are there any others considering hospital birth here? - Page 3

[josybear]

i'm not pg right now, but i like chiming in anyways.
ds (9 mos) was born in a hospital with a midwife in attendance. not everything went the way i would have liked and not all my wishes were respected, but i am SO glad that he wasn't born at home.
the day after the birth i went into shock from blood loss and they had to bring me back. if i'd been at home that would have been it. so i have NO complaints about the hospital birth -- otherwise ds wouldn't have his mama!

[Frannyo]

I haven't been on this board long but I suspect this is a really polarizing issue here.
For me, I wouldn't seriously consider homebirth. Each of the three births I've attended have been hospital births, and though the post-natal nurses can be a real pain, I would rather not place all that responsibility on my partner and a midwife. I am a huge fan of Traditional Chinese Medicine and I'm sure I'll see my acupuncturist right up until the day I give birth, but that's about it in terms of letting my body take care of itself. I'll stay home until I absolutely am in active labor, just because I like my own bed and my own dogs and my own back yard, but when it's time to go, I'll go.
Now - this is my first kid, and maybe I haven't been enlightened yet, so I'll keep reading on and see what I learn. I'm only doing this once, though, and I'm more of a "manicure and massage" type girl, so in the end I'll probably cave and do whatever it takes to make me comfortable.

[baturay]

We did hospital birth with my first and are doing it again with this one. I wouldn't mind a homebirth at all, but dh is not onboard, and a birth center would be great, but they are illegal in IL. : So, hospital birth with midwive

[wildmonkeys]

I am using a hospital with a midwife. My first birth experience was horrible (not because of the hospital, but because it began with lots of bleeding for a specific medical reason I won't get into) and I was reassured that I was in a hospital. My second birth experience was in a hospital and very positive.

My main reason for wanting to be in a hospital (and stay as long as they will let me ) is that BOTH of my boys (as well as myself, dh, my brother and one of my bils) had extreme jaundice and needed treatment in the NICU after delivery...they actually tried to send me home WITHOUT ds2 and I put up such a stink that I got an extra day for myself

BJ
Barney & Ben

[Arwyn]

Josybear - for every story like yours ( by the way), there's a woman convinced she would have died had she been in the hospital instead of at home. All we can do is look at the statistics (which say that for the majority of women, both home and hospital are equally safe places to birth in terms of maternal mortality), then make a decision based on our own personal factors, the issues that make it safer, or more comfortable, or more affordable, or more whatever to give birth in one place over another. I for one fully trust an informed woman to make the best choice for her, no matter where that puts her.

[bscal]

I am definately having another hospital birth, assuming we make it there in time! My first child was a medicated hospital birth (what can I say, I was uninformed then) and if I had known at the time that my DD would be born 45 mins later then I wouldn't have bothered with the epidural. The OB had checked me at 8 am and I was at 4-5 cms... since it was my first baby they thought I'd take awhile so the nurse didn't bother to check me when I called her and told her I was having a lot more pain and I'd like the epidural. It was barely starting to numb me when she glanced at the monitor in alarm and went to check me again... and commented to my DH about the full head of hair our baby had b/c she was crowning! (Apparently the pain I felt was that ring of fire thing.) With my second child my water broke in the car and by the time we got to the hospital she was crowning so there was no time for any intervention. Now that I know I can handle a natural childbirth I plan to be very assertive in what I'd like this time. I just hope I can get there before this one is crowning... let's just say I walked into the hospital (gripping my DH's arm) and it wasn't comfortable at all.

Oh, and I live in GA so having an attended homebirth is not legal (and my ins wouldn't pay for a midwife either.)

Beth

[pottermama]

I had 2 hospital births w/ a mw. I plan on doing it again. I have so much respect for women who can homebirth, I would just be to paranoid. Plus my ins. won't cover that. I have the same midwives I had before and they know I want unmedicated completly natural births.

