn't need it by the time it arrived) I came away feeling thoroughly vindicated - I think I would have been much worse off in hospital with the shoulder dystocia. Everyone I know who's experienced a shoulder dystocia birth in hospital has been traumatised by the panic it engendered - staff rushing into the room.... plus they all got big episiotomies, which I didn't get at home.

The difference was for me that my midwife didn't panic - or if she did she didn't show it. Thank goodness. I think it's highly upsetting for mums when they pick up on a midwife's fear - as you did. Awful. You're so vulnerable to other people's fear in those final moments of the birth.

I wanted a home birth so much after spending a day in our local hospital! I never thought of anything negative and only focussed on the positives of having the baby at home. Friends said ...but what about no pain relief and I knew I would cope as all I was able to have was gas and air the first time and that made me want to puke!

My husband was more nervous but in the end said that he was SO glad we had the baby at home. It was all so low key and over and done with very quickly. It all worked out so well and I would recommend it to anyone. A very fast birth and luckily the midwife was down the road seeing someone else. I was all set up for a birth in the living room but had my son on the bed in the end as I couldn't move. It wasn't at all messy and yes I had a bath afterwards. A bit of blood came out but no bits in any real number.

If you want one then go for it. If I ever had another baby I would definitley go for a home birth and would recommend it to anyone.

I had my first baby in hospital and babies number 2 and 3 at home. The home birth experience was far nicer, despite being very nervous about it all beforehand. Yes, it is a bit messy but nothing you can't easily deal with if you plan in advance. All you need is a couple of cheep shower curtains and lots of special pad things which you can buy from Boots (I think the midwives call them 'inco pads'). I would say that if you are expecting a straightforward birth then go for the home experience.

I had a homebirth three weeks ago. I had chosen to have one because I had heard that the hospital was packed to the gills, not because I thought a homebirth would be fantastic (turns out the hospital was closed to admissions at the time DD was born).

But, having done it at home, I would highly recommend it. It was not messy - the pool was easily cleaned out and was supplied with a pump to remove water. The NHS midwife was fantastic, and it was so great lying in my own bed afterwards tucking into gorgonzola and pate on toast!!!

i'm probably going to be attacked here but anyone think that a homebirth might be a bit too risky for the baby - while it's great when everything goes to plan if baby is unexpectedly born flat there is very little time to maximise healthy brain in the baby - why are people happy to risk this?

fabsmum - perhaps the reason shoulder dystocia engenders anxiety in the health professionals is that it is a real emergency and if not treated as such may result in multiple complications in the baby!1

oh yes,
have had 3 homebirths and had 3 happy experiences. Def. recommend for non-complicated pregnancies!

One advantage is that you have a midwife with you the whole time (once labour is established) instead of one just popping in every now and then until you need to push as happens in hospitals.

gosh, it took ages on this thread to get the doom mongers

there are risks both with hospital births and home births, garnettopaz, and statistics do not show planned home births to have more negative outcomes than hospital births, which I imagine is why many women are happy to 'take the risk' of a hb. I personally was quite happy to have a hb as I had complete confidence in my midwife team and my body, and the additional knowledge that by ambulance it would only take a few minutes to reach hospital. I also accepted that those few minutes might well have been crucial in case of emergency but the risk was tiny.

bit like the risk of having a car crash on the way home from the hospital. I am happy to take the small risk that my car might crash/be crashed into with my children in the back seat even though I could always walk to some places. I assess the chances of that happening to be low and a risk I am willing to take.
sorry if analogy not v good, just trying to give you an idea of why I was happy to take the 'risk' you describe

morocco - except the only reason that i see for having a homebirth is for the mother's comfort so in that situation i don't think even a small risk to the baby is acceptable - can i please ask you how many midwives/doctors you know who have delivered at home willingly - especially how many of the midwives who now push for home births

"i'm probably going to be attacked here but anyone think that a homebirth might be a bit too risky for the baby - while it's great when everything goes to plan if baby is unexpectedly born flat there is very little time to maximise healthy brain in the baby - why are people happy to risk this?"

I don't think anyone should attack you for saying this - it's a perfectly reasonable assumption.

