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Revisiting Home birth again

5K views 80 replies 24 participants last post by  mamaeliz 
#1 ·
Well, after writing off home birth when we found out we were expecting twins, the deciding to look into - then ruling it out again based on the first midwife I interviewed and our location (our local hospital is dangerous - I would hate to have an Emergency trip there).

We are again revisiting the idea after two things: One, I spoke with a local doula who has both given birth at the hospital about 45 mins from us that we decided to go and she's also been a doula for other moms there. She said, they are not very flexible there and will fight me on their "rules". Constant monitoring, moving to OR for delivery, etc.

Second, we watched the Business of Being Born last night and it just really scared me all over again. I really don't want to go through with a hospital.

I am not afraid of pain or needing an epidural. In fact, I'm AFRAID of an epidural. My fear is that slim chance that something could go wrong. That slim chance.... it's really making this decision hard for me.

Thus far my pregnancy has been awesome! I'm 27 weeks tomorrow. My twin boys are growing on parr with singletons! My blood pressure is awesome, I've passed my glucose test twice, etc. I feel fantastic! Both boys are breech right now, but I'm not worried about that, it's stills so early.

Any words of advice or encouragement? (I've read the home birth stories here I love them). But I'm still feeling uneasy.
 
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#52 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by 2+twins View Post
So will she have anyone else attend the birth with her? That's something worth considering.
Yes, herself, a second MW and an apprentice MW.
 
#53 ·
100% honestly? i would be nervous about the lack of experience with twin births. my original plan was to deliver in the hospital with a midwife (thwarted b/c of incompetent cervix, but anyway), and i made sure that the person who i picked had a lot of twin births under her belt... for a hospital birth... if i were planning on a homebirth, i would be double as concerned. please don't think i'm biased, i'd love to birth these babes at home, but it would have been impossible where i live.

none of the other issues bother me, just that one... but in a BIG way.
 
#54 ·
Trust me it bothers me too. It is not only the lack of twin birth experience but the lack of total experience. (4 years isn't that long IMO). So I'm glad for your honesty.

The problem is, I don't think there are many midwives within 200 miles of me who have much twin experience. I'll see what Tuesday's midwife says. It's a lot to consider.
 
#55 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by dividedsky View Post
my original plan was to deliver in the hospital with a midwife (thwarted b/c of incompetent cervix, but anyway),
Kinda off topic, but I know we have a mom on here somewhere who had IC and had a cerclage in place, got the cerclage out at some point, and then carried her babies past 40 weeks, if I remember correctly, at which point she had a homebirth. She was in my twin childbirth video.
 
#56 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by christyc View Post
Kinda off topic, but I know we have a mom on here somewhere who had IC and had a cerclage in place, got the cerclage out at some point, and then carried her babies past 40 weeks, if I remember correctly, at which point she had a homebirth. She was in my twin childbirth video.
Wonderful video!!!
Seeing is believing, great job on collecting these, I'm bookmarking it!
 
#57 ·
I'm not a MOM and I don't want to crash your thread. I just saw it on the main page. But if you are concerned about the distance from your home to the hospital, how about a hotel room birth? If you aren't prone to quick labors, then you could find a nice room near the hospital (maybe even with a huge tub!) and your labor team can scrub it down for you once you get there. Then if you do need to transport, you wouldn't be too far away.

Good luck with whatever you choose. I can't wait to hear your birth story! Even though I'm not a MOM, I'm so fascinated with twin (or more!) birth stories.
 
#58 ·
Hmmmmm..... there is something I learned, and felt often during my twin pregnancy, "It just can't be easy, can it?" I didn't want to have a "negative mantra", but it felt like everytime I turned around, I was having to navigate my way through plans C, D, E......and so on. I couldn't believe just how challenging my birth choices were. Quite honestly, I probably would have gone the hospital route w/a midwife from the hospital after learning that it was twins, but I quickly learned that that wasn't an option. Twins got OBs or Peris, but not midwives anymore (at least here in Portland). I knew if I was in the hospital I couldn't labor in water, and really couldn't birth in water, and that I'd be in the OR. I think you are having the same mind experience as I was. So then it becomes finding a midwife whom you like and Also one who has twin experience, and experience in general. So hard!!! I really wanted twin experience from my MW, and I learned that in Portland, most of the MWs had about 12 twin births under their belts. My MW told us about some of them, and the one that stuck with her was the double footling breech baby A (sound familiar, Chantel?) and the baby B coming 4 hours later w/posterior presentation and some other complications. They might have used oxygen on the baby, or babies, I can't remember, but in all cases, there were no long term consequences from the births. My MW and I agreed that we wanted vertex/vertex babies, and even checked by u/s the morning of the birth. So, long story short, I personally felt good about my MW's experience. I think she had been in for 17 years or so, and had twin births, and challenging ones, under her belt.
So back to my "it can't be easy" statement, my dear friend pointed out that maybe the universe was getting me ready for multiples, and not just in the "it's hard" sense, but in the sense that there was more physical pursuing of research and facts as well as continuous mental debating going on and ultimately basing your decisions on all the facts and how they resonate in your being. I think that twins are really special, and at the risk of sounding sappy, I think that mothers of multiples are faced with really tough choices and are really special as well. It's hard to hold such an openness to all possibilites from homebirth to hospital birth to c-sections, and so on. Kjoy was always great about affirmations, and I think that this would be a great time to employ some, so that the perfect birth scenario will present itself to you (and hopefully w/o much work). Keeping you in my thoughts.....
 
