More New York Moms Choosing to Birth at Home

Hospitals germ-free? HA. Ever heard of MRSA? If not, seriously, Google it. Lots of sick people, and their germs, their drug-resistant germs, I might add, in hospitals. I would actually rate them as more dangerous, not less, in terms of germ exposure than your house.

And...the baby is going to come home with you eventually, yes? The baby already has your germs, or will soon after birth. There is nothing about the 24 hours after birth versus the day you go home that makes them more prone to be hurt by the dust on your fireplace mantle, or the dog hair on your couch.

What protects baby's immune systems are breastfeeding, contact with a small circle of people at first (instead of the entire staff of City General and their undiagnosed flu bugs) and..more breastfeeding. Other than changing them and keep them warm, there is really not much else you have to do for a healthy newborn. (Sick babies are another story, of course).

I am not rabidly anti-hospital, but "messiness of birth" is not a good reason to use them (the midwives clean up for you! You can have lots of drop cloths and layers of sheets to change off the bed, etc. etc. It's certainly not any worse than a hospital room).

And I always wish when articles quote the AMA and ACOG, that they would point out that homebirth is a threat to their income, and that maybe, possibly, that might have something to do with their opposition. If homebirth was so dangerous, human beings would have died out before hospitals came along.

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I would have lost my first daughter if we had tried a home birth and would have had to call an ambulance for daughter the second. I had "normal" pregancies with both of them.
Daughter 1 insisted upon staying on her back despite being turned a couple of times by the doc, then her heart rate dropped alarmingly when I started to push, resulting in an emergency
c-section. The doc was in such a rush, no one noticed my epidural had failed until the incision was made. Oops.
Daughter 2 thought it was a good idea to inhale some fluid and it took quite a while to clear her lungs. She topped it off by having a glucose issue.
I wouldn't risk a home birth, but wouldn't tell someone else they shouldn't try it.

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I'm not big on doctors or hospitals, and in fact, think you should avoid both of them whenever possible.

BUT for me the health and safety of my newborn was the number one priority. If you are going to evaluate risk, I think that a hospital is safer even with germs, etc.

Now the intimacy and those issues just aren't on par with safety in my mind, so those weren't even considerations. I had two WONDERFUL pain free deliveries (with an epidural) and can't imagine how it could have been better in any other environment. The hospital birthing suite looked like a hotel up until the time to give birth when things dropped out of the ceiling and cabinets were opened to reveal medical equipment. It was great.

That said -- women should make the choice that best fits them.

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If I tried to have my son at home, I would have died. I'm not being overly dramatic; it's the truth. I had a perfectly normal pregnancy and there was nothing about my health, medical history, or family history for that matter that would have indicated any risk. But regardless, as my baby and placenta exited so did my uterus. Fortunately I was seconds from the O.R. and they were able to put everything back in place and replace some of the blood lost. But had I been at home, in the time it would have taken for the ambulance to arrive and get me to the hospital I would have bled to death. I understand the argument that it's a "natural process" but don't we all remember how many women and babies died during childbirth back before modern medicine?

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One of my girlfriends just had her little girl at home 7 days ago. They had thought about doing it but in the end decided to go to the hospital (it was her first) Ended up that she didn't have time to go to the hospital and had the baby at home. She wouldn't have changed it for the life of her.

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I believe home birth is the way to go if you have a normal pregnancy. (Maybe not if the nearest hospital is hours away). Where I'm from insurance only covers hospital birth if it medically needed. Home birth is the standard. I think people also forget that midwives have a degree also, they are not just people of the street.

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Had a hospital birth with my first, and a home birth with my second. AMAZING experience, and I would do it again if the situation presented itself.

Then again, I live less then 10 minutes from the hospital, should there be a problem.

But the midwives are trained to handle whatever comes up, and they are overly cautious, in my experience. But homebirth isn't for everyone.

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Karen said:
>> But for me the health and safety of my newborn was the number one priority. >If you are going to evaluate risk, I think that a hospital is safer even with germs, etc.

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>>If you are going to evaluate risk, I think that a hospital is safer even with germs, etc.

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P.S.--I liken ACOG's position on homebirth to that of a convention of restaurant owners and managers that issues a statement declaring restaurants to be the only safe place to eat a meal. After all, the food is prepared by specially trained professionals, in a "sterile" environment, under the guidelines and supervision of the state. How could you consider eating a meal anywhere else?!

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Labour and delivery is alike a game of Jenga. Stepping into a hospital (when you and your baby are otherwise perfectly healthy) is like pulling the first piece out of the stack. Get an IV, take another piece, get constant EFM, take another piece, etc. Eventually, somewhere along the line, the stack falls and your baby is delivered surgically (via c-section or forceps or vacuum).

You will never know whether the pieces you pull out will make the stack topple. And you'll never know whether one piece or 7 will make the stack topple. But stepping into the hospital is the first step towards requiring intervention, for women and babies who are otherwise perfectly healthy.

And, about germs: how many docs and nurses walk into your room and wash their hands before they approach you? How man do it on the way out the door? It's called the Universal Precaution and docs in particular are notorious for not following it. It is the most effective way to control the spread of infection and virus but it's practiced least by the people who should be doing it the most.

When a child is born at home - where mothers and babies are healthy and do not require medical supervision for pre-existing problems - they are born into their home bacteria, the bacteria that is friendly to their parents, the bacteria that they will build their first immunities to, the bacteria that is safe for them. Whether they encounter it at 1 minute old or 1 week old makes no difference.

I just don't think well people belong in hospitals. That's where sick people go? Are all pregnant women sick?

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Many of you have said you "think" the hospital is safer, but there is a significant body of research that demonstrates otherwise starting with the Johnson and Daviss CPM 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal in 2005. By comparison, it is very difficult to find data demonstrating that home births planned by healthy mothers attended by trained professional midwives are unsafe or less safe than hospital births for healthy mothers experiencing normal pregnancies. There is a significant difference between "thinking" and knowledge based on many hours of research.

The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology are increasing their legal challenges to women's rights to chose out of hospital birth where they have it and continuing to oppose efforts to legalize it where they don't. Whether or not you wish to birth out of hospital, these efforts to restrict our rights to chose where we birth and what kind of provider attends us will have a greater impact than where and how women give birth.

If you want to maintain choice in other areas of healthcare, please support midwife attended out of hospital birth.

Sarah Perdue
The Alabama Birth Coalition

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