Home sweet homebirth

09 Dec 2011 3 Comments

by smithspirations in Parental Ponderings

We’re getting back into the swing of things, little by little, and that includes the occasional moments to hop on the ole laptop and blog away. It’s been a great almost two weeks with our new little bundle, and she really is a treat. Everyone’s in love with her, and this has been the easiest transition for us compared to the times of adjustment with our other three. More on that another time!

Today I wanted to share a little bit about our personal decision to have our babies at home and outside of the usual hospital setting. 

Our first two children were born in the hospital. My first labor and birth experience was far from ideal, and it didn’t help get our new family of three off on the best foot. We both wanted something different for our next baby’s entry into the world, and had kicked around the idea of just staying away from the hospital all together. I know that for myself, I wasn’t confident enough yet in the whole process to commit to staying home, so we had another hospital birth, but this time with a midwife and no induction procedures or pain medications. Labor went fast, I was able to use the hospital’s large tub for laboring, and Mr. M was born quickly and easily. However, certain hospital procedures kept us unnecessarily separated for five hours after birth, we were lied to repeatedly by the staff on why our little guy was not promptly returned, and got no response from the hospital after we wrote a letter complaining about our poor experience. I knew there had to be a better way.

When we were expecting Miss A, I was certain I didn’t like the two hospital options presented, but I wasn’t sure what to do. While talking with my sister, who happens to be an ER nurse, she said “Why don’t you just have the baby at home?” I wasn’t expecting her to suggest this, and even though I had toyed with the idea in my mind, hearing her ask about it made it really seem like a logical thing to consider. Some friends of hers had birthed their babies at home, and talking with her about it made me feel like it wasn’t such a crazy or risky plan to have.

Then the Google-ing began. I didn’t know anyone who had birthed a baby at home in our area, so I searched the internet for information, called a couple of lay-midwives (also called direct-entry midwives), and ended up at the home of an area midwife for a monthly meeting with other women who were interested in the homebirth option or in becoming more educated in the birth process. After talking with the midwife, doing more of my own reading and researching, and attending the meeting there, I knew I wanted to be at home for the next birth.

And what a great experience it was! I knew I’d never want to go back to the hospital unless there was a genuine medical need (and in that case, I’d be very thankful for the hospital). I am now a firm believer that homebirth is a safe and reasonable option for any low-risk woman to consider, and can lead to a more positive birth experience than what would be possible in the hospital. Why?

• A greater trust in and respect for the birth process: It is rare to find a practitioner who will leave the birthing process alone (though there are a few of these endangered species left), allowing a woman the time and environment that her body needs to finish what it has started. Once at the hospital, a woman is on a time-table, and if “sufficient progress” has not been made after a certain amount of time, the interventions begin, and those initial interventions can quickly lead up to more medications or interventions. I prefer the philosophy of my midwife: “In most births, if you do nothing, a baby will come out.” It’s hard to be in a hospital and allow birth to occur while doing nothing.
• Hospitals are not risk-free: I’ve been called brave on more than one occasion for choosing homebirth; I, on the other hand, see it the other way. I would be brave to go to the hospital with the philosophy that I have regarding birth. I have less control at the hospital, and there are protocols and procedures that I do not agree with and would have to frequently be on the look-out for so as to decline them. Swimming against the tide gets tiring after a while, so if I can avoid the challenge and find an easier way to have the outcome I want, I’ll go that route. Plus, have you seen the germs that live in hospitals? Yikes! I’d rather keep my baby and my family away from those buggers as much as possible.
• Birth is a natural life process, not a pathological condition: Meaning, I’m having a baby. I’m not sick. Hospitals are wonderful places when they are needed, and there are certain times when they are needed to safely bring a baby into the world. But they are by no means the only place where a safe birth can occur, and statistics prove homebirth to be a very safe option for low-risk pregnancies.
• My grandma was born at home: And chances are, yours may have been as well. My point here is that home was the expected place of birth up until the last 100 years or so, and even today in other parts of the world (and I’m talking developed nations here), home is the expected place of birth unless there is a medical reason for a woman to birth in the hospital. Think of all the woman through all of the ages that have had babies: the norm has been at home, not in an institution.
• Family involvement and the comforts of home: While I prefer to have my young children otherwise occupied while in the middle of hard labor, I love that they can immediately meet their new sibling once the real work is over. There is no transporting needed except for taking their new sibling to them in another part of the house. We get to meet our new family member together in our own home with little outside involvement, getting acquainted in our most personal environment, resting in our own beds, and eating our own food. I love how peaceful everything is after having a baby at home, and I really like being in my quiet nest with a new bundle and my other bigger bundles.

Those are a handful of the reasons we choose to stay home for birth, and if you’d like more information on the option in Ohio (where I am), try these websites:

http://www.ohiomidwives.org/

http://www.ofom.org/index.html

http://www.safebirthohio.org/

Look what the stork brought, and right to our house, too!

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