anyone give birth at home (homebirth)?

hi everyone,

we are having a baby and i am not really interested in the product the hospital is offering, so we had decided to have the baby at home with a mid wife.
this will be our first child so pretty much everything is new we are pretty excited!

anyway-
from our experience, we get WAY more personalized care with a wid-wife vs an OB.
we see our mid wife every 3 weeks, and it will get closer as we progress. the first appointment was a bit over 2 hours, normal appts are 1 hour. we have friends going the normal route and they had ~30 mins with their OB the first time and 15 mins each time after that, and they go every 4 weeks with it getting closer as the progress.
we wont have to fight/sign paperwork/argue with the hospital about vaccination schedules, cord cutting right after birth or any of the other things we dont agree with.
most of the midwives we interviewed take a much more natural approach then what is practiced in a hospital, which is a big deal to us.
we plan a water birth, but obviously we dont get to choose, the baby will ultimately decide.

i will say this, we arent luddites. if there is a REASON to go to a hospital, we will go. that decision will be made by us with the midwife's input. most issues can be seen coming (from what i am told) and wont be a total surprise.
i guess i just think a womans body is designed/created/evolved/whatever you think - to birth children. a healthy woman should [generally speaking] have no major issues with child birth.

i could go on and on, but i feel like im saying "my way is better than yours" which is not my intention. i just think most people dont realize there is even another option out there.

i was wondering if anyone had any input on homebirth?

** i put this in the homestead thread, because i think there are 100s, maybe 1000s of babies being born at home across the world in modern times. some places, hospitals arent always an option.

First off, congrats Kelly! And double congrats on having the integrity to do what you believe in with regards to your baby. That orientation will serve you well a thousand times over in the next years with your little one to be.

I home birthed all three of my children. The first with a midwife, the second with a friend, and the third with me as the doctor. All three were beautiful experiences that I will cherish my entire life.

Home birth results is such a more peaceful and less stressful birthing scenario, that many, many potential complications are avoided. The emotional environment and mental state of the birthing mother is so key to healthy childbirth, a fact that is pretty well ignored in a hospital. Plus, hospitals are stressful and uncomfortable places themselves, so maybe that's why they like to leave that out of the wellness equation.

Have no fear; as you recognize, the female body was designed pretty well to birth children successfully. If something isnt going right, then interventive care at a hospital is a legitimate backup plan. That was how I saw it. I had no problem rushing to the hospital in the event of an emergency, but I see it just as that; hospitals are for emergencies.

My best advice is to keep the wife physically active up until the moment of birth. Lots of good physical labor throughout the pregnancy, getting more gentle but still strenuous as the birth approaches. While in labor, long walks are good. So are long naps. Let the body do the work. Encourage your wife to be at ease, allowing the phyiscal changes to occur in their own natural time. Many women labor too hard, too soon, and are exhausted before dialating fully. Sleep if you can, walk a lot, and allow the body to open itself to the birthing process.

Wishing you all the best, and of course, dont hesitate to ask if you have any questions that come up-

Happy baby!
Adam

Yay! Best of luck to you and congrats on the pregnancy! I agree with Adam that staying active while pregnant is really important. Labor is a kind of very intense workout that having worked up some endurance really helps!

That said, I tried twice for home births and twice ended up transferring to the hospital. I think that was an unusual circumstance for this midwife so I truly believe I may be one of those women for whom natural child birth isn't possible. Having the care of my midwives was awesome and I'm so glad I went that route for my care.

Adam Klaus wrote: the third with me as the doctor.
Adam

this is SO awesome!
another thing i thought couldnt be done becomes true.

i agree with everything you said and thank you for the advice to stay active. shouldnt be to hard around here, and im sure it was the same around your farm

fwiw i was born with a midwife, but not at home (we lived to far away from a hospital )

@ Ghislaine de Lessines
Thank you also for the staying active advice. first time i have heard labor compared to a workout; makes sense to me now that i hear it.


Anyone interested in home birth should check out Ina May Gaskin. http://inamay.com/
she has been doing this for a long time and has tone of info out there; books and videos galore.