#59 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mamaeliz View Post
I knew if I was in the hospital I couldn't labor in water, and really couldn't birth in water, and that I'd be in the OR. I think you are having the same mind experience as I was. So then it becomes finding a midwife whom you like and Also one who has twin experience, and experience in general. So hard!!! I really wanted twin experience from my MW, and I learned that in Portland, most of the MWs had about 12 twin births under their belts.
Oh you are so right on with your post. Seriously, you pegged me exactly where I'm at.

The problem I have is NO midwifes have even 12 twin births under their belt. I'm curious about the MW I meet with tomorrow, she's pretty experienced. She's been licensed since 1989, has had all three of her own children at home and has been a teaching MW for many years.

I can honestly say, in our rural area of So. Cal, home birth isn't something most pregnant ladies even think about, especially if you have twins. The C-Sect rates are hight at all the hospitals within an hour of us. I mentioned home birth on the forum for the Moms of multiples club I just joined and it was amazing how there were no comments for a long time, then one person said, "she didn't think it was wise and would never consider it" and then the flood of negative comments came. They were worded as to try to be supportive, but is was so obvious that they thought I was a nut job. Now I'm sort of feeling unwelcome in the club and I could really use some support for when the babies to arrive.
 
#60 ·
I haven't read everything but wanted to reply.

My midwife for my first 3 babies was retired when I was pregnant w/ #4 (which became #5 too). Thinking I was only pregnant w/ 1 baby, I decided to use the midwife who pretty much did everything at my third birth (at the time she was apprenticing w/ my now retired midwife). So, she did not have a lot of experience let alone twin birth experience. When I found out I was having twins, recovered from the shock, realized I didnt haveto have the babies at a hospital, I stuck with my midwife-- who did not have a ton of birth experience and had only helped out at a triplet homebirth. She had only had extensive classes about twin birth at The Farm w/ Ina May. And what they are told there is "Please stop sending us your twin birth mamas, twin birth is simply a variation of normal".

So, what I did was made sure that the other midwives that would be her team were VERY experienced midwives with a lot of breech presentation and twin birth experience.

Honestly, it was so up in the air b/c of positioning, the homebirth wasnt a complete go till the day of the birth. My babies were transverse up till the last few days. Looking back, my team was perfect.
: But b/c I did not have a for sure head down twin A, not one other mw in my area would help at my birth. The super experienced mw's came up from a city an hour away.

Also, if I had my pick, i would want my mw to have had children herself. i think experiencing labor and birth on a personal level has a lot of importance.
 
#61 ·
I just wanted to update everyone regarding our meeting with Midwife #3.

I really like her! I like her experience, her attitude, her demeanor and her personality. I just generally felt extremely relaxed around her, her assistant and one of her midwife students. I am confident in her ability to handle a twin birth.

At this point we are going to move forward with a homebirth. I'll also continue with my OB care at the hospital. So basically I'll have an u/s each month followed by an OB appointment every two weeks and the midwife every two weeks.

I'm more main stream than many ladies on MDC, so for me to consider this route is sort of strange to my family.
We have mentioned it to a few family members and received odd looks, a few comments, but mostly just skepticism. Most realize we are intelligent people and would not be making this decision on a whim and not be risking the lives of our babies. So I think while support isn't necessarily what we have, we don't have a great deal of resistance. I'll take it!

We have of course made sure to consider all of our options and we realize that there is not a "plan" really, just lots of plans. It will all depend on how the babies and I are doing as we reach full term. I am still unsure what to do should one or both babies be breech. I suppose time and more research will help me come to a conclusion on this. The midwife did lend us a few videos one of which is the Psalm and Zoya birth. I could not believe how easily the mother gave birth to her second baby, who was a footling breech. Amazing! It surprised me greatly as I had no idea the baby breech when I started watching the video.

