Monday, 14 September 2009
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Home Births Are Just As Safe!
"Childbirth at home with a registered midwife is just as safe as a conventional hospital birth, a study shows. In fact, planned home births of this kind may have a lower rate of complications, according to the study in the Sept. 15 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
"Among 13,000 planned births studied, researchers found that the mortality rate was similarly low — less than one in 1,000 — among women who gave birth at home with a midwife, women who gave birth in a hospital with a midwife, and women who gave birth in a hospital with a physician. Women who had home births were less likely to need interventions or to have problems such as vaginal tearing or hemorrhaging. Their babies were also less likely to need oxygen therapy or resuscitation. Study authors note that women who prefer home births tend to be healthier and otherwise more fit to have a home birth."
USA Today recently posted that article about the safety of a home birth:
My son will be three months old next week. He was born in a hospital and although the hospital was a nice one, the staff was very hesitant to respect our wishes for little intervention and a natural birth. Several other things happened and when it was all said and done, my husband told me "We should have had the baby at home like you wanted....it would have been much more peaceful." Needless to say, the rest of my children will be born at home. I'm very much looking forward to that time.
Obviously, the article is speaking of women who have had uncomplicated pregnancies. If anything might be "wrong" with my child, I would give birth in a hospital (or a birthing center) but, hopefully my next pregnancies will be as picture perfect as the first!
What do you think of this article? Does it change your opinion about home birth? Would you like to have your children be born at home?
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About the Author
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- From: XxFireXboltxX@xanga
- About Me: I just happen to be the luckiest girl in the world, married to the most amazing man and *crunchy* momma to the cutest little boy ever! God has blessed me with so much, all the glory goes to Him!
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Comments (67)
@makethemakersmile@xanga - One must keep in mind that even the most normally healthy of moms can and will have tragic results at a delivery. There are some complications that need to be tended to immediately.
@Happily_Married_Guy@xanga - That's not true. I've read several stories of midwives who discovered this complication without special equipment and were able to successfully transfer mom and baby for emergency c-section.
Thanks so much for posting this. It gives me something to think about when I start having children someday--I'll definitely keep home birth in mind as an option if it's doable!
@Mom2Be - And how did they know that? And if they can, can they know that every time?
@LiberalArmyWife@xanga - Did you give birth at a military hospital? I did and it was horrible trying to get them to let me just give birth the way I wanted. I had to FIGHT to not get pain meds, the anesthesiologist was RIGHT there with the needle. My husband literally escorted him out of the room.
I agree with so much about what you said. Birth should just happen...there is no need to control every little aspect of it!!
As far as TriCare paying for a homebirth...my husband's CO's wife had a homebirth and TriCare covered it 100%. She showed me this website from the TriCare fact sheet. She did tell me however that even with this info, they had to really battle it out with TriCare to get them to pay for it. She told me if I wanted a homebirth that I need to start dealing with it when we start trying to get pregnant again.
http://www.tricare.mil/Factsheets/viewfactsheet.cfm?id=261
@makethemakersmile@xanga - Your mom is awesome. :)
@fallen_butterfly0217@xanga - A well trained and certified midwife can handle just about anything except a c-section. She is able to monitor the baby and admister oxygen, IV's and other things that are needed during birth. Women and children died hundreds of years ago but most of those complications arose due to the unclean ways the babies and mothers were handled. We definitely need to be thankful for tha advances in medicine and technology, but that doesn't mean that it's totally safe to have a baby in a hospital either. Babies die in hospitals as well.
@Mom2Be - Exactly. :)
@LiberalArmyWife@xanga - No, I'm definitely not opposed to hospital births either. In fact, when we moved I thought for sure that our next one would have to be in the hospital simply because we moved to a part of the country where home birth is almost unheard of. I told my husband that if a hospital birth was what it had to be, I would sign every waiver, state that I did not want any unnecessary interventions even suggested, I would kick everyone but my hubby out of the labor room and I would get the job done, no matter how badly they wanted to stick that needle in my back! Thankfully, I'm not even pregnant with number 2 yet, but I've already found a home birth midwife! Yippee!
The hormone high and sense of empowerment, not to mention a totally healthy, alert, untouched-by-drugs baby in your arms is SO totally worth the discomfort of going naturally! I too was excited when my labor started. I was like, "FINALLY! Let's get this party started!" Not that I really loved being in labor, but I was so ready to meet my son. Although, I can't say that the pain wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. At the worst, during my 6 hour transition, I really, really hoped that it didn't get any worse. In fact, at the height, I was almost blacking out during contractions. Maybe I wanted to scream, but I knew deep down that it would only make it worse. And you know what? I was fine! I breathed, hummed, and moaned through them and I survived! And, like you said, I felt INCREDIBLE when it was all said and done! Honestly, and I will probably get flamed for this, I don't think women who have had epidurals and other pain meds can really have any idea of how it feels to let your body do its work, accept the pain, go through it, and come out the other side the victor! It. Is. Amazing!Two homebirths under my belt, and potentially a third HB/UC on the way.
In part, the reason why we went homebirth was because of the awful, awful (did I mention awful?) treatment we got in the hospital with my oldest and that whole mess. Not to mention it's cheaper, even without insurance half the time ($3K for a midwife vs. $5K OOP out of $25K total for an OB/hospital? Not exactly hard math to figure out).