It's very true that there are situations where the choice to be at home may result in a poorer outcomes - two examples of this would be where a baby was born unexpectedly flat, a catastrophic placental abruption or a very difficult to resolve shoulder dystocia.

However - if we look at the research on the outcomes of planned homebirths in this country and in the Netherlands, where one third of babies are born at home, you see that overall perinatal mortality for babies born at home is roughly the same as for babies born in hospital to low risk mums, and perinatal morbidity (ie, the numbers of babies who need special care after birth) is signficantly lower). This must mean that the additional risk associated with being at home is somehow balanced out in some way by reducing the risks associated with birthing in hospital. If this wasn't the case you'd expect to see higher perinatal mortality rates associated with homebirth.

"is that it is a real emergency and if not treated as such may result in multiple complications in the baby!"

Errr, yes, and both I and my independent midwife had both discussed this issue AT LENGTH before the labour. Because I had a homebirth I was able to plan with her what we'd do in the event that it happened - we were extremely well prepared and therefore when it DID happen my midwife was able to handle it without panicking or losing the plot. It's perfectly understandable that midwives and doctors are anxious about SD, but it's not acceptable that they so often communicate this anxiety to mothers in the way that they do. That's the whole point of emergency drills - they enable staff to respond quickly and efficiently to emergency situations.

"morocco - except the only reason that i see for having a homebirth is for the mother's comfort so in that situation i don't think even a small risk to the baby is acceptable"

Actually it's in the NICE guidelines that opting for a homebirth HALVES YOUR RISK OF HAVING A C-SECTION, and so reducing your risk of all the very serious complications associated with having major abdominal surgery. Plus it reduces your babies risk of having low apgar scores at birth, so it's about MUCH more than the mother's comfort.

"can i please ask you how many midwives/doctors you know who have delivered at home willingly - especially how many of the midwives who now push for home births"

I know MANY midwives who have had homebirths myself, but few doctors. But that figures. Most doctors have almost no experience of normal birth and are disproportionately exposed to complicated maternities - this increases their anxiety levels about birth to a great extent and so they are less likely to opt for a homebirth. I do know a midwife married to a GP who had both her babies in a paddling pool (!) in their front room - and she had her first baby when she was over 40!

fabsmum, did you used to post under a different name? I get so confused by who is who these days

Oh, well spotted!

Yes - I sometimes post under another user name.

Garnettopaz - you say that 'even the tiniest risk to the baby' is unacceptable. Well, I ahte to be the one to break it to you but the only way to completely obliterate any risk from childbirth is to not have a baby in the first place. Nothing we do in life is risk-free. Nothing. Our society has become so ridiculously risk-averse that we are in danger of losing our commonsense. The sad fact is that some babies die (as do some mothers). Place of birth is very, very rarely a factor.

So, as others have said, if you actually read and consider the research (instead of making assumptions and generalisations), you will see that, in the vast majority of cases, home birth is at least as safe if not safer than hospital birth.

Home birth halves your chance of section, halves your chance of instrumental delivery, decreases your chance of PPH, decreases your chance of getting a 3rd or fourth degree tear, improves breastfeeding rates, raises APGARs, actually reduces the need for resuscitation (which all midwives are well trained in should it be necessary anyway)...the list goes on. And from a physiological pov, the mther's comfort levels are actually extremely important in the progression of labour, reducing the likelihood of fetal distress and facilitating a safe delivery.

I find it so depressing (and actually a weeny bit insulting) when people go on and on about how unsafe homebirths must be. Midwives are highly-skilled professionals and experts in normal birth. They attend mandatory training every year in emergency scenarios and resucitation techniques. A colleague of mine was at a waterbirth just this week when the baby was indeed born rather 'flat' (very fast birth), and do you know what the midwives did? They did exactly the same as the doctors would have done had that baby been born in hospital, and all was well. He was gorgeous, by the way

And, fwiw, I am the nearest thing to a midwife on this thread and I'd have a homebirth tomorrow.

