Baby, you're home

[foxytocin]

new york times on home births

0.5%? That's pretty low - especially given they say later on that 1 in 3 births is by CS. But I seem to recall that being something to do with US women only getting a couple of weeks ML so they often go for a planned CS.

Why the obsession with space? Surely the birth only needs the space between a woman's legs, she doesn't need to have 4 extra family members and camera crew all there...

Good lord what a load of tripe! Just makes me sooo glad I live in this country, American authorities seem to have a crazy attitude to birth!

Total crock of shite.

"Hospital is one of the safest places to give birth"

Not THE SAFEST though, eh? Just one of them. Home being, erm, statistically safer for low risk pregnancies.

Well also take into consideration that a lot of insurance companies won't cover it. Mine won't. So it's either give birth in a hospital with a midwife for next to nothing, or pay $3,000-$5,000 for a homebirth midwife. As much as I have the desire for a homebirth we can't afford it.

1/3 of births being C-sections sounds about right as a national average.

I can see how the insurance thing forces people into hospital, but it has no bearing on the safety of home birth.

That article was making it out to be dangerous, which is just not true.

I agree anarchy, its not the mums in america, its the system thats now so obsessed with suing for everything. MKG thats a ridiculous amount of money! They dont really give you a choice do they with costs like that!

I don't know what (if any) evidence they have for the claim that home birth is dangerous.

If they have any, I suspect it'd be some flimsy stats that show poorer outcomes - but they would do if insurance doesn't cover home births. Maybe a lot of them are among women who have no insurance, so no antenatal care, presumably poor so associated risks there too, unattended births maybe if there is no money for midwives yada yada. Does anyone know of the evidance?

Considering how medicalised American births seem to be, and how it's all about doctors instead of midwives, drugs and very little choice on the part of the woman, I thought this was quite an open-minded article. There's still a long way to go before home births are 'normal' and accepted, but it's a step in the right direction, I reckon.