Hot Topic (4/29): Home birth vs. Hospital birth
Do you think that home birth and hospital birth are equally safe, reasonable choices for a woman with a healthy, normal pregnancy?
Why or why not?
Yes. Statistics bear this out as well: homebirths assisted with a knowledgeable midwife for women who have been screened out of being considered high risk have as good or better outcomes than hospital births.
And with hospitals, outcomes can vary greatly depending on which hospital you birth at. Some have state-of-the art facilities such as birthing pools, where you can choose a midwife as your caregiver.
But others have very high c-section rates, do not "allow" women to have V-BACs, or have higher than usual rates of maternal infections...
Quoting Cafe GroupAdmin:Do you think that home birth and hospital birth are equally safe, reasonable choices for a woman with a healthy, normal pregnancy?
Why or why not?
Sure both are safe. Women have been birthing babies at home for centuries. If that is what your prefer then God bless ya.
Personally I gave bitrth in a hospital for all of my babies and if we were palnning to have more they would be born there too. I loved being in the hopital. I loved the drugs. And i loved that the nurses took care of the baby for a night so i could sleep after being in labor for a long time. And before i went home to the other 3 children waiting at home. I guess I thought of it as a mini vacation....especially the 4th.
I think both can be equally safe depending on the health of the mother. I do not think high risk pregnancies should be done at home...
But every woman can choose how she wants to birth... for me it is the hospital.
Wife of a Marine - Mommy to a Little Prince
& Expecting a Princess in May!
I would like to mention that i had both my children at home. Planned homebirths, with midwifes in attendance. Easy births, the second being less than 5 hours of labor...no rips or tears to repair, no drugs with either birth.
I firmly believe that were I in a hospital the outcome would not have been as good...b/c I would not have been as relaxed. What I say to ppl is, "you mean I'm supposed to relax and push a baby out...with my legs spread and my vajayjay open to view, by any stranger that walks into the room on hospital business? With ppl telling me what I can and can't do?"
No WAY would I have been able to relax. And being tense increases pain, slows labor...which sets you up for the domino effect of interventions that commonly take place in delivery rooms...which much too often lead to c-secs...
BTW, for anybody who doesn't know, you can view vids of women giving birth at home on youtube. There are lots of them-each homebirth is different. Of course there are hospital and birth center vids as well...
Quoting Goodwoman614:
I would like to mention that i had both my children at home. Planned homebirths, with midwifes in attendance. Easy births, the second being less than 5 hours of labor...no rips or tears to repair, no drugs with either birth.
I firmly believe that were I in a hospital the outcome would not have been as good...b/c I would not have been as relaxed. What I say to ppl is, "you mean I'm supposed to relax and push a baby out...with my legs spread and my vajayjay open to view, by any stranger that walks into the room on hospital business? With ppl telling me what I can and can't do?"
No WAY would I have been able to relax. And being tense increases pain, slows labor...which sets you up for the domino effect of interventions that commonly take place in delivery rooms...which much too often lead to c-secs...
BTW, for anybody who doesn't know, you can view vids of women giving birth at home on youtube. There are lots of them-each homebirth is different. Of course there are hospital and birth center vids as well...
I just wanted to say that not all hospitals are like that. MANY let you choose what you want to do and when and they allow you to lay how you want, walk around if you want to, etc. I have had great experiences in hospitals Labor and Delivery rooms... :)
Wife of a Marine - Mommy to a Little Prince
& Expecting a Princess in May!
I agree with the pp, it is as safe in low risk pregnancies.
I am a RN and worked L&D and saw some scary behind the scenes stuff. I had my first three in the hospital and my last was born at home. It was amazing! I am now apprenticing to become a homebirth midwife. I have been doing it over a year and it is so much better than when I worked in the hospital!
I don't feel a home birth can be as safe as a hospital birth. If something goes wrong, and they do, you would not have all the means neccessaery to safe you or the babies life.
I don't agree with having a homebirth and not having ANYONE (like a midwife) who is educated and experienced in childbirth around.
Reading about it just isn't enough.
However, if you have someone there and you've had a healthy pregnancy thus far....yes, I believe it's just as safe.
Quoting christina0607:
I don't feel a home birth can be as safe as a hospital birth. If something goes wrong, and they do, you would not have all the means neccessaery to safe you or the babies life.
Actually several studies have proven that it is as safe, and one even said maybe more safe, for a woman with a low risk pregnancy.
Most of the things that go wrong in a hospital are caused by things we did to them in the hospital. Pitocin increases your risk for abruption, laying flat on your back slows labor, breaking the water can increse the risk for a cord prolapse.
Midwives carry emergency equipment and are trained in neonatal resuscitation. They have medication and herbs to help with postpartum bleeding.
Pretty much the only thing they can't do is a section, but they are skilled in knowing when to transport and if you go to a smaller hospital, you can wait up to 30 minutes for a section (ACOG's minimum is decision to incision needs to be 30 minutes.)
Any hospital providing obstetric service should have the capability of responding to an obstetric emergency. No data correlate the timing of intervention with outcome, and there is little likelihood that any will be obtained. However, in general, the consensus has been that hospitals should have the capability of beginning a cesarean section within 30 minutes of the decision to operate.2
SOOOO, if you can get to a hospital and to a surgery suite within 30 minutes you are in compliance with ACOG standards.
Eight Year Old Girl Given "Catastrophe Award" By Teacher
- Cafe GroupAdmin
on Apr. 29, 2009 at 12:04 AM