Another Point Scored for Out of Hospital Birth

[Turquesa]

What low-risk laboring woman would opt to subject herself and her baby to this stuff?

This part of the report disturbs me:

C. difficile bacteria is released into the hospital environment in feces.

Wouldn't some common-sense precautions (i.e. cleanliness) keep this out of hospitals? So why is it so prevalent? What am I missing here?

[Sheryl1678]

Because most women actually believe that hospitals are more sterile than their own home. I was afraid to homebirth the first time around because I thought it wasn't sterile enough.

[pantufla]

I've read several stories where babies were admitted to the hospital after a home birth because of the "non-sterile environment". Yeah, thanks. I'll take my non-sterile environment over the hospital's ANY day.

[phreedom]

Originally Posted by Sheryl1678

Because most women actually believe that hospitals are more sterile than their own home. I was afraid to homebirth the first time around because I thought it wasn't sterile enough.

Yeah to this. I freaking cringe when I see visitors letting their little babies crawl around the waiting room floor. It's carpet which seems even grosser. The HOSPITAL may be clean and high tech and nice looking, but if staff aren't practicing good handwashing (the cheapest, most effective and most basic thing to prevent spread of germs) what good is all that?

[tndixiemom]

What low-risk laboring woman would opt to subject herself and her baby to this stuff?

I opt for a hospital birth. I am intelligent and informed. I know that hospitals have germs. I know my home has germs. I opt for the hospital birth, not because of a sterile enviroment, but because it is where I feel comfortable. I feel at ease knowing that help is close by instead of an hour away. I don't think that is hard to understand.

[AugustLia23]

Umm, aren't hospitals for SICK people. Unless I find myself or my baby sick in labor, I'll stay home, thanks. Better my germs that I'm familiar with than any that are in XYZ hospital.

[pumpkinhead]

C. difficile is normal fecal flora. When your gut flora is healthy, it's not ever a problem, but in those who are or have been on long term antibiotic therapy, it can become one. C. difficile has low level resistance to several common broad spectrum antibiotics so it can survive in the gut even when everything is killed off. At this point it can overgrow and cause pathology. It can also acquire a higher level resistance to antibiotics this way.

So, where it this most likely to happen? In a hospital environment where there are many patients recieving longer term antibiotic therapy. C. difficile causes painful cramps and diarrhea and is shed in feces.

So, C. difficile lives in you. You're going to come into contact with it every time you wipe . If you are immunocompromised and you are exposed to a resistant strain or you have a gut flora that is all but wiped out, it's a big issue. If you are healthy person with a healthy gut flora and you're not taking antibiotics, you're good. Still not something you want your baby carrying/exposed to.

[pumpkinhead]

Originally Posted by Turquesa

Wouldn't some common-sense precautions (i.e. cleanliness) keep this out of hospitals? So why is it so prevalent? What am I missing here?

Proper handwashing will keep others from being infected with this, but nothing you do will keep it out of hospitals since it lives in the gut. Healthy people don't "catch" it, but they can develop it after antibiotic therapy and it can be passed on through improper handwashing.