If I have a second child, I will seriously consider a homebirth. In fact, I'm really drawn to unassisted birth! But then again, maybe not--that's for the truly hardcore

My first was born in the hospital, but all prenatal care and the birth itself was attended by midwives, as is usual here in the UK. Something I would do differently if I have another is to walk while laboring, and birth squatting and/or on all fours. Laying flat on your back on a bed is just more work, in my opinion: let gravity help the baby out.

Galadriel Freden wrote: all prenatal care and the birth itself was attended by midwives, as is usual here in the UK.

as i understand it, this os pretty common, even in other "developed" countries, but not in the US...

i know there was a campaign in the early 1900s that made mid wives seem old technology/backwoods, but i cant believe that is the only reason.

anyone know why mid wives arent very popular in the US?

Kelly Smith wrote:
anyone know why mid wives arent very popular in the US?

follow the money

health care corporations make thousands in profit from every hospital birth

media promote corporate interests

the masses get in line

follow the money

Hi Kelly!

I registered for this site SOLEY because of your thread! I was actually searching for information on health insurance as it pertains to living off the grid, and ended up here (don't ask how, lol). Anyway .... my wife and I had our son, using a midwife and the midwife's student, in our home. Our 'home' was a single-wide mobile home in the middle of the country, at least 20 minutes from a hospital, and close to 30 minutes from a decent hospital. I remember holding the video camera while my wife squatted over a large mirror so she could see the action. My wife's a nurse, so she had some idea of possible complications and other things surrounding the birth. Today our son is a thriving, very happy, intelligent 'home schooled' eight year old.

If you ask my wife about the experience she will tell you that it was much less painful than she expected. It's amazing what the 'medical community' has been able to convince people (well, generations now) to believe over the years. Homebirth used to be the ONLY place to have a baby.

Go for it, Kelly, it is highly unlikely there will be any complications (assuming you are healthy and no prior history to suggest a difficult birth, of course), and I put it bluntly when I say there if there WERE complications serious enough to go to the hospital than going to the hospital in the first place wasn't going to change that. Go for it!

both my children where born at home. my first experience was in some ways good but near the end of that pregnancy i realized that i really did not like my midwife and I almost decided not to call her to attend the birth. we did call her in the last minute. my second was born before the midwife could make it to my house which is funny because she lived less than a mile away but I had had a week of prodomal labor so once my daughter was really ready to be born she was very ready. my daughter was born in water which I loved and my daughter has always loved water.

whenever friends ask me if they should have a homebirth i tell them that they should give birth will they will feel safest and the most comfortable and then suggest they read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth.

Congratulations!

So glad people are being supportive. Wanted to add something. When I gave birth I was in a big city in Canada that had NO midwives available in my area so I had to have a grumpy old Irish Doctor who is so horrible I still can't talk about it. So I decided to try and stay home as long as possible with the help of a doula (SO helpful) (http://www.dona.org/). The plan was when I went into labour I'd wait it out as long as I could and then get to the appointed hospital.

So the few days before my due date my birth pool wasn't there yet and I was getting the "hicks kicks".... anyway it never did arrive....so on the day I go in to labour, no big deal into the bath tub I go. January in Canada....we're out of hot water pretty quick. So off to the hospital with a birth pool.

During labour I developed a fever (GBS+ presents with a fever if not treated with antibiotics) and with out asking they give me penicillin. Biiiiig mistake as it sent me in to anaphylactic shock. They had lost my chart and didn't want to admit it.

So human error come is to play in the hospitals as well.

As for the pain. The gas honestly helped the most. Its not fun. but I'm sitting here 2 1/2 years later and have mostly forgotten.

Fallow your intuition. No one method is a 100% but the hospital error doesn't get mentioned enough.

Kelly Smith wrote:
i will say this, we arent luddites. if there is a REASON to go to a hospital, we will go.

hi everyone - just wanted to update this thread.

we didnt end up getting to do a home birth.
at about the 20th week we discovered the pregnancy was considered high risk. we had weekly hospital visits, baby born early, NICU stay blah blah blah.

i would still recommend a midwife to anyone thinking about having a child. there was no comparison to the individualized care between the hospital doctors and our midwife.
we will likely have to go the hospital route next time also, but will also keep a midwife for "shadow care".

we have a healthy ~6mon old baby boy now.

congratulations on a healthy baby! how exciting!

and also That must have been really hard and I feel like I can't just say congratulations without acknowledging that because so often what a mom experiences with pregnancy and birth get overshadowed and I don't want to do that. I agree midwives are awesome and so are doulas.

