Home birth

[zscaler]

Hello!

I wondered if anyone has had a home birth or is considering one? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts!

I’ve always liked the idea of a home birth, and with everything that’s current happening with CV19 it’s more appealing than ever. I mentioned it to my midwife and she says that home births are currently not available but likely will be by December (when I am due), so it’s certainly something we can consider later on.

Obviously all depends on me having a healthy pregnancy and it being considered safe by my midwife, I will be totally led by why she and other professionals think is safe. It was really encouraging to me though that she was positive about the idea.

Has anyone had a home birth experience, good or bad? Would anyone consider one for a first pregnancy?

I had ds2 and ds3 at home, and I found it a very positive experience both times.

I had very long labours with all three boys, and I found it much better labouring at home - I was much more relaxed, in my own environment than I had been in hospital. I even hosted an NCT coffee morning in early labour with ds3.

The community midwives in my area were very pro-home birth, and I was able to build up a really good relationship with the two midwives who made up my team - and I trusted them implicitly. I trusted their instincts too - if they had said they felt I needed to go to hospital, even if they couldn’t exactly put their finger on why, I would have trusted that gut feeling, and gone.

It did help that I lived only 10 minutes drive from the hospital, so I was confident that, if I had needed to transfer, I could have got there very quickly.

I had a very acute placental abruption during labour with my second , no risk factors, totally unexpected . I was quite far along (9cm) but they got her out in three minutes via cat1 c section under GA and she was thankfully ok with a little help (anything else would have taken too long l, said the surgeon). I was in surgery for a long time afterwards with haemorrhaging that would not stop.

I'm also 10 mins from a hospital and had considered a home birth, but have no doubt I'd have lost DD2 had I not been in hospital. What happened to me is extremely rare but things like acute placental abruption / cord prolapse do happen with no warning. I'm sure this isn't what you wanted to hear but I think it's worth noting.

I've just re-read and seen that this is your first baby - I'd personally advise against.

Thank you so much, it’s really helpful to get your views.

I had expected the midwife to be cautious because it’s a first pregnancy, but she said it’s something we can assess on an individual basis closer to the time.

The fear of something unpredictable going wrong is the biggest concern - definitely something I will discuss in detail nearer the time.

With my first I considered a home birth but was too worried . In the end I made the right decision as baby had shoulder dystocia and I had a bad haemorrhage and ended up in intensive care .

With that being said , my sister had home births for both her kids . With her first she also had a haemorrhage after birth and they called an ambulance. It was all good though , although she was in the hospital for a few days after . Her second birth at home went perfect .

I say it’s whatever you are comfortable with although usually it’s recommended to have your first birth in a hospital or birthing centre as there is a 50% chance of needing more medical help ( what I was told in my nhs birthing class )!

Good luck with either decision !!!!

@zscaler yes I’m planning a home birth, and many women I know are also hoping for this too. I am very pro the human body and believe that it knows exactly what to do, and being at home in a much more relaxed environment eases things along. There is a lot of evidence that home births lead to less medical intervention, and with hospital births once interventions begin, they usually continue i.e induction often leads to other medical interventions such as forceps/ventouse/sections.
The story above is sad, but very rare so I am not worried about that.

@twinklestars15

Is this your first baby?

So what happens with women who need to be transferred to hospital? Do their bodies not know what they're doing?!

I'm a type 1 diabetic so no chance of ever having a home birth, but I was thinking about this earlier after reading the very sad case of Kara Bosworth which has been in the news lately.

I think home births are really for the mums' 'experience', not the baby's safety. I just dont understand why you wouldn't want medical help immediately available in case you needed it.

If I had the option I would probably choose an MLU attached to a hospital, best of both worlds.

@wolfgirrl thanks for sharing, that’s your opinion and that’s fine, we’re all entitled to one

@twinklestars15

It's not opinion though is it? 45% of mums planning a first home birth end up in hospital.

45% of mums planning a first home birth end up in hospital.

This is true, but it’s not all because something has gone wrong. In the vast majority of situations transfer is because the woman wants an epidural, or has been in labour for a while and wants to move things along in hospital. It also seems from the testimonies I have read that for most women, even when they ended up being transferred to hospital, they still appreciated the time spent labouring at home.

It’s really helpful to get different perspectives so thank you everyone for sharing!

To add - I had most of my labour with DD2 in the midwife led unit on the ground floor of the hospital, Dr lead hospital ward with operating theatres upstairs. Until the placental abruption happened (very very sudden and severe) I was having a lovely peaceful water birth with dimmed lights, folk music playing, just gas and air and one very quiet midwife sat in the corner and leaving my husband to it… It was very beautiful and relaxing and I can't really see any downsides to this set up. And as my example demonstrates, rare as it is, it is good to be in the right place at the right time should something unexpected happen. I was in the water having gas and air at 1944 (last nipte made in MW led unit) and baby born by c section at 1947.

*last note made in the MW led unit.

I really feel that a birthing centre attached to hospital is best of every world.

