It's gonna take me a while, but I'm trying to collect some of my thoughts on why we chose and will continue to choose to homebirth (as long as I'm lowrisk). It's a HUGE topic for me, so I've broken it up into three parts: Homebirth logically, emotionally, and spiritually. There is NO way that I can cram everything I think about this topic on here, but atleast the most important stuff, hopefully! So here ya go!
Homebirth, Logically: A starting place: Why we choose to have our babies (from now on) at home with the assistance of a midwife. The logical side of our reasoning. One of the first things we hear from people questioning our decision is, “But women and babies used to die all the time before there was hospital birth!” In a sense this is true. The mortality in and around childbirth did drop pretty dramatically around the time that birth started moving into hospitals. But one of the main reasons for this is because of advances in sterility, use of antiseptics in medicine, and one of the main helps, washing hands. In fact, Ignaz Semmelweiz proposed washing hands between autopsies and attending births to cut down on puerperal fever (childbed fever). He noticed that women under the care of midwives at the hospital or at home were not dying at such an alarming rate, because midwives did not perform autopsies. Unfortunately, the body of doctors at the time denounced him and rejected his beliefs. He died several years later, never seeing any real difference in the death rate. It took decades and several doctors carrying on his work before doctors would finally see that washing their hands well before attending a birth was necessary to reduce mortality. But that is just one example of advances in medicine that helped the mortality rate. When looked closely at, the rate of women going to the hospital for childbirth very gradually rose between late 1800s and 1950. It was very gradual and the drop off on deaths came before that. Obviously with midwives getting more training and hospitals being more readily available, things did get safer for homebirthers. But the main reason that doctors used to lure women to the hospital with was pain medication. It was the only thing they could offer that midwives at home could not. Most male OBs at the time had never even attended a birth; they had no way of competing with “granny midwives” that had been catching babies for decades! Also, if it were the case that the mortality of homebirth vs. hospital birth was so drastic, we would see evidence of that in clinical studies done now. And we don’t. (http://www.sep.org.uk/catalyst/articles/catalyst_20_1_428.pdf, http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/timeline.asp ) Clinical studies: There have been many, many studies done on low risk women choosing homebirth vs. low risk women choosing hospital birth and the outcomes. While some aren’t as thorough as they should be, and some were preformed in other countries (where homebirth is more prevalent), there is very little to argue about how good the results are for low risk homebirth. The mortality rate is the same for both, which means it is NO more risky for your life or your baby’s life to give birth at home assisted by a well-trained midwife. But, the morbidity rate is higher for hospital birth. This means that there is more unnecessary harm done in the hospital than compared at home. This is because interventions are used much more in hospitals with little to no medical need, increasing the chances that baby or mommy will have injuries or suffer as a result. Some would say that midwives are better at trusting nature (God’s plan) and sitting back and waiting, where as OBs (and other hospital care providers) are more scared of the process, wanting to try and control it. Luckily, we have the technology that doctors can undo (physically) the damage that they do with the interventions, usually saving a life or correcting an injury, while at home, there is usually no need to undo anything, as things were left alone in the first place. (http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/166/3/315 http://www.bmj.com/archive/7068pr3.htmttp://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/313/7068/1313ttp://www.vbfree.org/docs/schlenzka.htm http://www.homebirth.org.uk/homebirth2.htmhttp://www.compleatmother.com/homebirth/hb_safety.htmhttp://betterbirth.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-study-home-birth-as-safe-as.html http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/bmj2005HBSafety.html) Transferring: Many folks want to know what will happen if something goes wrong when you are at home. Well, most of the time, labor moves slowly and there for any complications come up slowly. Midwives are trained to see complications coming from far off so that they can try things at home and then if that doesn’t work, move the mom to the hospital. Most of the time it’s calm move to the hospital. Now there are those mad dashes or dialing 911, but they truly are rare. A lot of mothers might say that they feel better if they are down the hall from the OR if needed, but in reality, your OB will not be present at the hospital while you are in labor, so if a C-section does become necessary, you will have to wait for him/her to arrive anyway. While many women believe they received an “emergency cesarean” while in labor, true emergency cesareans are quite rare. If you received an emergency cesarean, odds are, you weren’t awake for it, because they don’t have time to place a spinal or epidural or to make sure that the one you already have is working adequately. As far as things going wrong, when you are in a hospital those chances go up tremendously!! The instance of things like cord prolapse (very serious complication), fetal decels (fetal heart rate dropping lower), post partum hemorrhage, and infection happen more often in hospitals. And not because the women are just more high risk. They happen more to low risk women because of routine drugs and protocols that cause them. We’ve just decided that if I don’t need medical professional help and my baby doesn’t need it, then we will stay home until we DO need it. And that maybe during birth, afterwards, or maybe several months later for a completely unassociated illness! ; )(http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/homwatif.html ) Our story: Our first two children, Darby and Bryse, were born in the hospital. Darby’s birth was a very normal American hospital birth. I had more trust in my OB than I did in the process. I really liked her, she was very sweet. However, hind’s sight is 20/20! Looking back, although I still like her personality, I am disappointed in the choices that were made for me and Darby without much need or consultation with us. At 37 weeks (because I was 4 cm dilated) my membranes were striped without first telling me what she was doing. This is a natural form of induction….and very painful. It put me in labor and I very much wanted to experience natural childbirth but had done very little in preparation. I allowed them to tether me to the hospital bed with electronic fetal monitoring and IVs, thinking they must all be necessary if they just automatically put them on you! (I was wrong, but again, wasn’t informed of anything) I went on with labor for 9 hours while repeatedly refusing the epidural but once I got “stuck” at 7 cm gave in and got the epidural and they started pitocin to get me passed 7 cm (even though there was not medical reason to start pitocin, just failure to be patient). For two and a half hours I enjoyed the very well placed epidural and slept. At the time, I didn’t realize that Darby’s heart rate and my blood pressure was fluctuating because of the epidural or pitocin, because no one told me that was a side effect. I pushed her out in a position and under commands from the nurses and doctor in such a way that I should’ve torn, but luckily, did not. But they were sure to tell me that I was “lucky” she wasn’t any bigger at 7’14 because if she had been I probably would’ve torn. (Side note: Cal was 9’10 and I still didn’t require sutures) She proceeded to be quite jaundice which is also an illness that is made more likely when an epidural is used or when labor is started before the baby might be ready. Bryse’s labor and birth went more smoothly because I was much more educated. Very smooth natural childbirth while walking around the halls of the hospital with the help of my husband and doula. Although we did face some “complications” after her birth because I did not learn what is safest during that time period and no one informed me that the OB’s normal protocols make things more likely to occur. I retained some of my placenta which had to be removed manually (NOT FUN!) and this complication was almost certainly as a result of my OB pulling on the cord to hurry the placenta out. Really, because of that I could’ve hemorrhaged so I count myself lucky that she didn’t cause more trouble. Cal’s labor and birth was left alone and went very smoothly. I did not fight off a nurse with an IV or argue about not wanting pitocin. And we DID face some complications with Cal’s labor; they just weren’t answered with dangerous drugs or protocols. They were answered with scientifically based responses which caused no dangerous side effects for Cal or me. I just wish that I had learned the logical reasons to birth at home before Darby. Stay tuned for Part two: Homebirth , emotionally.
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LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
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