"what made you want a homebirth?" I'm stumped - Page 2

[camprunner]

I personally would just tell them that hospitals make me uncomfortable and that I don't want to be separated from dd that long. Also last time the hour long drive to the hospital was a bit rough on me. Those are my personal reasons.

*My birth was one of the rare hospital births that wasn't tragic but it didn't make me feel any more comfortable in a hospital.

[Sleepymama]

We also had a very traumatic 1st birth. When my MW asked why I wanted homebirth I thought for a minute, and simply said that I wanted a birth where I had the most safety and the most control, and HB would give me that.

BTW my mom doesn't know that we are planning HB yet...nor does anyone else in our families. My RL friends know and think it's "cool." :LOL

[ZeldasMom]

There's also the whole thing of at home you and the baby are only exposed to your own family's bacterial flora, to which you have become adapted. At the hospital the baby is exposed to a much more dangerous environment in this regard.

I also think of individualized, evidence-based midwifery provided on your own terms as the rolls royce of healthcare. OBs have a lot of other factors influencing their decision-making besides what may be best for an individual woman. Also, hospitals are bureaucractic institutions that do things in ways that enable them to manage care for large groups of people at a lower cost, rather than doing what may be best for individuals (e.g. with EFM a nurse can be out at the nursing situation and have an idea what's going on with several women/babies at once).

I am not normally a rolls royce kind of a person, but birth is important, so I think it's worth it.

[JanetF]

I like to ask women why they "chose" hospital given that most women are "choosing" without actually knowing their real options (and therefore not really choosing at all) and almost definitely without understanding how normal physiological birth works and how hospitals are directly set up in contradiction of this process.

I'd give her the latest study on hb that was published in the BMJ - not a very hippy journal LOL. It showed a 3.7% c-sec rate for all mamas, and a 1.3% c-sec rate for mamas who'd had previous vaginal births. Says almost all of the best reasons, I think! But just a run down on the interventions performed on socalled low risk women birthing in hospitals, the higher rates of DEATH in hospitals from all those interventions being performed routinely and maybe some info on how the rates of infection, PPD, PPH and every other nasty are always much higher. If you actually have all that info and you still choose to go to hospital, that's where I start wondering about what's really going on with you, yk? If only we could kick the fear factor for women, so many would make more nurturing choices and not head straight to the surgeons for "care".

PS. You could also tell her that not one reputable study in the world has ever shown hospitals to be safer but they usually show home to be safer. It's not coz it's home, it's coz it's the only place to get evidence based care. Oh sheesh I could rabbit for ages! Guess who runs a hb group?!

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by alegna

I believe that homebirth should be the standard of care for all normal births. Hospitals are for the sick and injured. A mother in labor and a newborn baby are neither.

-Angela

ITA, Alegna!!

In a perfect world, this would be true!

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by flapjack

... and the fact that for me, rites of passage should be celebrated at home with the people who love us- birth, marriage, death.

Dr. Mendelsohn used to make this analogy when talking about modern medicine as a religion and its tendency to separate families at these important parts of life.

Good post.

[weliveintheforest]

If someone asks why we are having a homebirth, we usually just say it's what is right for us, and that we are just more comfortable at home. Thats about all I say, sometimes I tell them that DH was born at home, and thats just what our family does. Noone has ever challenged us or anything, so I haven't had to say much more than that. Ever since I could imagine myself having babies, I have always imagined having them at home... it's just what seems right.
I love the "taking a poop" analogy, I'll have to share that

[kiwimutti]

Originally Posted by ZeldasMom

I also think of individualized, evidence-based midwifery provided on your own terms as the rolls royce of healthcare.


I am not normally a rolls royce kind of a person, but birth is important, so I think it's worth it.

EXACTLY!! :LOL I love explaining it like this too, it sad but I like that little dig that fights back a little of mainstream's arrogant/ignorant assumption that homebirth is somehow not "high performence" and hospitals are.


Hospitals are inaproperate places for birth... because they are not designed around an acurite understanding of birth.
Now im really wondering what the motivation was to start births happening in hospitals...? does anyone know a great source for learning about the history of medicalizing birth?...maybe thats what we all should be wondering...why on earth are births in the hands of hospitals???? now im stumped :LOL

[Persephone]

Considering that I hate hospitals and needles, I balk at the idea of ANYONE telling me when to push, I have learned that episiotomies are stupid and pointless 99% of the time, forceps and vaccuums make my head hurt, and riding in a car in labor sounds like the most unfun thing to do ever, it's only natural to want to stay at home where I'm warm and safe in familiar surroundings, and far away from the hospitals and their pointy things.

Seriously, I have been in the homebirth mindset for so long, that I"m always confused when people speak to me as if they assume I'm having a hospital birth. I have to mentally take a step back, and realize that MOST people give birth in a hospital, and then answer their question, usually with something like, "Oh, that's irrelevant. I'm having a homebirth."

[2+twins]

Originally Posted by kiwimutti

Now im really wondering what the motivation was to start births happening in hospitals...? does anyone know a great source for learning about the history of medicalizing birth?...maybe thats what we all should be wondering...why on earth are births in the hands of hospitals???? now im stumped :LOL

This is a topic that I'm hugely fascinated by. A couple good books to read would be Dr. Sears' Birth Book (there's a chapter in the beginning on this topic) and perhaps my favorite, a booklet called Witches, Midwifes, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers.

[Peppamint]

The first chapter of Having a Baby, Naturally by Peggy O'Mara covers some birth history.

[russianthistle]

I know how you feel...people wonder why I would choose a homebirth...I get strange looks and sighs. I do not let them bother me...many people don't know better...they haven't educated themselves enough.

I, too, feel like the switch to hospital birth over the years has been a switch not only unneeded and unnecessary but also unnerving and invasive. I have never been in the hospital in my entire life (with the exception of at birth), so I feel it is inappropriate for me to go to the hospital as if birthing is some emergency. Homebirth is truly what we should do if we are able. This trun to the western medicine hospital birth has created a monster out of birthing!!! I feel like hospitals are sterile, unfriendly places that encourage negativity and worry. Birthing is supposed to be a wonderful, beautiful experience.

Be empowered by your decision! If you feel that it is the right choice, it is!

Erin