Today Show "Dangers of Midwifery"

[Cellist]

Did anyone else see that news article on the Today Show today?

It featured a couple who were allowed to labor four days at home with a midwife's help and ended up giving birth to a deceased baby who had had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.

Have you ever heard of a four day labor before? Would your midwife let you stay home that long without checking in on the baby in a more in-depth way?

I hate that the Today Show tried to make home birthing look bad; it makes me mad. But why did that couple have the experience they did?

They did show another couple who had a very happy successful home birth of a nearly 10 pound baby; they were thrilled. But the story focused on the DANGER of taking such risks.

SIGH.

[Livviesmom0207]

That was the most infuriating and ignorant thing I've ever seen.

The comment that was basically "homebirth is the new spa treatment for hedonistic women" made me want to explode.

[transformed]

Originally Posted by Cellist

Did anyone else see that news article on the Today Show today?

It featured a couple who were allowed to labor four days at home with a midwife's help and ended up giving birth to a deceased baby who had had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.

Have you ever heard of a four day labor before? Would your midwife let you stay home that long without checking in on the baby in a more in-depth way?

I hate that the Today Show tried to make home birthing look bad; it makes me mad. But why did that couple have the experience they did?

They did show another couple who had a very happy successful home birth of a nearly 10 pound baby; they were thrilled. But the story focused on the DANGER of taking such risks.

SIGH.

[fruitfulmomma]

Have you ever heard of a four day labor before? Would your midwife let you stay home that long without checking in on the baby in a more in-depth way?

Define labor. Are we talking hard labor or regular contractions?

My oldest was born 36 hours after I began having regular contractions but the first 24 hours was pretty "easy" as far as labor goes. My midwife did send her assistant by to check on me during that time.

[transformed]

My labor was like 4 weeks.... kwim? I was never really sure when the actual "labor" started with my 3rd. It just felt like we were doin it for a month...very slow....steady....easy....natural.....

[TSomm]

Ugh

Yes, it was very discouraging. I knew bad news was ahead when the pieces was titled "Perils of Midwifery".

You can view it here: link

Or if that doesn't work: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/3041426

They "attempted" to show a balanced story by having comments from both a successful homebirth couple and an unsuccessful homebirth couple. The trouble is, they focused on the unsuccessful couple 95% of the piece and only showed the happy couple for the last 30 seconds.

They reference Ricki Lake's Business of Being Born because the unsuccessful couple apparently used the same midwife featured in that documentary.

[tayndrewsmama]

Ummmmmm......shouldn't they have known something was wrong when checking fetal heart tones?

[velveeta]

I think there were a whole bunch of things wrong with that whole thing -- who knows what happened with the first couple -- it sounded awful to me. They kept showing a dark, ominous-looking empty crib. Regardless of who was at fault, I thought the whole thing appeared very poorly researched. Personally, I choose homebirth because that is what all the celebs are doing! Plus, the couple that had a good experience was only shown talking about how beautiful it was, not how safe and intervention-free it was.

Also, HELLO, there is tons of new published research on homebirth they could have found with one or two clicks into Google. I like being natural and all that, but when it comes to birth, I choose safety over everything else, which is why I birth at HOME.

Just so poorly done, IMO.

[Kino]

How about a segment entitled "Dangers of Obstetrics?"

My first was a three day labor, but that was in the hospital. All they can do is monitor the heart beat. Being in a hospital doesn't magically make it safer.

So much for investigative journalism though.

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by tayndrewsmama

Ummmmmm......shouldn't they have known something was wrong when checking fetal heart tones?

that was my first thought..

[jimblejamble]

We all know that nothing EVER goes wrong in a hospital!

[jimblejamble]

Ugh I just watched about a minute of it and it made me so mad. I want to write them a letter but I can't even put a coherent thought together, it makes me so mad!

[S.Elise]

We have a thread about this over at the homebirth board, too. Write emails/letters to them about how crappy their journalistic skills are! I did, and I feel so much better now after almost choking on my organic breakfast cereal this morning while watching this.

