Monday, 06 February 2012
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Home-birth Advocate Dies During Childbirth
Caroline Lovell, an Australian home-birth advocate, died during childbirth at her home. She gave birth to her second child, a newborn baby girl who survived the experience. Lovell then unfortunately developed cardiac complications and died after being rushed to the hospital.
Personally I have no beef with home-births as long as a pregnant healthy woman has been given the OK by a doctor beforehand. Hospitals can be so stressful and the experience of being hooked up to a machine for fourteen hours and unable to walk or push on your own without the OB's OK is damned upsetting.
Still, I am horrified by how many women decide to blithely have home- births (sometimes even WITHOUT a midwife!) without so much as a simple ultrasound beforehand. Even more horrifying is how they record their dangerous procedures on Momaroo blogs and how they put their own- and their newborn's- life at risk.... and they sound so proud about doing so. One woman blithely described how she did not know she had been carrying twins until the birth itself when after the first daughter came out, the contractions did not seem to stop for some reason and it was not until the appearance of a tiny ear peaked out of her vagina that she realized there was another baby coming. The second baby went into cardiac arrest, requiring her and her husband to clumsily perform CPR until the neonatal pulse returned. I'll bet good money that had the situation been more controlled in a hospital setting (the birth of twins is always rather risky) the twin would not have been put at risk for brain damage due to oxygen starvation in that way. I pray that no bad effects- such as cerebral palsy or mental deficiency- will show themselves later in that baby's life.
I am greatly saddened by Ms. Lovell's death and I hope that her children and husband will find strength to help them through this difficult time. I also hope her death will serve as a caution for people who proceed with home births without the proper precaution. Please, let's have less "My husband stripped my membranes with an old paper clip as I decided to give birth to our 12-pound son without any medication or professional supervision in our split-level on Interstate-107." Research ALL possibilities and risks before going ahead with a home birth. And please, most of all, visit your OB and get her advice first.
Read the rest of the story here: http://moms.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/01/10291788-home-birth-advocate-dies-in-childbirth
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Comments (88)
i honestly am not for home births. you want options? find a hospital that gives you options. with every push my daughters heart rate would drop and had i not been in the hospital i wouldn't have had the internal monitor and no one would have known her heart rate was dropping. my doc had to give me an episiotomy to get her out faster. when she came out, the umbilical cord was around her neck. i can't imagine what would have happened if we didn't know her heart rate was dropping so rapidly and if i just continued to try and push her out without help.
very sad indeed,my sympathies
I view homebirths with a lot of suspicion. Yeah, they can be done safely with the right precautions, but there is less room for error, and you stand to lose a LOT if things go wrong. In this case, that child was deprived of a mother. A shame indeed.
the biggest reason I want to do a home birth is because midwives are not allowed to practice in the hospital in my town, and the closest other hospital is at least half an hour away. We have a great family doctor, but if I ever get to have a baby I want to have a midwife and doula. the other reason I do not want to give birth in a hospital is because thats where sick/injured/dying people go, and the place is infested with germs, and death and disease, and needles. Yuck.
(yes i know how that statement sounds.. but i like to avoid the hospital).So sad to hear this. Personally, there is a reason why Medicine has advanced the way it has, it saves lives. I'm all for a 'Memorable birth experience' but there is a point where its just being reckless.
I think with proper prenatal care, and attendance of a midwife, a home birth can be just fine. It's the "free birthing" people that really concern me. As a mother, I can't help but think of how they are jeopardizing the child's life by not having any medically trained professionals nearby, nor knowing if the child is breech, twins, has the cord around her neck, or other possible complications.
we are not living in the dark ages anymore, use the medical help that is available to you. we have medicine and facilities to help you with birth for a REASON.
her death was incredibly avoidable.
I'm not keen on giving birth at a hospital, surrounded by doctors and students and people I don't know. But I agree that it should only be at home if there's "green light" of course. I would also have some "professionals" nearby, at least a midwife. I think a nice private hospital or some well-equiped birthing station would be perfect, but that's a financial question. I think it *can* be done safely at home, but safety really does come first. I mean I don't want to die, or have my baby die or cause any disabilities. Tragic story.
@grizzlybearr@xanga - I absolutely agree. If you want to give birth at home or have a birth with doulas and a midwife, find a hospital or birthing center. Find a hospital that will allow you to write your own birth plan. If there is no option that allows you to give birth using a midwife at a hospital or birthing center, please carefully choose your midwife and have a back-up plan to get to an medical center ASAP.
