HOMEBIRTH - your thoughts and advice

[iamwhaticallpregnant]

Hi all - I attended a 'homebirth' talk yesterday where the midwife advocated homebirth. To be honest she made giving birth in a hospital sound like the worst experience ever. fluorescent lights, strangers, shared toilets, invasive checks, bad rooms, exposure etc and implied that itll make your labour longer and more painful because yourbody will not like its surroundings.
On the homebirth side she made it sound like heaven. dimmed lighting and private, relaxing, safe, 2 midwives, your own birthing pools, all your choices and natural. She insisted it was "just as safe as a hospital birth" which previously we had thought was not the case so we completely discounted home births.
my partner and I are more or less convinced - but she was obviously biased ,,,, so - what do you think? and what are your experiences?

a bit of info about me - I am TERRIFIED irrationally of birth, incredibly anxious, terrified about being exposed/ having no dignity.

[DaveMccave]

I think she was right. I had my first in hospital. Hated it. Very invasive and over medicalised and the environment did make me very nervous. Planning a home birth this time. I advise you read and read and read about birth. The more informed you are the less scared you will be.

[Springforward]

FWIW what the MW advocates may not be what she would choose for herself. At a recent MW appointment the woman stopped burbling on about local hyponobirthing classes just long enough to tell me that she had personally chosen to go consultant-led so she could have an epidural as she "didn't do pain". Refreshing change after NCT classes the first time round, I have to admit....

[emmyloo2]

I had a straight forward and very positive labour experience in hospital and would not want to give birth anywhere else. I had midwives and had minimal intervention - no epidural, just gas and air. Was allowed to give birth in the position I was most comfortable with. However, for me, I wanted to safety and security of a hospital. There have been several cases where I live of babies dying during homebirths because the midwives didn't act quickly enough and it was demonstrated, through the coronial enquiry process, that the babies would have survived had the babies been born in a hospital. I don't want to give birth at home. I wanted modern medicine available to me - this is why rates of maternal mortality have dropped. I want every safety to be available to me.

[AmericasTorturedBrow]

OP I honestly just advocate doing as much research as you can and going for what makes you feel the least anxious, as this is clearly a huge issue for you. Talk to your local MW team as everyone's experience will be different based on locations as well as how we all labour differently anyway.

Try not to let the talk colour your view either way, it does sons very unprofessional but makes a massive change from being told you're selfish for not wanting your baby in a hospital. For every story of a baby dying at home there's another of one dying in hospital, for every life saved at home there's one in hospital - bone of us know what outcomes there would have been had we opted differently so the least you can do is huge yourself a good headstart.

Don't worry love, your body has been preparing for this and all things being equal it knows what to do. Good luck!