did you have unexpected problems with home birth?

[joyberryjoy]

Just trying to get a sample here...

[parisfrance]

My baby's head was flexed in the wrong direction (forehead first) and he hadn't turned yet (read-painful back labor) and my midwife said it was psychological that I didn't ever get the urge to push! She transferred me to a hospital where I got an emergency c-section. I'd do a homebirth again, but it's next to impossible to find people here in France who do them, and my midwife says I have to have a sucessful VBAC in a hospital or clinic first, then she'll consider an HBAC.

[BusyMommy]

yes

His head was stuck after 2.5 hours of pushing and he came out limp. Revived after oxygen and apgars went up to 9s.

Also, my placenta almost wouldn't come out even after pitocin. Interestingly, the mw said the cord was ripped?!?

Would I do it again? Yes, probably.

[Nee Nee]

homebirth

I ended up being transferred to hospital after 24hrs of labour and "failure to progress", actually it was more like a useless midwife that slept the whole time and didnt give me any advice on how to turn my posterior baby, ended up with a pit drip, epidural, episiotomy, a baby with a broken clavicle and a hematoma, that left him in the NICU for 4 days. Would I have a homebirth again??? YOU BETCHA, only this time with a competent midwife, hospitals, for me, are like hell on earth!!

Renee

[jordmoder]

We did have a problem with our first child; it was a "lightening strike" event and would have happened no matter where we were - but we transferred to the hospital for the birth.

Second baby was planned to be at the hospital because of the first baby - I should have just stayed home, as he was born 10 minutes after we got there and he was just fine. He was almost born in the car, which I think is even less pleasant than a hospital birth!

[mom at home]

With my first, her little head got stuck while crowning. It wasn't a major problem but because of the position of the baby they couldn't get a good heart tone reading. The midwife was close to doing an episiodomy until my sister (my other midwife) found the heart tones and they were fine. It's not a good time for the baby to get stuck but they weren't worried as long as her heart rate was normal.

With number two, her shoulders got stuck on my pubic bone. (She has very wide shoulders.) It was a little scary for the midwives, I think. I wasn't that aware of it and they didn't say much, but worked hard to get her shoulder unstuck.

I hemorraged with both, not bad with the second, but lost a fair bit of blood with the first.

Overall, no major problems.

[paula_bear]

We had an exciting homebirth. The midwives had been up the previous night and my labor stopped completely. I was about 6cm dilated when they left at 6am. I was napping that afternoon when I woke as my membranes exploded (well, that's what it felt like to me!) Contractions started 10 min. later, very very intense! Midwife jumped in car right away, but arrived about 5 min. after our precious Kelly Rose.

First birth was a hospital birth, which I'd never do again. Even though it was "natural," there were still way too many interventions. I didn't like the way the staff related to us either. AND, baby was taken from me and I didn't get to nurse for several hours after the birth. Kelly nursed before we even cut the cord! It made all the difference in the nursing experience - Joe nursed for 3 mos whereas Kelly is still going strong at 2 yrs.

[JaniceT]

We had major problems with our planned homebirth -- lots of meconium in my waters throughout the entire labor, blood pressure getting into dangerous numbers, failure to progress at about 6 cms dilated, umbilical cord wrapped around dd's neck three times, her head turned in the wrong direction. We transported after about 12 hours of very difficult labor. Once we arrived at the hospital all hell broke loose -- apparently I had preeclampsia which had not been diagnosed by CPM, and I was headed for a seizure (liver and kidneys started to fail). Emergency c-section after 20 hours of labor. Still reeling from the grief of it all. However I must say that after being afraid of going to the hospital I actually had a decent experience there -- they didn't give us TOO much of a hard time for being "crazy home birthers," and they respected our wishes (no eye ointment, no vitamin K, rooming in, breastfeeding immediately, etc.). And the nurses were fabulous -- so helpful and attentive.

[laches]

We were actually in a birth center, but when my son was born in respiratory distress, we transferred to the hospital and he was in the NICU on a ventilator for 9 days. Two of the neonatologists treated us terribly. For my daughters birth, my hubby refused to do another out of hospital birth, so I compromised, did a lot of looking for the right providers, had an AWESOME doula, made a very detailed birthplan, and had a very pleasant hospital birth, with no interventions. We were home very soon after the birth. I hate hospitals and was very upset at feeling like I had no other option than to birth in the hospital, but in the end it worked out OK.

