did you have unexpected problems with home birth? - Page 9

[loraxc]

Completely smooth and problem-free "butter birth" here.

[crazy_eights]

Originally Posted by Mindyleigh

Rather than asking questions like "How much do you trust birth," I recommend actually finding out if your midwife has any experience handling an emergency at all.

Wow! I see from your siggy that you are Psalm and Zoya's mother. I have to say that I find this so ironic, only b/c I've heard SO many people make comments about "trusting birth", etc. after seeing your twins' birth video.

During the aforementioned shoulder dystocia, the midwife freaked out when she couldn't resolve it and left the room.

That is just nuts. I was once at a birth (as a doula) with a shoulder dystocia where the midwife's assistant fell to the floor and started praying rather than helping. I wound up assisting the midwife to resolve the dystocia. She was later dismissed from her apprenticeship. It scares me silly now that I hear that this woman is now out touting her services as an independent midwife.

[zoie2013]

For my first hb, I really believe that if I hadn't been birthing at home, I know I would have ended up with a c-section. Lots of minor complications and issues with me that added up to a long complex labor. I still look back on it with so much joy and empowerment.

My second hb, was a stillbirth. We knew our little girl had died and my mw wanted me to go to the hospital because of hemorrhage danger. But, I knew with my gut that everything would be okay. My mw heard the truth of my words and knew I would never consent to going to the hospital. We ended up ucing, as our mw didn't get back to us in time, and it was incredibly sad, but beautiful birth experience.

I am looking forward to doing it again. I'd hb no matter what unless there was a real risk to the baby or me. Even if I ever needed a hospital birth, I would labor at home as long as possible and have my mw and doula with me. At least beginning at home, if I end up at the hospital, it's because I really need to be there.

[Mindyleigh]

Originally Posted by mom2seven

Wow! I see from your siggy that you are Psalm and Zoya's mother. I have to say that I find this so ironic, only b/c I've heard SO many people make comments about "trusting birth", etc. after seeing your twins' birth video.

Yep, that's me. It IS ironic, I suppose. I don't mean to be a big downer, but when I read about a midwife blaming someone's problem in birth on her psychology, it really bugs me. And then there's the whole abandonment during shoulder dystocia thing. NOT OKAY!!! Bah.

[Maltagirl]

My first was a hospital birth. It's a low-tech, community hospital with no NICU or even epidural capability (they do intrathecals), so the birth itself went fairly intervention-free (I had a hep-lock and they wanted me on the monitor for 15 minutes each hour, and they broke my water).

Postpartum was a total nightmare and I vowed to never give birth in a hospital again.

I had my 2nd baby at home. My labor was mostly uneventful, midwife came less than an hour before my son was born...we attempted a waterbirth but he was stuck at the shoulders. My midwife got him out and he needed some blow-by oxygen for the first hour or so. We were then admitted to the hospital on the 2nd day for jaundice (which was also a problem with my first baby) and treated like lepers. I then vowed never to need to be admitted to that hospital again.

My third was born at home 10 weeks ago. It was the most awful labor -- days long, really, and she was born with her fist up by her face. But, I had my waterbirth, it was incredible! No shouler dystocia this time. We let the placenta come when it needed to (almost an hour after my baby was born) and left the cord attached for a while longer after that...I think these, plus not being separated at all after the birth were helpful in preventing the jaundice that plagued my first two babies. My 3rd had elevated bilirubin, but not enough to need observation or phototherapy.

I'm quite sure that my 3rd birth and postpartum would have been very different had they taken place in the hospital, and no one can convince me that outcomes for ME and MY BABIES are better in a hospital setting.

[mama_at_home]

We had things that were unexpected, but no real problems.

[3xx1xyFamily]

it's such a minor thing, but for a HWBAC it's a big deal... in any hospital this would have been an immediate c-sec.... She was Tachy Cardia (stressed)... her heart rate was in the 180's. A normal heart rate for my baby was in the low 130's. I started to get dehydrated from vomiting constantly, so the MW force fed me (even though I continued to vomit) about 30 minutes later her heart rate was back down and I delivered at home 5 hours later

[Belleweather]

No problems with mama or baby... but a BIG problem with the weather. I went into labor on a day that we were expecting 9-13 inches of snow, on top of the snow we'd gotten earlier in the week that hadn't been adequately cleared yet. The roads were an unsafe mess and we live half-way down a steep hill, so getting to our house in this kind of weather is non-trivial task.

Everyone arrived on time and safely, including the baby, but there was definately a period where the midwife team were considering snow shoes and cross country skiis as possible modes of transport to get to our birth. We were very lucky that our neighbor works with the town fire department and had them come in and clear our street and drive when he heard we'd be birthing that day, and stood out in the snow to help direct the midwives in and help push cars when they got stuck.

[Cookie5765]

My first birth was at a free standing birthing center (homebirth wasn't legal at the time) and the baby was posterior. I dilated from 2-9cm in like an hour (after my water had been broken for numerous hours but then would not progress more. It took many hours and after I hemmorhaged. The midwives (who were not the midwives I had through the pregnancy) were panicy and tense and it was not a positive experience though they did handle it well and I was able to stay at the birthing center.