I love that you have a healthy baby <3 and I am very happy for you

Congrats, Kelly, on making it through your first baby experience! It is quite the journey!
I just want to offer a little positive solidarity. I too planned for a home birth, and opted to work during the pregnancy with a Midwife instead of regular apts at the hosptial. I birthed in France, so the system is desinged a bit differently here (Advantage is all traditional birth options are free, Dissadvantage, almost all home birth is teetering on illegal or declining in popularity). I was agressively against the idea of a hospital birth, due to my own insecurities with trad health systems (im from america, and havent had health insurance or a doctor in almost 15 years, relying on herbs as my primary medicine).

That said, i planned for a home birth. but it doesnt always work out that way! I had a long labor at home, and eventually we all decided that i should birth at the hosptial for fear i would suffer exhaustion. In the end the birth was a beautiful, memorable experience. The hospital midwives were very supportive and overall i actually enjoyed my experience! I was required to stay three days after the birth, which at first i was scared of, but after i really enjoyed being along with my baby w/out the dishes, doghair, in-laws, day-to-day around me. My room was sterile, clean, and allowed me to focus on my new baby with all my attention.

so my point is this : we can make plans to do it one way or the other, but in the end, a happy healthy baby is the most beautiful treasure we can harvest in a number of different ways.

I would just like to add my congratulations on the birth of your son! I am happy to hear mom got the proper care that she needed. I love birthing stories. Three of my four births occurred without "benefit" of medical intervention but then I seemed to be one who just naturally popped out babies. (BTW, I am a Registered Nurse and chose to stay home. That tells you something, eh?)
I have read Ida May Gaskin's works and heartily recommend her books to expectant families.

Danielle Diver wrote:so my point is this : we can make plans to do it one way or the other, but in the end, a happy healthy baby is the most beautiful treasure we can harvest in a number of different ways.

totally agree - about mid way through our goals changed. a home birth would have been great, but a healthy baby/momma is the most important thing.

our experience in the hospital system wasnt bad, but it was also out of necessity. the nurses seemed to make or break the experience. we had some who you could tell loved their jobs, and others who werent as enthusiastic. overall it was better then i expected, sans some overcharging for things...


one nurse said privately that she agreed with us when we wouldnt let the dr break our water.
funny how many nurses agreed with some of our thoughts about the whole system. i was surprised how many would not all tow the company/hospital line.

@ Valerie- 2 of the nurses we had chose homebirths vs going the hospital.

thanks again everyone.
im already excited for more

I was too busy yelling GIVE ME DRUGS!!! They wouldn't, the bastards.

Oh. Congrats!!!

We didn't have a hospital OBGYN ourselves but a women's clinic OB. I love him. I interviewed based on how long and skinny the fingers were. Makes all the difference.

My two and a half year old son was born sat home in Toronto with a midwife, and we have another one on the way (due in Sept), again we're working with a midwife and hoping for a home birth. Last time and this time, though, we're open minded about things: if we have to go to the hospital, then have we have to go.
As a birth partner (husband) I found it helpful to have read Ina May Gaskin " Guide to Natural Childbirth" it me helped me know how to be supportive.

I can't believe how well homeopathic medicine works during labor. We shocked our hospital midwife with how little of any other sort of medicine she needed during her stay, they didn't know I was giving her anything:) I was freaking out in advance because I don't agree with many things that happen inside a hospital L&D. There are lists of homeopathic remedies that are helpful during labor, they are as natural as any medicine you will find in that they have no side effects, and if you give one that doesn't match the symptoms, again, no side effects, just no improvement or positive effect. I Love Boiron products, Our 3 yr old has never had antibiotics! Out 5 yr old only once 4-1/2 years ago when we started "waking up" and researching traditional medicine and food as medicine. Good for you for making this choice!