Community Midwifes not supporting my home birth

[BabiesEverywhere]

I feel like screaming they won't stop looking for problems. Up to now I have played ball and been to hospital for countless blood tests etc and I am sick of them.

I refused an referal for a growth scan (I don't care if I have a big baby) I was told I had to wait in today to speak to the team leader. My DH took the day off work and she never turned up !!!

Eventually got though to her at 4pm, she said she was going to ring tonight and rearrange for the weekend !!! Thanks a lot, after DH has wasted a holiday day for nothing and I have been stressed waiting for her to turn up

Had a brief chat on the phone and I explained that I am unconcerned by the size of my baby and if there was no medical reason I am happy to stand by not going for loads of growth scans.

But what if you were told you had a 11lb baby, I replied I would still stay at home and have a 'trial of labour' and hope that the scan was out in my favour (i.e. They can be out a pound or more)

She mentioned GD and GTT test, I explained no sugar in wee so was there a need for further testing. She suggested I had GD in last pregnancy and I explained I had done a GTT test and passed with flying colours, I just grow large babies (8 lbs 12 ozs last one)

So then she started going on about how she didn't want my baby to die, due to shoulder problems and that they don't carry the right kit to resuss babies. (WTF, I wonder what her boss would think of that statement)

That she didn't care if I hated her for transferring me. !?! (Bearing in mind this is 2 months before my due date) and on zero evidence, she has already decided that she intents on transferring me to hospital

I am so damm angry, upset and feel so let down

I was refused a home birth, ds4 was born at home April 7th LOL. Hold on for the home birth lady- she saved mine for me! (basically as I am very shy she advised dealing with consultant by letter, and gave me the letter template. Consultant agreed straight off when put in type but never spoke to me again- all mediated by midwife).

Fortunately my MW was a homebirther herself so that did help I guess.

DS1 was born with shoulder dystocia by the way- he weighed 5lb 5oz! And he ahd more problems in the run up than you could shake a stick at which is why they said no andf tried to ignore the 2 subsequent perfect births.

I really wouldn't go for unassisted labour- I was tempted, back to the shyness thing, but there are a few people on SN whose child sustained Sn at birth, they could well have died if no professional with the Mum.

I would write to supervisor of MW's, stating that you don't want contact with the team leader, then go the AIMs route. well worth doing imo, so less stressful (and as it happened I'd never ahve got in anyway- nature wanted me to HB!)

Our local HV assistant ahs taken to telling mums that HB's are deadly for babies, must remember to emntion to HV...

Tittytittybangbang - unfortunately antenatal care cannot predict a large proportion of the complications that occur during birth (particularly obstructed labour). WHO has now recognised that the concept of "predicting" a high risk birth through antenatal care is not effective.
You're right about access to emergency care, but you have to recognise that you need it before accessing it. This is where a trained attendant is really important. A woman on her own, or with unskilled care will often miss the danger signs for the infant, which may not be that obvious (whereas the signs of danger for the woman are often more obvious).

You can't really compare freebirth with unattended labours. They are by their very nature fast, and many (but not all) of the complications are more likely with longer labours.
I can underwstand what drives women, but really feel it's a step too far away from de-medicalising childbirth.

I wanted a HB but was talked out of it and then had to be induced anyway cos 2 weeks over.

Had 4 extra growth scans and was told to expect 10lbs plus, ds1 being 9lb 2oz. I was adamant on HB to begin with but after seeking advice from numerous midwives and my consultant and manager of delivery suite, I decided to go for what is known as a domino delivery where the MW comes to assess your progress and then transfers to hospital with you and then accompanies you home asap afterwards.

As it turned out DS2 was 12 lbs 5 oz az he had continued to grow beyond 40 weeks due to my massive and healthy placenta (3lb 3 oz). His shoulders got stuck and it took 2 midwives a nurse and my partner t o do the McRoberts and get Tristan out. I would not have wanted to be at home!! Although I was not aware of any panic, apparently there was, and mine was not a bad case of shoulder dystocia. I am still pro HB's and am sad that I will never be brave enough to try it after DS2's birth, although his birth was brilliant and straight forward in every other way.

After he was born I was allowed to stay in the delivery room with my DP and DS1 until I was ready to go home (born at 11 am and I was home by 530pm). The MW who delivered him stayed to look after us, helped me bathe and have a wee!! I had a wonderful experience although I was in hospital.

Just thought I would add another view! Good luck with your chosen path!

"You can't really compare freebirth with unattended labours. They are by their very nature fast, and many (but not all) of the complications are more likely with longer labours."

Actually I'd say that bba's are likely to be more complicated than planned freebirths because a) they may be precipitate b) the woman may be completely alone (unlike with many women who freebirth) c) the woman may not be in a place of safety (ie may have her baby in a car or in the street - I know of two such cases). You have more issues surrounding hypothermia and babies born shocked after very quick births, plus the problem of pph......

Anyway, the point I was making is that the limited evidence we have doesn't seem to point to massively high mortality and morbidity among mothers and babies who have unassisted births - despite the fact that a fairly hefty proportion of these women have significant risk factors that place them in high risk groups.

Wanted to add - does anyone know of any research into morbidity and mortality among freebirthing women in developed countries? It'd be very interesting to read!

