Any OBs or OB nurses who homebirth?

[callieollie]

I saw another thread where there were several OB nurses who mentioned their homebirth and it got me thinking. If you are an OB nurse or an OB and have chosen to have your children are home, how do people at work react to your decision?

My sister is a family practice physician (she doesn't do OB though) and in her graduating class in residency, 4 of the 5 women who had been pregnant all chose midwives for their births. At the time, it surprised me that they were in a medical field, off to work in a hospital setting, and yet were choosing midwives for themselves. So I started wondering too whether people who work specifically with an OB, or are an OB, and choose a midwife, if that influences how you view things at your job. Not sure if that makes sense or not....

[turnquia]

I am not an OB or a L&D nurse however I am a nurse who someday would maybe like to work in L&D (if I don't persue midwifery first)...

Anyways I chose homebirth with my 2nd child and will when/if we have a 3rd. That said I think some in the medical community don't all agree with the model of care in maternity, or they do their research for what they feel is best. Just like the rest of us... its our job and while I think hospitals and OB's have their place I also feel that for most its not necessary. So I choose homebirth for that reason. It has nothing to do with seeing a particular bad situation in the hospital (I work as a doula as well)... it just what feels right and for me homebirth feels right.

[nia82]

My sister is a MD in research and her best friend from med school is a family physician. She chose to have all of her three girls at home with a midwife.

[mokey4]

Not exactly what you're looking for, but I have a friend who is an MD pediatrician who is planning an HBAC (after 2 cesareans). She used to work in a private practice but now she's an emergency room doctor- I wonder how that's going over in her office!

[sunfish21]

Might be a stretch, but the CNM who works at our local clinic had a homebirth with her first. She is expecting again and asked me about who I was using this time around! (My MW is out of town and I have labs and things done at the clinic here)

[LovnMyBoys]

I am a nurse. I've done L&D and NICU. My second was born at home and if I have a third we will plan a homebirth again. I currently work in community health so maybe the reaction wasn't the same, but I know many of my previous NICU colleagues questioned we're very surprised at my decision (most didn't find out until after so I didn't hear the warnings).

[CEG]

I am a CNM and I recently had a miscarriage but we were plannng on telling everyone it was an accidental UC because no one I work with would have been supportive (I am in the only CNM in about a 4 hour radius).

I was an L & D nurse when I had a homebirth. The nurses I worked with at the (terrible) hospital where I worked ganged up on me one day, telling me horror stories about women whose babies died. The catch was that those were all women whose babies died when they were in the labor and delivery unit we were working in

While I was on short-term disability I called my boss to ask if I would come back part time instead of full time after my non-FMLA leave. She called me back and said my position was no longer needed and I was being terminated. I always felt that it was because of the homebirth but never sure. My co-workers got in contact with me and were shocked that I was fired. Anyway I hated working there and the only reason I was going to go back part-time was because I felt bad taking the disability money and quitting, problem solved

[cileag]

I'm an OB nurse and just had my baby in October at home. I got a mixed bag of reactions from the nurses and midwives I work with (I didn't discuss it with any of the OBs). Most were unsurprised since I'm fairly non traditional in other ways (bike to work, one car family, very supportive of unmedicated moms). Several were very supportive, several were very unsupportive, but most were in the camp of "If you want to try it, that's nice but you're a little crazy." I did feel some additional pressure to "show them up" and not have to transfer and I am happy it all went well for many many reasons, but one of them is that I'm proof that not all home births end in trainwrecks.

As for my colleagues, I'd say most of them choose midwives for their care rather than OBs, mostly since we have a very neat group of midwives and there are only 9 of them vs. the 30+ OBs that might be on call.

[berrymama]

I am an OB nurse planning a homebirth for my second (first was delivered by CNM on the unit I work on) and the reactions of my coworkers have been very similar to those of cileag above. At first, I really only told those that I knew would be supportive, but this past week the word has gotten out. I have gotten some snide remarks along with the 'how could you live with yourself if something happened to your baby?' My homebirth midwife is respected on the unit I work on and the hospital midwives will back her up if I were to transfer. It was actually my midwife from my first birth that first encouraged me to have a homebirth with this baby (my first labor was a quick 3 hours, delivered in the tub).

The thing that is hard though is that I do see a lot of things that can go wrong. Things that most women homebirthing don't see, and which can add to apprehension. But I also trust that a natural, undisturbed labor is far less likely to have those things happen. Especially since we are a high risk hospital and most women get some form of pain medication.

[mpvelaz]

I am a L&D nurse (I do not want to be an L&D nurse, it is only one step to my goal of being a homebirth CNM). I work in a very high intervention L&D unit that I absolutely hate. I just had my first homebirth in August and for the most part I lied to the other nurses (exept a select few) about where I planned to give birth because I knew they would not be supportive and would just make added stress for me, also I live in an "illegal" state so I was worried that some of them might cause trouble for my midwife or I if they knew I was planning on birthing at home. Everyone knows now that I gave birth at home, some people are supportive, some think it is great, some think I am crazy and I know some think it was irresponsible. The people who disagree with my choices really have not said anything to my face, but I have noticed some people avoiding me.
When ever they bring up horror stories to me, I make sure that they realize that all of those stories occured in the hospital and were more than likely brought on by some intervention, it usually shuts them up.

[Juvysen]

I'm not either, but I know a family practice doctor in our area's wife had a homebirth, and I also know of a nurse practitioner in our area who homebirthed her twins because she wasn't interested in a cesarean. They're not obstetric practitioners, necessarily, but still interesting, imo.

[pants]

OP very interesting thread......very interesting. I'm reading a book called "born in the USA". it's a little older but it's written by an OB and he is supportive of homebirth and MW. I love to hear these stories