Here's the contact info which another poster kindly posted over there:


-mail TODAY at: [e-mail]
Want to send us a story idea?
Please send story ideas to
Noah Kotch,
Senior Producer, 379E-1,
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112.
(I think for story idea's it should be on the growing "epidemic" of c-sections in the US.... )
Want to call or write to us?
If you have questions that need to be answered right away, or want to write to NBC News personnel, our address and phone number are:
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
[phone]

[frogautumn]

I agree--that was very poorly done.

It is absolutely heartbreaking for anyone to lose a child and my prayers are with that family, however, freak things can happen whether at home or in the hospital. This was an anomaly and the network took it and ran with it. The statistics still point to the safety of homebirth.

It's no secret that the ACOG is trying to attack homebirths and midwives. I wonder if there was any special interest there??

And the part about women choosing homebirth because it's trendy and hedonistic??? Disgusting! When I'm feeling hedonistic, I'll get a pedicure, thank you very much.

[berrymama]

This bugs me and I am an OB nurse! They would never do a story about the mom's who are full term that come into the hospital in labor or with decreased movement and end up with a stillbirth. Just because this couple happened to be at home doesn't mean that was the CAUSE of the stillbirth.

[Tattooed Hand]

I can't say I'm surprised. It's the Today Show. It's yellow journalism at best. It represents the mainstream lowest common denominator and strives for poignancy and drama. I just hope my mom didn't see it, because I still haven't broken the homebirth news to her.

I highly doubt my midwife would allow me to actively labor for 4 days without a talk about other options. Plus, she would be monitoring the baby's heartbeat. The minute something started to go wrong with that, we'd go to the hospital.

Not all midwives are the same though. I know women in NYC who wouldn't work with Cara (the midwife featured in the business of being born) because of some of her approaches to things. I'm not saying she's bad, but that different midwives do things differently and it's also the parents responsibility to make informed decisions, from chosing a midwife to changing course in a birth if necessary.

[Charlize]

Originally Posted by JessicaRenee

We all know that nothing EVER goes wrong in a hospital!

Yeah. That's why I am the proud owner of a torn uretha. When I was laboring with DD1, the intern and OB "forgot" to deflate the catheter ballon while she was taking it out. The medical staff also did not allow me out of beds for three days after my vaginal birth with DD1. That meant three days of lying in bed. I asked repeatedly to be allowed to be out of bed long enough for a shower or for them to give me a sponge bath or something because I felt so nasty. They wouldn't do either because of my extensive tears. They also did not clean my girly girl area after the birth. Guess what? I developed a severe pelvic infection completely due to the L&D's action. Granted it was all under emergency, as in life or death emergency, situation, but that's no excuse. The torn uretha has led to trouble holding my bladder and made me more prone to UTI's. But yeah. Nothing EVER goes wrong in a hospital.

[tayndrewsmama]

Originally Posted by Charlize

Yeah. That's why I am the proud owner of a torn uretha. When I was laboring with DD1, the intern and OB "forgot" to deflate the catheter ballon while she was taking it out. The medical staff also did not allow me out of beds for three days after my vaginal birth with DD1. That meant three days of lying in bed. I asked repeatedly to be allowed to be out of bed long enough for a shower or for them to give me a sponge bath or something because I felt so nasty. They wouldn't do either because of my extensive tears. They also did not clean my girly girl area after the birth. Guess what? I developed a severe pelvic infection completely due to the L&D's action. Granted it was all under emergency, as in life or death emergency, situation, but that's no excuse. The torn uretha has led to trouble holding my bladder and made me more prone to UTI's. But yeah. Nothing EVER goes wrong in a hospital.

Oh God that sounds awful! I don't even know what to say.

[milimama]

I saw that when I was at the gym and I thought, 'how can it be a slow news day on 9/11?'
Oh, because no one ever has a scary hospital birth, right? The people who eat...oh, don't get me started.

[To-Fu]

Trying to gear up to watch it, since I'm sure those seven minutes will be traumatizing and irritating. I have a couple friends who are embarking on a letter-writing campaign.