@Wolfgirrl nothing in your first message had any research or statistics. In fact, it was exactly your opinion “I think home births are really for the mums' 'experience', not the baby's safety. I just dont understand why you wouldn't want medical help immediately available in case you needed it.

If I had the option I would probably choose an MLU attached to a hospital, best of both worlds”

Yes, 45% of first time mums get transferred to hospital, many because they wish for an epidural or other methods of pain relief that is not available at home. Most are planned transfers, few are emergency transfers.

@zscaler

Absolutely, but you might be one of those people that needs an epidural.

I'm certain spending the first part of labour at home is lovely but that is what most women do anyway. I would think an ambulance ride to hospital would be more stressful than hopping in your own car!

There is a reason why most ladies with experience of childbirth would advise you to keep all options open to you, whereas pregnant women who have never given birth before would advocate the whale-song-and-candles stuff.

There is an episode of Life and Birth on BBC at the moment which highlights my point well. It wasnt a home birth but the mother was a very healthy, very zen young yoga teacher who had done hypnobirthing etc. She was adamant she wanted a peaceful MLU waterbirth. After days of labour, it turned out the baby was back to back and couldn't be pushed out. She ended up needing forceps and very nearly a c-section. I bet she was grateful she was in hospital then!

You don't know how your body labours OP, why not try MLU (our local one is lush!) and if all goes well, you could home birth for next baby?

Good luck whatever you decide!

@zscaler sorry crossed posts, but we pretty much said the same thing. Good luck with whatever you chose.

@TwinkleStars15 okay so pretty sure this is your first baby and you've no personal experience?

I'll leave it there

Of course, I may well need an epidural!

I’m definitely going to look into MLUs, that sounds like a great option.

In the NHS trust where I work, we have a home birth team. Because they are really skilled at home birth, their transfer rates are much lower than those cited in the Birthplace Study. Do you know if your area is run by a dedicated team?

Since Covid the HB rate has increased hugely (since they closed the low risk birth centre). Last month one third of babies born at home were to first time mums! It used to be a big month if two or three babies per month were to first time mums. Yes there is still a higher chance that you will transfer in, but I don't see that as a reason not to try.

I would! As I said I didnt have the choice but I had a postnatal appointment at our local one. It was incredible, a massive whirlpool bath (much better than anything you could do at home), a double bed so partner can sleep with you overnight, lovely big room. I was so jealous!

I'm not trying to be a buzz kill just because I cant have a home birth, but cases like the one mentioned above are really concerning.

That’s great to know - thank you so much! I’m not sure if it’s a dedicated HB team, I will look into it.

@wolfgirrl you’re wrong, I have experience of pregnancy and birth. And I find you quite offensive and judgemental so that’s all I have to say to you. Maybe you can spend this time in lockdown looking at yourself and how you ‘support’ others.

@zscaler do what feels right for you, make an informed decision, and don’t let other people try to push their opinions on you. It’s your body and your baby, so you have the right to chose what you want.

I had 2 hime births, one was really positive. The other wasn’t but that was due to it being a home birth, it was an unplanned solo birth. The first one was great, I had a great community midwife with me. I felt really relaxed and at ease. I’d recommend doing a lot research about what the home birth team is like in your area

I had an incredibly quick first labour (90 minutes start to finish - didn't even have time to fill the birth pool) and have been advised to prepare for a home birth with my second due at Christmas. However, I'd do anything to avoid it, I gave birth in the midwife led unit and felt much more comfortable knowing medical help was seconds away than I would have at home. Especially when it's your first and there are so many things you aren't aware of. I'll be straight into hospital with the first twitch of labour this time!

If you Google "birth places study" you can find some quite detailed research on outcomes for homebirth. It's also worth reading the NICE guidelines and looking here www.homebirth.org.uk/. The risks of a serious bad outcome for baby are a bit higher for a first time mum at a home birth, however the risk is still very low so NICE guidelines say it is a 'safe' option. The serious bad outcomes include things that are recoverable from, like a fractured collar bone and respiratory disease from meconium, but also sadly death and long term brain damage. From memory its something like 5 in 1000 hospital birth have one of these bad outcomes, for first time mums at a homebirth it's 9 in 1000.

You have to balance that against the increased liklihood of all sorts of medical intervention for a planned hospital birth. And then the various consequences of that, ongoing injuries to mother, difficulty establishing breastfeeding, psychological impact etc. I also read up a lot of the research about how critical time is for an emergency c-section in the case of the small number of emergencies that are really out of the blue (by which I mean a lot of emergencies have a pattern of things which happen before which can alert you to the liklihood of them happening).

I did opt for a homebirth with my baby. I considered in this the fact I live very close to hospital and I took an approach of going into hospital at the first sign of something wrong. I did ended up transferring in, but it wasnt for an emergency reason and I was happy I did the first bit at home. I think my labour progressed a lot quicker there.

Its tricky to work out what the best option is and depends on your attitude to risk. I would say go wherever you feel most comfortable/at ease. The vast majority of births are very safe.