[josybear]

ok, i admit it. yes, being in the hospital for ds's birth saved my life, but i didn't know it would at the time. here are the REAL reasons i wanted a hospital birth, and why i will have another one day.
a) i never changed a diaper until i got home. i just buzzed a nurse. so i never had to clean meconium.
b) they have a birthing tub. i don't. it seems cheaper to use theirs than to rent one
c)i had one of those cool beds that goes up and down and all over the place. it's not often that i get to play with one of those.
d) they brought me meals. if i didn't like the meals i sent dh out for subway. it wouldn't have occured to my friends (who are mostly single & childless) to bring me food.
in short, i LIKE the hospital. i get to relax and i don't wash dishes or nanny other peoples' kids or take phone messages...
whew! i finally admitted it!

[Mizelenius]

I had both DDs in a hospital, both times unmedicated (1st with an OB, 2nd with a MW). I'm having a MW again.

Personally, I am fine with the hospital for the most part. If I were at home, lemme tell you, EVERYONE (inc. DH) would be expecting me to be back to the routine that same day. I like the idea of having at least 24 hours to just be with the baby.

My poor sister. She has 4 kids and gets no break. The way she talks about the hospital stay . . .it's like she's talking about a resort. I almost think she keeps having kids just to get that little hospital break every few years!

[pinuchkin]

Hospital with midwife & doula. I don't have a good setup for homebirth (very poor water quality from our well, and our roads aren't snow routes in case of an emergency transfer - March in WI is unpredictable). And there aren't any birth centers within an hour that will take a VBAC.

The thing I hated about hospital with DD was the clock. My BOW ruptured spontaneously before I'd had any ctx. I was GBS+ & they wanted to do an antibiotic run, so we went in. There had been a blizzard here the night before, and they didn't offer to discharge me, and not knowing any better we didn't ask. So just shy of 16 hrs later I wasn't "making progress" at a fast enough rate & had a c/s. The one thing that really broke it was that it was my midwife's only night out of the state that whole month.

So I learned. I'm hiring a doula just in case the timing is off and I miss my midwife on a fluke again. I'm working on being GBS negative. I'll take extra Vit C etc. to try to strengthen the BOW. I'm not going to go gung-ho on the natural induction stuff like I did before. And if it does SROM before labor, I'll go get checked for cord if baby was high before, but then will check out & go for a WALK somewhere other than the halls of the maternity ward (with all the epidural-moms glaring at me from their beds as I moaned & rocked & disturbed their vibe. **rolling eyes**).

[blue-eden]

I'll more than likely be in a hospital too.

I think it's *very* unfair that this is a polarizing issue, that some people are sanctimonious enough to decide that because they want a homebirth, that all women should and anyone who births in a hospital is somehow not "good enough" or "womanly enough". I've seen a lot of that attitude.

There are so many things that can go wrong during a birth. It may be natural and "routine", but it can still be a very difficult and dangerous process. Women, we must remember, do still occassionally have fatal problems during childbirth (the babies too).

I think women who have homebirths are perfecty justified. But I also think women who choose to give birth in a hospital where sophisticated medical help is readily available are justified as well.

[Bennifer]

we just decided (after interviewing doulas, HB midwives, and an OB) that we will be having a hospital birth with an OB and a doula. My OB is awesome and people can't say enough good things about him. I am planning a VBAC and just couldn't wrap my brain around getting comfortable with a homebirth--ds's birth was so scary that I just want that extra reassurance. We are really happy with our decision and I have a feeling it is going to be successful.

[Savmay]

I am having a VBAC at the hospital with a midwife group that I really trust and a doula. Likewise, the birth of my son was intense and I am not sure he would have made it without the emergency c-section so I was glad to be at the hospital. I think the choice for woman as to where to birth is very personal and I base my choice on my intuitive sense of what is right for me rather than my idea of what is "right". I have attended homebirths and hospital births as a doula myself and feel they are both "safe" places to birth, depending on the situation.