@XxFireXboltxX@xanga - Nope. No OB care at this post. I went to a small town hospital. Really good facility. They just don't have a NICU. High-risk babies are taken 2 hours up the highway around here. Thanks for the homebirth on Tricare info! Too bad she's my only child, by choice. I was really excited about a waterbirth.When my contractions started at home. I immediately ran a hot bath and jumped in. It was...heaven.
@Mom2Be - Your story gives me goosebumps. I want to hear more like them. One day, I suppose. Breastfeeding is cool again, so maybe natural birth will make a comeback, too.
I admire women that can do that, but after what happened to my son, I would be afraid to do it. I am glad I was at an hospital and the doctor was able to get him out in time to save his life. The cord around his neck was strangling him and he needed help breathing. It's also just not my thing. I liked the hospital I used. They would only intervene if it were truly an emergency. They made me feel like I could give birth to my son and my body was made to do it. I plan on using the same place when I have my next child.
I don't have a problem with home births if that's what people want to do, assuming they are having a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Many babies are accidentally delivered at home with no complications (like my sister was!). Personally, I chose to have my baby in a hospital and would choose that again. I was comforted by knowing that, if something went wrong, I was in the best situation to handle the situation. I think that if I had decided to have my baby at home, I would still be worried, at least in the back of my mind, that some emergency might occur, and that would possibly hinder the delivery or at least my comfort level. The hospital was fine for me, my midwife was fantastic and she really was fine with our wishes to handle the delivery the way we wanted, and it went pretty much as planned.
After having a miscarriage, I'm too scared to risk anything bad happening the next time around. I'll feel much safer in the hospital.
@averyswife@xanga - It depends on the state. The midwives that I work with have their own clinic and deliver at the hospital that I work at. They do not do home births. I think it has to do with the licensing that they have. In my state certified nurse midwives don't do home births but you can have a lay midwife do it. They prescribe meds, do prenatal care, routine gyn visits, etc. They can do everything that an OB can except for surgical procedures. They have a group of doctors that they consult with and who take over their patients if they are unable to have a vaginal delivery or are extremely high risk. I really like working with the midwives. They are great with their patients. As far as doula's I am pretty sure those aren't covered by insurance. I'm not sure how much they charge. I have never used one myself.
If I decide to have a third child, I will more than likely have a home birth. I have never had anything other than a natural birth in the first place, no complications, etc. I suppose the only "complication" was that the doctor didn't believe me when I told him that I needed to push (haha, with BOTH kids). He kept telling me to not push (um, not even sure how trying "not to push" is even POSSIBLE at that point) until he got his scrubs on. I told him he better hurry, and yup, baby was born within 30 seconds after he got his scrubs on. I would feel much more comfortable with someone who actually believes me and who supports me in my decisions during labor. Next time around, it may not be a home birth, but I would love to try a birthing center. I'm not 100% sure that I want a third child, though.
@Riftsong@xanga - Just wanted to come back and say I did have my baby at home and it was wonderful. I hope to have all my babies at home from now on. I wish I could go back and deliver my first at home too.
@XxFireXboltxX@xanga - I'm having trouble picking out where you could justify a home birth from this fact sheet....probably because I'm dense, lol. Could you help me? I'm not pregnant yet, but we're TTC right now, and my husband is in the Navy. I'm scared to death that they're gonna strap me to a bed in an MTF and make my labor/delivery hell when the time comes.
the cost of using a midwife is usually considerably lower. We just had our initial prenatal visit with a midwife through the hospital and our bill was 1200. The total cost of using our current midwife and delivering at home is 2800 for EVERYTHING, including post natal follow up care in our home. She will come back at 1, 3 and 5 days post delivery and is "on-call" 24 hours before and after delivery. Now that is service!
We have had 3 babies and are pregnant with our 4th. The first was in hospital, typical hospital delivery. 2nd was at home and hands down has been the BEST!! 3rd was in hospital with midwife...I was trying to use the best of both worlds. Our 4th will be a home birth and I am thrilled. I wish that we would have had our 3rd at home.
I had all three of my children at a family birth center, which was inside the hospital. I had drugs of some kind with all three. My babies were fine when they were born, mama was not.
My son was first; his head wasn't turned right, it was large, and it took 45 min. of me pushing, the doctor cutting me open and suctioning my son's head before we finally got him out. They put baby in the warmer right away and the doc. spent another half hour stitching me all back up again. I lost extra blood, too.
My second one, a girl, was in perfect position to be pushed out. I had developed varicose veins in the vulva, and ended up hemorrhaging during and after her birth. She was fine, while I lay there losing blood and passing out before they were able to get it slowed. After that experience, we were trying to decide if we should even have another baby, and I happened to get pregnant again in the meantime! Baby no. three was born with the least amount of complications. That time, I had certified midwives who had all my past history. i gladly welcomed the drug they gave me and the extra effort they put in to keep me from hemorrhaging, even though it was painful and unpleasant at the time.
With my experiences, we didn't want to attempt a home birth. We are just thankful to have the babies we did, and that I'm still here to care for them. Many people are able to have home births successfully, but as in two of my births, complications came up during birth that we couldn't have foreseen.