what made you consider homebirth?

[Emilie]

I am wondering why you considered having your baby at home?
Take the poll!

[rad]

I read Immaculate Deception II when we were just thinking of TTC #1. Then I read some more mainstream books and I decided I was terrified of what would happen to me in the hospita. It made homebirth so appealing. DH wasn't onboard at first but after doing some reading to him, he changed his mind really quickly.

[Snowdrift]

Petrified of hospitals, dont' trust medical people, way to prone to pysch issues to be safe in such an untrustable place at such a vulnerable time.

[Midwife Kris]

I chose a home birth with second baby because there were no midwives with hospital practices. My potential midwife said, "You can have a baby here (birth center) or at home." I thought "Hmmmm, she will come to ME when I'm contracting. Okay. Sign me up." Quite a scientific and consumer driven decision, LOL.

[sapphire_chan]

Long story:
I got major baby fever a few years ago and started looking for pictures of babies on the internet because I was working nights and just not seeing babies out and about often enough. I started reading the accompanying messages on forums and ended up reading quite a bit by Henci Goer. The steps from "is GD testing reasonable?" to "is *anything* done by hospitals reasonable?" to reading most of my library's collection of natural birth books were pretty short. It's like I entered the tunnel with no real ideas about my own future births and exited as a pro-freebirther.

ETA:
Actually talking to my mom tonight about homebirth, I realized that what really pushed me over into wanting either a very hands off midwife or no attendent at all was reading other people's birth plans.

[nurturedbirth]

Well I don't have babies at this point, but if I ever do, it's homebirth all the way. What finally made the decision for me was actually attending hospital births as a doula. No *way* am I signing up for that!

[Zyla]

Hmmm ... can't really remember ever thinking of having a baby anywhere else! My mother brought La Leche League to our town in the 60s, attended homebirths in the 70s (some of them with the Dr who is now my Dr yes, he's pretty grey but still going strong and as crunchy as ever), taught lamaze, made baby-carriers (waaaay before baby Bjorn, slings et al), our house was filled with natural birth books, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers were a regular fixture; I met Sheila Kitzinger when I was 14 .... So even before I conceived my first child in 1988 I knew I would birth at home.

[mamamilkers]

I am starting on the journey of considering homebirth with this baby. My last one was an attempted birth center birth and I ended up in the hospital with a whole host of interventions (epi, pit, vacuum). I didn't want to be in the hospital again, and don't really feel like it's "safe" to be in a birth center after what happened last time. Obviously, homebirth is sounding like the best option to me now. Honestly it's a lot more involved than that, but that is the path of reasoning that led me to consider homebirth.

Sybil

[DesireeH]

I had a bad experience with my first (in a hospital) and so the second was homebirth all the way!

[kykarraliv]

I have always wanted a home birth but it took 7 pregnancies for me to accomplish my goals. At first I was too scared and was the wife to an active miltary guy. I also had not grown enough as a woman. Then with my third I started seeing some lay mid-wives in El Paso Texas and was going to have the baby in their birthing center. A wonderful old house. But then Desert Storm broke out and my husband was sent to war. My parents freaked that I would be in TX delivering on my own with midwives and really wanted me to go home to MT until my husband returned. I went home and used a dula with a wonderful family practitioner who respected my wishes for a natural non-intervention delivery. He even showed my dula how to deal with a lip that needs to be moved. With my fourth I delivered 5 weeks 3 days early with a CNM in a hospital. It was a pretty good experience but I got my first epidural I felt so detached from the birth. I was blessed to be able to take my baby home the next day. My 5th pregnancy was a twin pregnancy and one of our daughter died in utero so I was to scared and nervous to deliver at home. I delivered with a OBGYN: I had another epidural and even though I had started labor on my own was give Pit which caused my uterus to over-react and my baby to go into distress. Even though the Pit was turned off my baby was born unconscious and had to be resuscitated. During my labor my husband slept because he figured I couldn't feel anything anyway. Then when I was fully dialated the OBGYB and hubby watched the Antiques Road Show while the nurses and techs set up everything When the baby was born she was quickly taken away and worked on. Then with my 6th pregnancy I got pregnant with tripletts one died very early and was reabsorbed. Then my son was born with a severe heart defect and his twin was born with pnuemonia due to being a c-section. So both babies were taken from me. I did not even see my son until he was 10 hours old . I saw my daughter for about 5 minutes. When I was finally able to see them in the NICU the told me "Here is your daughter" and I thought "If you say so" They could have pointed out any girl in there and told me it was my daughter and I would have had to believe them I did not get any bonding time with her. Then because of my son's condition his whole life I was told by medical staff when I could see my son, if he could eat, I didn't get to hold him his first month of life and then after that they gave me permission to hold my own son.There were many times I was kicked from my son's bedside because of the Hippa law and something going on the in a bed in the same wing.They even told me if I could bring him flowers or not. Everything was in their control. Even though I did all I could in the care of my son. I did his NG tube, his meds (except IV) wound dressing, physical therapy,holding and rocking, and bathing it was all with their permission. In fact as you enter the cardiac ICU they give you a paper explaining the rules one rule was you had to call back before entering the unit and they "would tell you if it is a good time to visit your child" Many times I was left in the waiting room for hours waiting just to get back to see my son. So with my last baby. I had the perinatologist who discovered my sons defect do an ultrasound on this baby. She was found to be healthy. So I contacted the midwife who through the last 3 pregnancy I had spoke with her about a homebirth and finally I was able to set it up and actually have the most wonderful birth experience. I had this homebirth because I was claiming my body, myself, and my baby from the medical establishment and because I wanted to have my family around me to bring life full circle yes there is death but there is life too. It was a great healing experience for myself and my family. I only wish I had had all my children at home. I strongly strongly feel it is where birth should be.

