How do you feel about home births?

Question

If you're a mother who had her baby in a hospital, why did you choose not to have a home birth and were you satisfied with your birth experience?

If you had a home birth, why did you choose not to have a hospital birth and were you satisfied with your experience?

If you're planning on having more children, where do you want to give birth?

Also, if there are any midwives or OBGYNs on this site, I'd very much like to hear why you chose to work in a hospital/outside a hospital setting?

Much obliged!

Answer 1

I tried to have a homebirth with my first baby...but eneded up with a Forcep delivery in the hospital...turns out he as a Brow presentation and ALL the pushing in the world wasn't going to get him out...he weighed 9lbs 13oz...Big Guy....my subsequent 3 births I just went ahead and delivered in the hospital, BUT I am the only one in my family that delivered in the hospital...all 3 of my Brothers Wives had their babies at home..ALL 9 of them W/O Complication...Perfect and Beautiful...I'm COMPLETELY in favor of a healthy Woman delivering at home...I caan't think of a BETTER Place!~~If you are considering a Homebirth~~...Best of Luck~~Aloha~~Michelle~~

Answer 2

Whenever I get pregnant FINALLY, I want to have a home birth at my mother's house. (It's nicer than mine. =P)

Answer 3

I am pregnant with my first, and home birth was a prefrence for me. At least until I talked to my midwife about it and she told me all the risks and what not.... I wouldnt reccomend it unless you live very very close to a hospital. What if something goes wrong? A friend of mine had a home birth and the baby was born breating irregularly. She said that she will never do it again...

Answer 4

I had my first son in the hospital, and I am planning on having my second one in a hospital as well. It was one of the best experiences of my life! I understand that some women choose to have a home birth because they want it to be more comfortable, but I didn't find the hospital to be uncomfortable at all (well, I shouldn't say that, my MIL insisted on being there and that was very uncomfortable, but it would have been the same at home.....but that's another story!). The nurses were very very helpful and sooo sweet! Thank God for L&D nurses! My reasons for being so intent on having a hospital birth are strictly safety though. Things can go wrong during labor in a heartbeat, and without any warning. Even if you are close to a hospital, it may not be close enough. If the baby's cord was prolapsed for instance, there are literally minutes for the baby to be delivered via c-section or it will die. There is no way to know if that is going to happen beforehand. Even IN the hospital that situation is very risky. Granted things like that are rare, but it does happen. If it happened to my child, I would want to be in the best possible place. If I wasn't, I would forever wonder if things would be different if I had been at the hospital.

Answer 5

I havn't had my baby yet but I'm definetly having him in a hospital. I know it's a natural process and women have been having babies unassisted for years, but i want trained medical professionals around in case anything goes wrong.

Home births are a little strange to me, but if that's what people want, more power to them!

Answer 6

I chose hospital.

I have a low threshold for pain so I would need drugs.  

What if the baby has problems?  NICU is just down the hall.  My 1 son did have problems and I was glad to have all the drs and nurses there to attend to him.  He might not have survived the ride to the hospital even with a midwife and EMT.  I prefer critical care trained personnel near by just in case.  My pregnancy had zero complications and there was no sign that there might have been any problems with the birth or the baby.

Answer 7

I had my first child in a hospital because I'd never heard of anyone choosing to have a homebirth.

I had my 2nd-4th at home, because I wanted a natural childbirth without being denied food, monitored, watched, dilation checked, etc.  

I am pregnant with #5, and it will be a homebirth unless some complication arises.

A planned homebirth with a trained midwife is as safe as a hospital birth with less intervention.  This is counting those who have to transfer before or during labor with problems as being in the planned homebirth category.

If there were no trouble signs, I'd have an unassisted homebirth before I'd have one in a hospital.  But, my preference is for a midwife in the rare instance of complications.

Answer 8

I had a hospital birth with my daughter who is nearly 4 and I'm 11 weeks pregnant now and am going to have another hospital birth for the simple fact that in case of an emergency, I'm already at the hospital where treatment is immediate and they've got facilities right there readily available. That makes me feel more comfortable because as far as I'm concerned, you can never tell when an emergency will arise.

The hospital experience was fine, no problems with staff or anything, although I couldn't wait to get home afterwards.

Answer 9

As a woman who personally favors natural birthing and understands the value of being in one's home environment, etc. I love the *idea* of home birthing in general.

However, as a labor and delivery RN, I have seen how a normal, low risk labor, even those without ANY medical interventions like pitocin or epidurals, etc., can quickly turn into an emergency situation which can mean life or death for either mother or child.

Most women don't understand that a baby can go into fetal distress without warning, and it only takes a little as 5 minutes of a lack of oxygen to cause a fetus to have permanent damage.

Most women don't understand that a women who starts to hemorrhage can bleed to death in as little as 8 minutes.

Even the most well-equipt midwife attending a home birth cannot stop these things from happening.

And most women who choose home birth do not live that close to a hospital. Think realistically about the time frame - call 911 and it takes 3-10 minutes (or more just for the ambulance to get to your home, then another 5-15 minutes to a hospital. Another 5-10 to be rushed into a surgical suite for a c-section or to get blood products sent from the blood bank.

I know these are horrible, worst-case-scenarios, and the research shows that home births are very safe, but when it comes to that little percentage of births that become complicated, gambling with my child's life is something I won't do - I would want to be in a hospital with all of modern technology available to me should it be necessary.  

I have been very satisfied with my hospital births for the most part. Especially my last, attended by a midwife and a doula, and I did it naturally and had my birth plan honored completely. Contrary to popular belief, just because you deliver in a hospital doesn't mean you have to follow all their "rules" and protocols. You can eat if you choose, you don't have to be continuously monitored if you don't want to, you can get up and move around freely. You just have to be assertive enough to tell them what you want. If you blindly do everything they tell you without question, then surely you are more apt to feel out of control to the process.