So that is the update. I'm 29 weeks today and feeling great. My next OB appointment is on the 31st. And my next U/S and meeting with the midwife is Jan 6.
 
#62 ·
If you ever want to chat, my first twin was a footling breech and was born easily. I'm so glad you've made a choice you are comfortable with. I felt that way re: the 'many plans'. SO much rode on them getting to term, etc and when I finally went into labor at 39 weeks I felt like I'd held my breath for months!
 
#64 ·
Deanna, I'm so glad that you found a care provider who you are comfortable with. That felt so important to me. I really had to "feel good" about everything. Of course, as a twin pg goes, things change often, and sometimes I wasn't so sure of our course, but the care of a MW was a GREAT balance to my perinatologist's care. The way I dealt with my family's unsureness about a homebirth was to always give them the report from the doctor, while also mentioning the MW visit and what took place there.
When they would present different homebirthing challenges, I would reply that I had discussed those things with my MW, as well as my peri, and here are the benefits/risks of being at home, and the benefits/risks of being in the hospital. I was really appreciative of the perinatologist that I worked with, as he always used that phrase "benefits/risks" in discussing both birth options. In other words, I really appreciated that he could "understand" why people would choose a homebirth.
I also feel pretty "mainstream" myself, being raised by a nurse mother, whose mother was a nurse, as well as my sister being a nurse and two sisters-in-law being nurses. Because I did concurrent care, I don't think my family really believed that I would ultimately birth at home. For us, it worked out better to call them only AFTER the babies were born, though I had been tempted to let my mom know that my membranes had ruptured and that the girls would be arriving shortly. When we called them, it was about 2am their time and my DH talked to my mom. I cracked up b/c he told them first that the girls were here, second that Sierra came 3 hours after Serena, third that they were born at home, and the ultimate topper: they were born in the bathtub. I KNOW my mom did not sleep that nite. I had to laugh as I told him, "I would've waited 'til morning for details like those".
 
#65 ·
I'm so glad you found a MW that you love! I wish you all the best and hope you have an amazing homebirth.

I agree, Psalm and Zoya's birth video is amazing! I watched that over and over while I was pregnant!
 
#67 ·
I'm so glad you found a provider you're happy with!

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeannaK View Post
I'm more main stream than many ladies on MDC, so for me to consider this route is sort of strange to my family.
We have mentioned it to a few family members and received odd looks, a few comments, but mostly just skepticism. Most realize we are intelligent people and would not be making this decision on a whim and not be risking the lives of our babies. So I think while support isn't necessarily what we have, we don't have a great deal of resistance. I'll take it!
First, I think many of us are a lot more mainstream than we think each other to be, if that makes sense. I'm really not all that far out. Also, I betcha more than a few of us twin homebirth moms here either withheld info or offered vague and sketchy info to inquiring family members and real life friends when they asked about our birth plans. I know I did, and I know more MDC moms who did as well. Although I was confident with what I was doing, I just didn't feel like fielding the same 80 questions every time we told someone knew, and didn't feel like dealing with negativity about it once I had made up my mind.

Anyway, glad things are becoming clearer for you!
 
#69 ·
Hi. I just finished reading your thread, and am really happy that you've found a midwife you feel really comfortable with.

My options for my own twin birth are fairly limited. There are virtually no HB midwives around here at all, and I don't think the two I know of would even take twins. My OB is the friendliest toward twin vag birth in this area, but the one time I even got to meet him, he sounded very dubious about attempting it without both of them being in the vertex. Baby A has been pretty consistently head down, but Baby B tends to be either in the tranverse or breech most of the time.

I'm also not really keen on hospital birth in this state (NY) because of their draconian policies on certain newborn procedures, and the fact that they will call CPS on you if you don't comply.

I may actually end up looking into The Farm, and seeing if that might be a possible option.

I'm due with twin boys same month you are, BTW.
 
#70 ·
A question about natural birthing twins. When I was doing my research and planning my twin homebirth, after weighing all sorts of studies, I came to the conclusion that homebirth for the first twin was generally as safe as for a singleton. IE, as safe if not more so than a hospital birth. What I never came to a good conclusion about was the second twin. It seems like people worry about birthing the second twin, but I couldn't get any real numbers.

Is it a cord or positioning problem?

Don't mean to be glib, but having had a homebirth, it's a little hard to understand the big deal about twin births is. It's labor (possibly more difficult) followed by one normal birth, with another normal birth a little while later.