[Alexander]

Our home birth went pretty much as planned.

We rang the midwife (2 of them) just before we got into the pool. After the birth, they failed to secure the umbilical cord properly, and it remained damp.

2 days later, I had to take dd to the Dr. to have it dealt with. He was not pleased that such a poor job had been done.

It is worth having a MW or Doula that knows what they are doing.

a

[joyberryjoy]

umbilical cord problem

so what exactly did they not do that they should have done?

(considering an unassisted water birth)

joy

[lilyka]

my baby stopped breathing.

She was a good dark purple before anyone noticed. She had been making funny breathing sounds and the (not quite a) midwife said that was normal. Then when we realized she had stopped breathing she paniced even though she new exactly what to do and the real midwife who we had called was very calm and reassuring that she just neded a little more suctioning. This is something that would have been avoided if someone with more experiance had been there. Other than that (and the fact that the real midwife wasn't actually there in the first place) it was smooth sailing

[glorysmom]

After my planned homebirth I ended up in the hospitol after 3 long days of labor, not being able to eat or sleep.
I had been at 8 cm or so for a day and the babys head was turned at a funny angle. My midwife suggested the hospitol and I actually kinda felt relieved at her suggestion. After another 12 hours my baby was born. Thankfully the only interventions were a pitocin drip to get me to 10 cm and breaking of the waters.

After laboring at home and having the birth at the hospitol I definently want to try a homebirth again next time! No doubt in my mind.

[JeanetteL]

Post Partum Hemmorage at home

I experienced a post partum hemmorage following the birth of my daughter. Was treated with pitocin, methergine(sp?) and herbs. I needed a catheter to empty my bladder and the problem was resolved without me leaving my bed! All the details are in my birth story, which I just posted to this forum the other day(Isabella's Home Waterbirth).

Jeanette

[Alexander]

Re: umbilical cord problem

Originally posted by joyberryjoy
so what exactly did they not do that they should have done?
(considering an unassisted water birth)
joy

On the phone, we reminded them to bring suficient equipment for the cord, (gauze, peg, tape, whatever) in view of the fact that we wished to cut the umbilical cord near the placenta, well away from the baby, (which may well feel the cut), and thus had a long, hanging cord for a week or so. This can lead to problems if the cord gets wet from pee.

The sticky tape used was pathetic, (probably ok for the normal "close cut belly button jobs", but for the longer "flying appendage", not sufficient.

I wish I had made sure that I had oberved more closely with the first, just what to do.

We live and learn.

Hope this helps

a

[karenpl]

We had baby problems with first home birth. Baby had stridor and needed to transfer to the hospital. He stayed there for 14 days. It was so nice to finally have him home!

This was a congenital problem, had nothing to do with the birth.

I had five homebirths after that one, all of which went without any big problems.

[Spark]

I suppose that if I had birthed in a hospital, red flags would have been flying. I was fully dialated after 5 hours of labor and could not push the baby out no matter what I did. I was fine. The baby was fine. I just could not get him out. 12 hours later he was born. Glad the midwife and I had patience. He was well worth the wait.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering -- my labor was pretty much pain-free. I had 1 and 1/2 hours of OWWWW! So, patience was quite easy to muster in those remaining 12 hours.

Claire
with nice sweet baby Jude born 11/28/02 on his father's birthday!

[joyberryjoy]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by karenpl
[B]We had baby problems with first home birth. Baby had stridor and needed to transfer to the hospital.

What is stridor? Haven't run across that one in my reading yet!

joy

[karenpl]

stridor

Stridor is a very noisy breathing. Different from wheezing though. In the case of my first baby, it was caused by laryngomalacia, a 'floppy' larynx. More than you ever wanted to know about stridor can be found at http://www.childsdoc.org/spring98/stridor/stridor.asp

[Sylvia Lynn]

i had high bp which didn't go down no matter what we did through the last trimester. we were carefully monitored by an expert midwife so we were able to stay home. good thing cuz at my age (44) i'd be under pressure for unwanted intervention.