I also wanted to add that the article I mentioned about unassisted birth raised the issue of whether a proportion of women having bba's 'accidentally on purpose' left it too late to call a midwife/go to hospital. In other words, are some of these bba's actually 'free births'......? Women who, when the moment came in labour, without planning or thinking about it just couldn't bring themselves to go into hospital or phone the midwife?

i may just go on scholar and have a look -if i find owt i'll have to put up an abstract!

tittybangbang
nope-not a sausage,though this expat midwife Lisa Barretthas kindly crunched the US figures and come up with something like mortality of 4/1000, which is about half the mortality of doctor led births in the US -gulp!

jamila

The figures are not really that "gulp-y".

Doctor-led birth will include all the very high risk births - babies with pre-existing medical conditions diagnosed by scans for example and mothers with pre-exisiting meidcal constions which make any pregnancy highly dangerous

I have finished my letter and had it filtered for excessive rants via my husband (surprisingly he altered very little, he was horrified what she said to me on the phone)

I wrote the letter from my husbands POV and signed it from us both. I reckoned it would be harder for a male chief executive to dismiss a letter from my husband as the rants of a hormonal pregnant woman.

I have sent it to my doula for a last read over and then I'll get it in the post this afternoon.

i'm an epidemiologist by training and have seen neonatal deaths lviing with communities in emerging economies and in much poorer places. i don't think you will find data on unassisted birth in such places as its a no-brainer that any access to health care is likely to improve maternal and therefore neonate care. it would be a waste of research effort. from the deaths i've been aware of, it was lack of access to dry/warm/clean living conditions, good maternal nutrition and access to antibiotics that would have made the difference in the death rate, TBH. like here, 100 years ago.

"Doctor-led birth will include all the very high risk births - babies with pre-existing medical conditions diagnosed by scans for example and mothers with pre-exisiting meidcal constions which make any pregnancy highly dangerous"

Yes - that's true, and as soon as I saw those statistics didn't differentiate between high and low risk mothers I switched off.

However it is worth remembering that in the US (where those statistics come from) the majority of maternities would be classified as 'low risk' and that most of these women would still be having obstetric led care in pregnancy and birth.

By the way - a 'high risk' label doesn't necessarily make pregnancy 'highly dangerous'. Just under a half of women in the UK would be categorised as having a risk factor in pregnancy, yet the majority still give birth to healthy babies without obstetric intervention.

I personally am one of 4 sisters/sisters in law, who have a range of risk factors for pregnancy, namely: obesity, hypertension, type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes, macrosomia; previous shoulder dystocia, and advanced maternal age and yet we've managed to have all 12 births within the family without a single unwell baby or a c-section between us!

babieseverywhere, i hvae emailed the person i told you about and am awaiting a reply with the info

Thanks lulumama

Yep tittybangbang when you look at the actual figures that OB's deliver in the us and compare with the number of women over here who are delivered by a doctor as opposed to a midwife round 20% if IIRC and then they have an unnaceptably high excess mortality -that's not counting morbidity - I had a good play with the figures on the site she used and whatever filter you use, it's the same - the doctor's outcomes are very poor.
Have you seen 'the business of being born'? the whiteboard on the labour ward wall tells the story.

I am so sorry that you are going through all this with your midwives Babies.

They should be supportive of your needs and as long as you are well informed they should support your decisions as well - they are simply not giving you enough respect.

With my last pregnancy I was a normal low risk pg measuring for dates, no protein in wee etc. until 35weeks and 6 days when I had a show plus bleed. I spent a night in hospital (despite the bleed stopping in a few hours - it was never a heavy flow) - the next morning the Consultant on his ward round glanced at me and my notes and breezily announced I couldn't have a homebirth.

I was not happy with this demanded a second opinion another 5min consultation and the hb objection was lifted as easily as it was placed - so I have less faith in the consultants as a result.

I went on to have a hb at 39 weeks - normal delivery no drugs and very straightforward (except being stitched up that hurt like nowt on earth and an epidural suddenly seemed very attractive[wince emoticon required]).

Now on 3rd pg (21wks) and planning another hb if all is well.

I hope your letter gets you some positive results Babies - good luck with getting the birth you want.

Thanks BigMouth, Letters ready to go, six copies in total.

It is just so stupid that I have to fight just for a chance of a home birth, I might change my mind (doubt it) or things might alter i.e. waters might break or whatever.

I have always made it clear, that I was not a "we must stay at home even if the house is burning down around us" person.

I just want a 'trial of labour' and to see how things go and a trustworthy midwife who will be positive and supportive.

Ahhh Babies!
there are very few people who would stay at home if the house was burning down mate!
please please please get the 'trial of labour' thing out of your head
you want a homebirth -end of
if anything comes up prior to or during labour that can't be dealt with,or you have a feeling in your bones or whatever -you'll transfer in , It might seem to be an odd distinction, but semantics are very important here,especially with the grief you've been getting
Trial of labour says you're open to persuasion
homebirth says you're not

You are right

Posted off the letters this morning.

I hope the community midwives don't ring me and ask me why I have cancelled my next appointment. But as she made it clear that they would be pushing me on the growth scans and I don't want to hear how my baby is going to die again, I am sure I have made the right decision. If they ring I might ask them to ring back and talk to my husband but that is a bit sad of me, isn't it ? But I don't made to get into an argument or further discussion with these women, I just find it too upsetting.

Just feeling down, I between my DH and doula I was starting to feel more hopefull and positive about the new baby and I really thought I had a decent chance of things being better this time. Now I am having flashbacks about DD's arrival and nightly nightmares about hospitals again.

Morning lovely BE

Nothing useful to add as I know bugger all about this but I am always lurking in the background being supportive

{{{TF}}}

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