[kykarraliv]

removed by author.

[DreamsInDigital]

My first birth was with an sOB and I had every intervention under the sun except a c-section. My son was pulled out by a vacuum extraction over a 4th degree episiotomy turned tear because I was pushing on my back with a posterior baby and was numb from the armpits down from the epidural.
I wanted something better for my second birth so I sought out a CNM after a different sOB laughed at my birth plan and told me he wasn't a concierge and could not follow my birth plan. We're talking no episiotomy, no pitocin, delayed cord cutting...nothing crazy. So at 30 weeks I switched to a CNM. Ended up being induced for post dates at 41 weeks 4 days with Cytotec :
Had AROM, which led to an epidural, which led to heart decels during pushing but thankfully he was born fine.
I never knew there was anything wrong with my birth until I spent a lot of time here.
I was seeing the same CNM during my most recent pregnancy and everything was going swimmingly until it was time for the GTT. I wanted to refuse it based on my history of hypoglycemia. She told me I could NOT refuse because I had a *gasp* 9 lb. baby last time and it was no longer allowed by their malpractice insurance. I thought about it for about a week and then came on here and posted a request for midwife suggestions and was pointed to a midwife by a lot of people. I decided just to meet with her and consider a homebirth.
After just one meeting with her, DP and I were sold.
And after my birth experience, I realized what was missing from my hospital births and why I felt robbed of the experience.
I will never have a baby in a hospital ever again.
I love homebirth!

[LoveChild421]

other- Actually it was "A Baby Story" that made me want a homebirth- seeing all those typical hospital births made me think "there has to be another way!"

[Ligmom]

I voted other, but really it was all three of the poll choices.

A wonderful friend shared her birth experience with me, I read some books and discovered not only was it an option--it was a safe option, and I had less than desirable experiences at 2 different hospitals with my previous births.

[kangaroo_mom]

I guess I should have voted "other". I had a friend (well, co-worker and her sister) who was planning her first homebirth. Her first birth was a forced emergency C'section in our local hospital. We were exercise buddies and she was telling me all about her upcoming homebirth. I thought she was crazy and I believe I told her so too, lol. My mom had most of her kids natural and was a huge NCB advocate, but I'm such a pain wimp I kept saying "knock me out, drug me up, I don't wanna feel it!" This friend of mine told me about our hospital's 33% CS rate and kept prodding me to look into birthing at home. Luckily I'm a huge research fanatic so I listened to her, and checked out a bunch of NCB books from the library and read up on it months before we even thought of getting pregnant!

[Salema]

My mom had my brother at home, and loved it. Then she tried to have me at home, but there were no midwives where they were living. She had a bummer experience in the hospital. So I think I always knew I would try to have a homebirth. I live in a community with a lot of good birthing options, found an awesome set of midwives and never looked back. After meeting the midwives once, dh fell in love with them too, so that helped! My insurance even paid for the whole thing!

[Vasmommy]

Lack of health insurance and being too proud to apply for state health care is what prompted me to start investigating cheaper alternatives. I had had an uneventful, perfect enough hospital birth prior; wasn't worried about pain management because I'd "only" had some light IV pain drugs to help with that labor. I figured a homebirth, med-free couldn't be too hard.

I ended up settling on a birth center because homebirth MWs weren't allowed to run IVs, and I was fearful of gbs+ stuff. The bc birth ended up being.......less than ideal. On the surface the labor/delivery went well enough I guess, but the emotional was rough. The attitude of the attending MW, the bc "rules" on admittance, dilation, vaginal checks, etc. made things much more difficult than they had to be.

So when I wound up pregnant again a few months afterwards, I thought I'd just chance the gbs+ stuff and get a homebirth MW. Did *much* more reading and research on birth with the homebirth pregnancy and incidentally, had a complete change of heart on the gbs stuff. It's soooooo not something I even worry about anymore.

[Emilie]

Good luck with your homebirth! I hope that it is the experience you deserve.
I am so sad to hear about these medwives....
Emilie

[Jenivere]

Other, All of the above but the freind was my mother. I could'nt find a midwife the first time but found one by the time I was pregnant with my second.

[mimim]

Other = all of the above Primarily it was the unsatifying hospital birth though.