vespergirl
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2007
- Messages
- 5,497
I''m just popping in to say that my husband''s assistant just went into labor today (her husband also works for him so he called to let us know he wouldn''t be in tomorrow) and they are planning a home birth with a lay midwife. I am not surprised because they are vegan/hippie/raw food diet types, so they really wanted as natural of a birth experience as possible. Hopefully by tomorrow or the day after we''ll hear back from the husband find out how everything went. I am really hoping that everything goes OK with them, and I am alternately in awe of her bravery and worried about her choice to birth at home.
I am not at all in judgment of home birth - my cousin had a home water birth that went perfectly, and she loved the experience. Conversely, I had an over-managed hospital birth that left me traumatized, even though I was eventually able to deliver vaginally (with suction assistance).
I am now 35 weeks pregnant with my second, and will be delivering at a different hospital from where I had my awful birth experience. Still, though, I am worried about over-eager medical intervention again with this baby.
As wary as I am of the hospital experience, it is scary to think about what would happen though if there was an emergency at home. I recently watched the documentaries "The Business of Being Born" and "Pregnant in America" which both featured home births, filmed by advocates of home birth, but where the featured women ended up at the hospital for emergency care (in the Business of Being Born the filmaker needed an emergency c-section at a hospital after attempting a home birth, and in Pregnant in America the filmaker''s wife successfully delivered their baby with the cord wrapped around her neck, but then the baby wasn''t breathing properly after delivery and had to be rushed to the hospital, and spent her first week of life in the NICU after the home birth).
I found it ironic that both filmakers who set out to show how horrible the American hospital birthing system is had to rush to the same hospitals they had shunned to save their own and their babies lives. So, it seems that there is a place hospitals after all in case of complications ...
I do really wish that there was more of a middle-ground birthing option in my area (I am in the DC metro area). Even though the best hospitals say that they are accepting of a more natural midwifey approach, they are really very rigid and rush everyone along, and have very high c-section rates. It sounds to me like the way that things are done in Europe (hospitals where midwives deliver babies, that offer soaking tubs, birthing bars, etc., with OBs available for complications) would be the ideal. Unfortunately, in much of the US, you either have to go the midwife/homebirth route or totally relinquish control to the OBs and their schedules when you go to the hospital.
Oh, and I am totally against freebirthing. I really think it''s a good idea to have a midwife at your home to monitor your progress and help you through the experience.
I am not at all in judgment of home birth - my cousin had a home water birth that went perfectly, and she loved the experience. Conversely, I had an over-managed hospital birth that left me traumatized, even though I was eventually able to deliver vaginally (with suction assistance).
I am now 35 weeks pregnant with my second, and will be delivering at a different hospital from where I had my awful birth experience. Still, though, I am worried about over-eager medical intervention again with this baby.
As wary as I am of the hospital experience, it is scary to think about what would happen though if there was an emergency at home. I recently watched the documentaries "The Business of Being Born" and "Pregnant in America" which both featured home births, filmed by advocates of home birth, but where the featured women ended up at the hospital for emergency care (in the Business of Being Born the filmaker needed an emergency c-section at a hospital after attempting a home birth, and in Pregnant in America the filmaker''s wife successfully delivered their baby with the cord wrapped around her neck, but then the baby wasn''t breathing properly after delivery and had to be rushed to the hospital, and spent her first week of life in the NICU after the home birth).
I found it ironic that both filmakers who set out to show how horrible the American hospital birthing system is had to rush to the same hospitals they had shunned to save their own and their babies lives. So, it seems that there is a place hospitals after all in case of complications ...
I do really wish that there was more of a middle-ground birthing option in my area (I am in the DC metro area). Even though the best hospitals say that they are accepting of a more natural midwifey approach, they are really very rigid and rush everyone along, and have very high c-section rates. It sounds to me like the way that things are done in Europe (hospitals where midwives deliver babies, that offer soaking tubs, birthing bars, etc., with OBs available for complications) would be the ideal. Unfortunately, in much of the US, you either have to go the midwife/homebirth route or totally relinquish control to the OBs and their schedules when you go to the hospital.
Oh, and I am totally against freebirthing. I really think it''s a good idea to have a midwife at your home to monitor your progress and help you through the experience.