Birth 2 at home I had a massive hemmorhage and did end up transferring after 3 hours (the midwives were really wonderful and caring, knowing I really wanted a "gentle 3rd stage"). They got the initial heavy heavy bleeding to stop with pit (and another medication) and I had an IV but I continued to "ooze" blood over the next three hours and it wasn't really slowing down so they had no choice but to transfer at that time. The midwives gave me some homeopathics in the ambulance and did manual compression and the bleeding had slowed significantly by the time we arrived at the hospital (I out right refused to go to the nearest hospital and wanted to go to the one that my midwives normally transfer to so it was about a 30-45 minute ride). I received another IV of pit and was able to go home the next morning. They were VERY low on blood so let me go home without a transfussion though they normally would have given one for what my levels were at.

[jgale]

I had two beautiful homebirths without any complications. My second was a waterbirth. Jessi

[jgale]

I had two beautiful homebirths without any complications. My second was a waterbirth. Jessi

[DreamsInDigital]

I had one completely uneventful home waterbirth. I had a minor complication with my second homebirth. I had a PPH that resolved itself after a tincture and rest and nursing and the birth was otherwise completely normal.

[~Heyokha~]

I work with a MW as a birth assistant and I have yet to see a transfer or any real complication BUT because i am difficult at my HB had A LOT of pp bleeding. I had the IV, pit, methergine, etc... The bleeding subsided so I declined to be transferred. I felt like crap for nearly a week. pp day 3 my hgb was 6.9 but it climbed everyday substantially.

[lc81002]

No problems. My son did have an odd placenta/cord insertion but thankfully it never caused any problems. It likely could have, so I feel very blessed that everything was fine. It was a random, freak thing so I will definitely plan homebirths with all my future babies too.

[christyc]

Interesting... Looks like we have about 83.61% happening either without complications or handled by the midwife or mom.

In my homebirth, the things handled by the midwife include:
- Baby B posterior, they helped me get into different positions to help her descent, were patient and checked heart tones frequently during the almost-2 hours it took for her to come out.
- Baby B born with cord around shoulder, midwife loosened and removed it before I pushed her the rest of the way out.
- I had a small tear from baby B, midwife stitched it.
- I had excessive bleeding and retained clots. Midwife manually removed clots (OW!), 1 IV and 2 IM shots of pitocin, and methergine.

All in all, nothing too complicated there. Although I did vote "problems with mom, handled at home."

[whoziwhatsit]

Two super-fast butter births for me, although I wouldn't want to do the second one again...little too quick.

[mac5977]

I voted no problems for anybody based on the UC birth of my third child, Douglas. My labor was 2.5 hours start to finish and a dream. Joy, I really will write his birth story soon. But on reflection, maybe I should have said there were problems with me that were resolved with help from the MW I saw for prenatal care the next day. I had a little piece of retained placenta and membranes, but it wasn't a big deal.

My second child, Rowan, was born at a stand-alone birth center with MW's. He had the cord wrapped around his neck and torso and ended up with very wet lungs. Apgars of 5, I think? He was transferred via ambulance to the NICU for 48 hours of observation, but he was fine.

[elmh23]

"yes, a problem with mom, but we managed birth at home anyway" was what acutally happened, but looking back, I should have transferred. I hemorraged after he was born and continued to bleed for 3 months before I had a D&C done to take out something (not placenta, not an extra baby, they don't know what it was) that was in my uterus.

I bled with my first baby too but she was at the hospital so I already had an IV in place to help me recover. Next baby will also be a hosptial birth because ds's birth was just a little too scary. And even my doula friend who wants to be a midwife and currently works in L&D as an RN says with my history I should have a hospital birth next time.

[slymamato3]

All 3 of my girls were born at home. 1st 2 no issues at all...#1 39hrs(19 prodromal) 2nd 6hrs much easier With #3 labor was stopping &starting. I had a conization of my cervix quite awhile before becoming pregnant. When my cervix was trying to dilate there seemed to be some scar tissue keeping me from truly opening(2 MW's and a student couldn't even find my cervix for about 12hrs or so:. Once we heard the POP of that scar tissue giving way things moved right along and we had a beautiful waterbirth. After she was born she seemed to be having a tough time really breathing and pinking up so we decided to transfer. I was really feeling like she just needed a few more minutes but was watching my concerned DH and felt like we should go. My MW was also pretty freshly certified and she didn't have the experience under her belt to make any other call. Long story short... I got DD latched on while they were transferring us to the ambulance and she was absolutely fine there after.

I had yet to deliver the placenta and had to be catheterized before I could do so. Then they manually swept my uterus (after dosing me up on too much pain med) Thankfully the md was a small woman w/ little hands!

In hindsight I would have saved alot of undo stress just giving dd the extra couple of minutes. But we are all healthy and you never know what we could have faced otherwise. I am still trying to figure out why it was we went thru all of that ... what lesson were we being taught???

[berkeleyp]

Yes problems with baby resulting in death. We finished the birth at home because she died literally 5 mins before she came out.