Planned homebirth, now induction and hospital birth advised, help??

[mumtotwoboys]

I'm 39+5
Have a homebirth planned.
Midwife booked me in for a scan as tummy wasn't measuring much more than 3 weeks ago.
Scan was fine and baby was all well according to sonographer, blood flowing through the cord nicely, good heartbeat, etc.. estimated current weight 8lbs.
I go through to see a replacement consultant after the scan, as mine isn't in she says 'hi, etc' open scan graphs and tells me 'baby's weight seems to be trailing off graph slightly'. His head and legs have stayed in the 90th percentile but his abdominum circumfrence has gone down to 50th percentile.
So she goes 'shall we start you off then' in a tone where she may aswell have said 'do you fancy a cup of tea'
I pause trying to work out what that means and then go '...what'? She's obviously talking about induction.
She goes 'not right now, but within the next day of two'
er um okay... why?
So she explains if his weight gain is slowing down he's probably best off coming out sooner than later.
I tell her I'm trying to avoid a hospital birth as I have a 3 year old I've never spent a night apart from, I can't sleep in hospitals which made the last time hellish..
She says she'll call my midwife to see if a home birth is still possible.
And I go back to waiting room for another 20 mins
Consultant's assistant/ or midwife comes out to speak to me and tells me midwife is saying I should give birth in hospital now.
some background; midwife has been unsuportive of homebirth all along due to her own personal veiws and was jumping at any excuse to say I should be in hospital untill I tried to change midwife and then she suddenly signed the homebirth paperwork. Now consultant is calling her and she obviously says something along the lines of; 'yes she can have a hospital birth'.
I'm suspicious that she wants less homebirths so she's called out from her warm bed less often.

So I want to know exactly what the problem is and what's changed just cause baby's waist isn't as fat as average, I explain both me and father are naturally tall and slim.
Midwife can't tell me much but she just thinks baby should be born and 'fed up' with some milk obviously.
So she says she'll leave it a bit and book me in for next thursday (when I'm 40+5) and they'll want to induce me then to be safe.
(obviously nothing urgently wrong with baby)
So I say 'I'll probably have him before then anyway, so can I just stick to as planned before' she goes 'no you'll be told to come into hospital for labour now'
I'm like 'why? is my baby okay'?
She goes 'he's okay right now and should be okay if born right now..'
so I ask why a hospital induction then?
She says she'll get consultant to speak to me again, then she realises consultant has finished for the day.
Then I basically get told clinic is over, come back next week.
I asked what if I go into labour in the meantime (which I probably will) and don't want to come to hospital, she says 'we won't leave you to do it alone we'll send midwives out even though you were advised to come in'

So I'm left bewildered, it's not clear why they don't want to do homebirth, and I don't want a big phone argument about going in when I'm in labour, and I don't want reluctant midwives who come out with the 'you're putting yourself in danger' attitude.

If I go into labour now I don't know if I should stand my ground and stay at home :-s

mumtotwoboys - good luck with whatever you decide - I totally sympathise with not wanting to go into hospital, I've had 1 hospital birth, 2 homebirths, and am 36+1 atm, hoping for a 3rd homebirth.

What I would say is that ime the best way to have a successful homebirth is to not have too many preconceptions about 'how it's going to be'. And even if you do decide to go for the homebirth, don't be too against the idea of transferral to hospital if need be - bear in mind that the mws will by that stage be looking after your best interests, and will only transfer you if need be.

I think the attitudes of consultants can make a huge difference - my mw this time (who delivered dd and ds2 at home) was a bit hesitant about giving the 'ok' because all the other babies have been big. Fortunately the consultant I saw was fab, said there was absolutely no reason not to, didn't need to have any further tests (GTT or growth scans etc), and he would recommend a home birth again. But he could just as well have said 'yes, they were 10lb+, you have to be monitored for GD, have a GTT, growth scan at 36 weeks and then induce at 40 weeks'.

Why on earth doesn't she carry oxygen? Did she really say the baby could die for that reason? Surely that's her problem and she needs to sort it out.

The first thing my midwife did for my hb was lay out all the resuscitation equipment.

I'm so sorry they're giving you the run around and no straight answers. I know it's getting a bit late now, but I'd be tempted to give them a written letter and demand a description of the risks home birth poses specifically to you in writing. It really sounds like they're bluffing for whatever reasons they don't want to be bothered with a home birth and therefore looking for excuses.

You sound strong MTTB. Be firm with the consultant when you see her again on Thursday. They are used to bamboozling us with info.

Mine was making up statistics with my last bab. Dh was working them out and calling him on them He never looked me in the eye either. Shifty.

I am sure everything will work out, you are very prepared. A doula is a fab idea too.

Good luck

Hey I'm 3 days overdue now.

Thanks again for your posts! :-)

Carmen I think that's a really good idea, my consultant I see on thursday is very good, I have a feeling she will be more helpful than the others, but she may not give it to me straight on the specifics.
So I WILL ask for it in writing, for the exact extra risks that my baby will suffer during a homebirth.
Infact I will call ahead today so she can work on that list.
Carmen do you live in the USA, because I wonder if they may be more helpful there, whereas NHS consultants might be too busy to bother.
It's a joke, I've been told 3 seperate things from 3 different professionals on what extra risks there may be. First is was my placenta perhaps not holding out, then me bleeding to death, now my baby being too small to breath, none of those theories are backed up with the info from the scans which show my baby and placenta function are both normal and fine, apart from baby being long and thin which midwife admitted could easily be a geneetic trait as both me and father are tall and slim!
Bit of a difference me having an ultrasound and the sonographer saying 'yes all looks well' with a smile to some midwife who admitted the scan results were gobultigoop then says 'you're baby could die' lol
She doesn't wanna get called outta bed to deliver

midwife goes 'I wouldn't want to deliver your baby on that floor with your doula without all the right resucitation equiptment if something may go wrong'

Who says I'd be giving birth on the floor, she obviously just thinks homebirth is innapropriate.

I'm in the USA, yeah, but I've found consultants here utterly unhelpful and opinionated rather than evidence driven, which is more annoying here because you're paying for it. One OB told me to fly back to England (at 8 months pregnant) if I didn't want to give birth with a drip, continuous monitoring etc. etc.

We do have some absolutely wonderful, kind and professional midwives, thankfully.

You sound in very good spirits! It's great news that all the scans etc. are good. Keeping my fingers crossed for you. Let us know if they tell you anything more concrete!

Oh god that's an awful comment, like we have no control over what medical procedures they decide we need. They think theyre gods