I don't want to know what wold have happened to my son if I had given birth at home. I know a lot of women have bad experiences with doctors being pushy and not letting them be in control, however, this is something you can see from the beginning. My doctor made me feel empowered and like I could give birth naturally, he only took the reins when he had to do it and I am glad he was there to save the lives of mine and my son's.
People can do what they want, but i feel sorry for the children who are left without mothers or the babies who don't make it. I'm also really glad that i didn't choose this for myself because my daughter's head got stuck after 15 hours of labor and i had to have an emergency c-section. If i had to be rushed to the hospital after being in labor at home, my daughter might not have made it. To me, it's not worth it.
If someone wants to have a home birth, that's fine. But they should definitely have a medical professional with them. There's no reason people should still be dying in childbirth when there have been so many medical advances to prevent it.
@raspberryjade@xanga - She was being taken care of by a medical professional, things do happen and you can die in a hospital. I know, because I almost did. We do not know if her death was incredibly avoidable, that is highly presumptuous of you.
Home births can be done safely and in a controlled way, with the aid of a medical professional. Women may then feel safer and less stressed. It takes just as long to get from a home situation, with notification to the hospital of impending arrival if need be, as it would IN THE HOSPITAL to prepare the woman for a procedure from one room to the next.
I am very sorry this woman lost her life to birthing her child, and I feel that she would have had the same complications and probably the same outcome had she been in the hospital. Sometimes, sh*t happens. It sucks.
@raspberryjade@xanga - That was my first thought. How easily her death could have been avoided. :/
This is just really sad.
@amyunicorn@xanga - "Lovell, 36, had planned a home birth and was believed to have been assisted by private midwives, the paper said."
they "believe" there were midwives there. journalism speak for people should have been there but probably weren't, and no one came right out and said it to the papers.
Technology has advanced for a reason. I don't think a home birth is worth all the risk it carries.
This is incredibly sad, and my heart goes out to her husband and the family. I've yet to hear a convincing argument for home birthing come from those who support it as the only "proper" or respectable method...the militant homers. For those who just want the privacy, the comfort or to exercise their right to make that choice, I can't argue with them but I do wish they'd have the support of medically trained professionals. You can avoid the hospital problems without having to avoid the medical staff.
What's a Doula?
This is obviously very sad, but statistically it says nothing about the safety of homebirths. Women also die in childbirth in hospitals, but obviously when a home-birth advocate dies, there's likely to be much more news coverage.
That being said, I don't know why anyone would want an un-attended home birth. Even in the past midwives or other female relatives were there to help with births. There's a difference between having a child not in a hospital (for most people, fine) and being completely reckless.
Her passing is sad. As for the OP's opinion on no ultrasounds and things like that, women have had babies long before ultra sounds, prenatal care, prenatal tests, and all of the extremely costly luxuries that technology has given us today. As great as technology is, it isn't perfect. There aren't cures or preventions for natural causes and if God says it's time for you to go, you're going to regardless of the circumstances. Women have passed away during child birth in hospitals as well as at home, so her decision to have a child at home has nothing to do with her passing.
@raspberryjade@xanga - Even in the dark ages, people consulted midwives if they were available!
@amyunicorn@xanga - Even if there were midwives there, cardiac complications can't always be foreseen, or assisted, by just the presence of midwives. There are some complications that are not only time-sensitive but can be out of their control. In those situations, moving a mother into a vehicle for transport is far riskier than attending to her in a hospital setting.
Sacrificing safety of mother and child, and backup measures in the name of "comfort" and "memorable" experiences is not something I'm so sure I'd endorse.
@QuantumStorm@xanga - Talk to me sometime about homebirths, you might entirely change your stance.
@LKJSlain@xanga - Tell me mooooarrrr
@ThaPlatinumOne@xanga - "As for the OP's opinion on no ultrasounds and things like that, women have had babies long before ultra sounds, prenatal care, prenatal tests, and all of the extremely costly luxuries that technology has given us today."
Yeah, and the rate of infant/mother death before all these "costly luxuries" was MUCH higher than it is today. Her decision to have her child at home probably DID have something to do with her passing, as she didn't have access to doctors or machines to detect cardiac problems, whereas she would have access to those things in a hospital.
@QuantumStorm@xanga - I will, but privately... Assuredly if I start something here, someone's gonna jump in and start a war...
Anyone who WANTS to know what I have been told/believe by doctors, send something to my inbox. :)