snaf - i'm not making any assumptions - i know all the research and been there live when babies come out flat and i know that a few minutes can make all the difference in the end - it seems bizarre that on threads such as this there are very few if any mums who mention their bad experiences - i know of at least three (and they're friends not just things i see at work) - the midwife concerned in all three occasions was not in a position to deal with the situation in the best way possible since in the home not all equipment is available - but please feel free to call me biased

i happen to be one of the very lucky mums who had an easy delivery second time round (first time was very long drawn) and we spent a total of six hours in hospital - my ds1 never even noticed we were gone - he just woke up to a new brother - but it was in hospital and my main reason for that was to make sure that should the unexpected happen then my ds would have the best possible medical care immediately without any unnecessary delay - the only downside of delivering in hospital was having to have a shower in a hospital shower rather than at home - however i would never have forgiven myself had something happened to ds2 just so i could be in the comfort of my home

i think the fact that so few doctors actually do choose homebirths should perhaps ring a few bells - because when things go wrong unexpectedly they can go very very wrong and sometimes being in hospital may make all the difference between a happy and a sad outcome - but it's just my opinion

btw what is the nearest thing to a midwife?

i had one with the other 6 kids asleep and they only woke up once i was out of the bath and their little sister was sound asleep in her crib, and no mess

Thankyouandgoodnight, hell yes! I've had 3, and they were all wonderful and stress free. My first was a hospital birth, which was good, but that had more to do with having two excellent birthing partners and I got very lucky with my midwives. Had the doctors got involved it would have been a very different story with forceps and tearing.

I cannot speak highly enough of the whole HB experience. And if there is any doubt in your mind, I would most definately say prepare for a HB, you can always change your mind and go to hospital any time you like. You can't do it the other way round.

Garnettopaz, I've seen you share your concerns on other similar threads. I was wondering what your experience is - only because you seem quite passionate about it (I'm honestly not having a dig at you, please don't think I am). I thought perhaps you had medical experience, or is it personal? Its a genuine question - I do respect your opinion as much as the next poster.

hi foxy - lets just say i've been there when babies come out flat unexpectedly - in mothers who would have otherwise been deemed to be safe for hb - and had that happened at home the time to transfer to hospital would have been way too long however close to hospital the deliver was happening

Isn't that why the MW brings a resuscitator out with her though? In the unlikely event that this happens?

i'm lucky to have two ds who are fine - i've had two low risk pregnancies and was offered hb both times - however in ds1 he got stuck!!!! despite being quite small (smaller than average) so thankgoodness we were in hospital so you can say i've got both the medical and the personal experience

foxy have a friend who's baby was delivered at home - came out very very flat - mw had left resuscitator in the car thinking she wouldn't need it - imagine the panic! and also the mw will have all basic equipment it's not the same as having all the expertise available in hospital - occasionally need more than one pair ofexperienced hands and more than just the basic equipment

also if there is meconium staining - aspiration is much more likely in the home setting especially since you're unlikely to switch to c-section quickly enough in the cases that need it

On the reverse, DS1 got stuck - but the MWs and my birthing partners checked us over continually. After the standard of 2 hours of pushing, the normal procedure would have been to intervene. I had two very experienced MWs and birthing partners, and knowing that I was capable and the baby wasn't distressed I was able to continue pushing for another hour, changing position, moving etc etc. Now, had the doctors intervened my first, and no doubt subsequent births would have been very different indeed.

When DC3 was born I was about to start pushing when my foot kicked something under the bed, when I asked what it was MW said 'its just the resusitator, don't worry'. She had discreetly stashed it so as not to worry me.

Equally, DC4 was almost two weeks late. We were warned that if there was meconium in the water we would be blue-lighted to hospital immediately.

I'm really not trying to contradict your experience, GT, honestly - I hate it when that happens on here, but I do want to reassure the OP that there are many, many ways and approaches. Our experiences may not be too dissimilar, but our approaches very different.

FWIW I think that it is good that you present a different view, because these threads are generally overwhelmingly pro. Very, very few people have negative things to say about homebirthing.

A student who qualifies in a couple of months I don't think there are proper mws on this thread but could be wrong!

What equipment wasn't available at the births you mention? Were all these babies so severely compromised that they required treatments of last resort such as adrenaline or sodium bicarb? Mws carry every other piece of equipment necessary for neonatal resuscitation.

I love a good homebirth thread

Sorry, slow typing and slight cross-posting!