I would take your dh to some local homebirthing events (meetups and such) so he can talk to people that have had homebirths. Like pp said, it's not illegal for you, just for the midwife. The midwives come VERY prepared to births (monitors, pitocin, oxygen, etc). I had my twins at home, and my first baby came out great, but his brother wasn't breathing. Both of my midwives immediately gave him cpr, put him on oxygen and had my doula call 911. They got him breathing at home, but he was still transferred. They handled it GREAT. When the paramedics came to transfer him, THEY were the ones freaked out and acting like chickens with their heads cut off (yelling at my friend that my first baby "needed to be wrapped up in a blanket like a real baby" instead of attending to my baby that had trouble breathing!
) They're suspecting that what my LO has is a chromosomal disorder, so how he came out would have been the same no matter where he was born. My baby has since been in and out of the hospital constantly (including 7 or so weeks in the NICU when he was first transferred), so i really treasure that i got to have him at home whereas in a hospital he would have been whisked away immediately, and probably kept from me for hours and hours with little to no information given.
As far as your kids being taken away, they can't be. However dh and i did have dcs called on us once I transferred (needed stitches and the paramedics said come on,and i was dazed so i went) but not because we had a homebirth. They were "concerened" because I signed my self and my healthy baby out AMA. This was our hospital experience and it was HORRIBLE. His blood sugar was a little low, so they wanted to keep him for observation. I had to fight them to let me breastfeed him. I got stitched up and then wanted to leave to go see my other baby. They kept trying to come up with reasons for me to stay ("well, you're iron's low", "well, i'll just take iron supplements" "iron supplements wont raise your iron" "really? what do anemcis do?!"
) I was sick of it, so I signed us out AMA, amid them telling me that even though my healthy babies blood sugar came up, he could become hypoglycemic and crash and die any second (while they were talking about how active and alert he was and they were so concerned about him but refused to transfer him to the better hospital where his brother was), that my blood pressure was slightly high (duh, i just gave birth to twins, one's in the hospital, of course it's high) that i had to be obsevered there then put on magnesium or i'd have a seizure and die (the nurse actually said "go home, have a seizure and die then" when i refused stuff and told me that taking liquid magnesium at home wouldn't do a thing for me, i had to be on magnesium at the hospital) and that iron supplements wouldn't raise my iron levels, i had to have a blood transfusion or i'd pass out and die on the spot. On the complaint, they listed that we weren't listening to medical advice (because we refused to admit our healthy baby for observation while his brother was sick at another hospital), signed him out ama, weren't vaxing (religious objection) and because we weren't circumsizing (it was actually listed on the complaint). Yeah, really.
The case worker thought it was ridiculous. In the end nothing came of it, but it was still a hassle. It has only strenghthened my resolve to never give birth in a hospital unless i absolutely had to.
As far as the other stuff, our insurance actually paid for the entire birth outright. I didn't have to pay and then get reimbursed. Some pay more that way (with preauthorization), and some pay out more the other way, it really depends on your ins company.
I had shadow care for about half of my pregnancy. I dropped it to so ins would pay for my homebirth. There is a place in Atlanta to get free ultrasounds at. They're really nice. It's done by students, so it takes a little bit longer, but hey, it's free. I did this because i couldn't get ultrasounds once i dropped my shadow care (the peri wanted to talk to my ob before giving me an ultrasound). If i would have had to have testing after i dropped shadow care, i would have gone to one of those "any test" places.
BTW, DomerJen, i had your midwife as my second midwife at my birth ( i had two since i was having twins), and I loved her, she's AWESOME. Tell her her twins mama from July said hi, she'll know who you're talking about.
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Good choice.