I heard a great quote from the Farm. Something like "Stop sending us your twin births. There's nothing complicated about them. Just a birth, with second birth right after." Which is not to discourage Crunchy Frog. In your position I'd do what I could to birth there, it sounds so amazing.

Anyone heard that quote from the Farm? Any thoughts about what makes people consider healthy twin births "high risk?" Why more MWs aren't comfortable doing them?
 
#79 ·
I heard a great quote from the Farm. Something like "Stop sending us your twin births. There's nothing complicated about them. Just a birth, with second birth right after." Which is not to discourage Crunchy Frog. In your position I'd do what I could to birth there, it sounds so amazing.

Anyone heard that quote from the Farm?QUOTE]

When my MW went to the farm for their twin birth course, Ina May stood at the front of the room and said something like "Stop sending us your twin births! They are simply a variation of NORMAL."
 
#71 ·
A couple of concerns about twins that I looked into and that worried me are:

Twins can be smaller and tend to come earlier. There can be a risk with a breech twin that is smaller as the body slides right out, and the head is too large to fit through a fully dilated cervix, so you have cord prolapse issues.

Also sometimes if baby B is breech the twins can lock in utero. Hard to explain, but the midwife was showing me how it works and why it is a concern sometimes. It is also a concern with a premie singleton.

Also hemorrhaging after birth. There is a much bigger uterus to shrink up and much bigger area from TWO placentas detaching after birth.

I think those were the main concerns that I looked into. I'm sure there were others I read about but in my current pregnancy brain state I can't think of them. LOL!
 
#72 ·
Yes, if you have a breech baby A and a vertex baby B they can get "locked". I know this because I had that presentation late in the game (along with many others!) and we talked about it. The real problem happens when you have both BOW broken. Otherwise, they just slide over the top of each other. I wasn't sure if I would have attempted a home birth with that presentation but I for sure would have had a vaginal birth in the hospital!

Hemorrhaging didn't scare me much as I have a history of a uterus that clamps down tight afterward (and it did--I did not have to have pit). My midwives carry pit and methergene but I would have eaten placenta first.

It is possible for a breech to get its head stuck. That is not exclusive to twin birth or small babies though, it has more to do with the positioning of the head. There is a maneuver to bring the chin down and help the head deliver and your midwife should know how to do this. But MOST breech babies are born just fine. Just like MOST vertex babies are born just fine.

I am of the mind that barring any prenatal complications, twin birth was just like Gena said--two normal births that happened in the same morning. There were some extra things to watch for and MAN was I tired when I had to push out that second baby (!!!) but I had one birth and then I had another birth and then I had two placentas birth.
 
#73 ·
Would another potential complication/problem of twin births is that there's less time for baby B to safely be delivered than baby A? Most of the time baby B comes very shortly after Baby A, which is good. But if things suddenly slow down, isn't that worse in the 2nd round, when the water may have been broken for a long time, the baby more likely to be in distress, etc.? (Not sure about this-- it's my general impression, so I'm asking)
 
#74 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mamamolly1 View Post
Would another potential complication/problem of twin births is that there's less time for baby B to safely be delivered than baby A? Most of the time baby B comes very shortly after Baby A, which is good. But if things suddenly slow down, isn't that worse in the 2nd round, when the water may have been broken for a long time, the baby more likely to be in distress, etc.? (Not sure about this-- it's my general impression, so I'm asking)
This isn't something I've heard and am not sure it would really play into things any more than a singleton who's mom has been laboring for a long time. My 2nd twin came just over 2 1/2 hours after my first but his BOW stayed in tact until just before I pushed him out. He was monitored throughout for heart decels just as any baby would be.
 
#75 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mamamolly1 View Post
Would another potential complication/problem of twin births is that there's less time for baby B to safely be delivered than baby A? Most of the time baby B comes very shortly after Baby A, which is good. But if things suddenly slow down, isn't that worse in the 2nd round, when the water may have been broken for a long time, the baby more likely to be in distress, etc.? (Not sure about this-- it's my general impression, so I'm asking)
I think this is only a problem in a hospital when you are on a clock and tying up the OR they make you deliver in. I asked the question of my midwife, "How long do I have to deliver the second baby before you start to worry". She said, as much time as I needed as long as the baby's heartbeat was fine. She said there are things they can do to "help things progress" like changing position, walking, etc. Just like you would do for a slow first baby labor.
 
#76 ·
I think that's right. There was a little over an hour between my births. Baby B's water never broke on it's own, and going by her heartbeat, she was doing just fine the whole time. My MW did AROM and I pushed her out when I was rested and ready, but I've heard of longer intervals.

In the hospital though, there's a pretty strict timetable. Something like 30 min. max. before the "emergency" c/s.
 
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