Home Birth

Hi! I am planning a homebirth, but unfortunately I have to pay out of pocket. If I chose to birth in a hospital the fees would be covered by my insurance policy minus the deductible though.

The main reasons for me are that I am having my 2nd VBAC and the interventions and requirements that would be placed on me if I went to a hospital would be too restrictive. I doubt I would even be able to labor there at all. The hospital in my town doesnt even allow VBACs anymore anyways, so Id have to drive about an hour to get to one that would "allow" me to "try" to VBAC without rupturing.

Also, I know how I like to labor: with privacy, darkness and no one talking or distracting me and I dont think I would get that at anywhere other than my home.

I think that homebirth for me is just much safer, emotionally and physically. I want to have a good experience and not feel violated afterward.

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so many babies? you're only on #5!

I chose homebirth because of my experience in the hospital with my first baby. Ugh!

Medicaid would have covered a hospital birth (my insurance was major medical only) but we preferred to give a huge chunk of our tax refund to the midwife for a homebirth.

One of the best things I have ever done!

we're also paying out of pocket for our homebirth. After learning so much about birth since my first child was born, there is nothing you could say to make me want to go back to the hospital. I just feel that homebirth is the right choice for us, finances be damned.

I think a hospital birth would actually cost us more but I am not sure...My insurance covers both but I have a huge deductible ($1000) and then I have to pay an additional 20% of all costs on top of that. However, I have never really considered a hospital birth for many other reasons.

I don't believe that hospitals are very sanitary to begin with. There have been a lot of Staph infections come out of our local hospital.

The rooms are not private at all. Two women per room.

The doctors here are pretty c-section happy.

Birth is a natural process that should be a family affair and I believe western medical care should only be imployed if there are complications with mom and/or babe.

I will feel much more comfortable in familiar surroundings which will lead to an "easier" birth (if there is really any such thing :LOL)

I will be surrounded by love, caring, and people who want to help me, not machines, coldness and constant monitoring.

If I do end up in the hospital, it will be for good reason and I know I will be taken good care of. In my opinion that is what they are there for. The staff is very compassionate and they love what they do so I am not worried about the "people" just the procedures and birthing philosophy of the hospital.

I would love to have a home birth. I live in RI, where they are"illegal", but there are ways to get around that I have been told.
I delivered my daughter in a birthing center attached to a great hosptial here in RI, with great midwives and my husband to help.
However, saying that, now pg with # 2 I have been thinking about labouring/ delivering at home, but when our daughter was born she wasnot breathing properly, she had meconium , and she was in distress. Her heartbeat was very low, and she had to go to the NICU immediately. I didn't get to see her or touch / nurse her until she was 6 hours old. I obviously think about that when I am considering a home birth, and wonder what would have happened if I hadn't been in a birthing center attatched that was so close to the hospital?
Just my experience, good luck with all your births, where ever they are

Once again, hospital would probably be cheaper for us. Our mw is out of network so we pay a higher percentage out of pocket after our deductible. But even if our insurance didn't pay at all, I would still have one.

I was raised with hb and never really witnessed a hospital birth so I can't say that having one made me go this route, but I was recently able to be with a friend for her natural hospital birth. You have to be so much more brave! You have to constantly tell people no. You have to deal with nurses not listening to you even when you do say no (like checking her cervix during a ctx). At home I feel respected. I know my mw like a good friend. I am surrounding by people who love me and know my birth plan. After the baby is born it doesn't leave me, even for 5 minutes. If it needs oxygen, it can have that in my arms, not distressed across the room. The germs that I am already immune to and therefore have antibodies for in my colostrum are the only germs my baby will be exposed to. I know my baby will be treated as a person, with respect and love, instead of a thing. And in the end, I get to cuddle up to sleep in my own bed, in my own clothes, with my toddler and my dh with me. No one is going to wake me or baby to take vitals. I can eat whatever I want.

Money was one of that reasons I had homebith. Hospital birth would cost us more than homebirth.
Plus is was paid off before the baby was born...no more payment afterwards, like we'd have to do with hospital bill.

Last week I had to go to ER with my DH (it was first time in years I was in hospital enviroment) and thought myself how glad I was to have homebirth. I don't think I would make any progress laboring in hospital....so cold and hi-tech.... :

dh=Dear husband
VBAC-Vaginal birth after cesarean

Your birth location is a deeply personal choice. That said, I would recommend a homebirth to anyone who is comfortable with it. You should never plan to birth
anywhere that you will not be comfortable in though, as it has a drastic impact on birth outcome. Many women simply are not comfortable in a hospital, with the noise, the lights, the interventions, the high liklihood of a cesarean, etc...and coversely, some women are not comfortable at home.

What your hopsital LOOKS like really has very little to do with how they will treat you when you are in labor, and how they will treat your infant when it is born. You need to ask them what their cesarean rate is, what their VBAC rate is, what their protocol on the Friedman curve is, do they allow full rooming-in, what their rate of epidurals and electronic fetal monitoring is, etc...do not be lured in by looks! When you are in labor, it won't matter if you are in a palace...if you are hooked up to a zillion machines and catheterized and given a cesarean, it is probably going to suck for you and your baby.

Find out what is important to you for your birth, and then find a way to get that for you and your baby.

I really recommend you read around on our Birth and Beyond, Homebirth, and Birth Stories forums.

and Welcome to Mothering! We have Due Date Clubs, too that you can join...that way you can journey with other women through your pregnancies!

Edited to add: Yes, a lot of women here have had UCs (unassisted childbirths) without midwives, and have had wonderful births. Check out some stories in the Birth Stories forum!

Our last homebirth was done intentionally without a midwife - we're doing it that way again this time around.
For me personally, I found that not having anyone else around other than my husband really let my body do what it needed to do, without stressing out the baby. Our UC baby was the only one out of 5 to not have breathing problems or jaundice, and I think that has a lot to do with how we handled the birthing of the placenta & the cord cutting. We did it the way midwives had assured me it would be done (birth placenta, then cut when the ord is limp & white) but never followed through with.
It's totally not about the money for us - Medicaid would pay all hospital expenses if we went that route. We just like to be the ones calling the shots, and accepting full responsibility for the outcome. DH can't participate like he'd like to when there are other birth attendants. When it's just him & me, we make a great team

Have you looked into the stuff on the web about unassisted childbirth? A great place to start is Laura Kaplan Shanley's site www.unassistedchildbirth.com
The cbirth yahoo group was really helpful to me, too.

We are planning to have our second baby at home. We don't have maternity coverage so there is the financial incentive but that is not the main reason. We had a great birth with ds at the hospital, I had a doula & midwife and it was very low tech and it was spiritual and beautiful. But there were little things that bugged me that I think would bug me even more the second time around...and most of it was after the birth. Because ds wasn't nursing great and we didn't want to give formula they wouldn't *let* us go home. We had to stay an extra night which was a drag because as soon as we got home ds started nursing fine. (gee, wonder why) The overall environment did not feel settled....people kept coming in the room at all hours of the night and day - to do stupid things like change the trash and it often woke me up. At one point they wheeled in a TV for us to watch a video on baby care. All I wanted to do was sleep with my baby and dh and I was uncomfortable in the bed and dh was sleeping on an uncomfortable cot. I can't even imagine how much better I would feel at home. I just felt an overall loss of control and like I was constantly being lectured and talked down to. Also, since this is our second, I want ds to be part of the birth and don't want to be away from him.

Having said that, I actually am very glad I had my first at the hospital. I was very nervous and didn't feel comfortable with homebirth yet. I don't think its good to do anything that you are not comfortable with....how can you relax if you are feeling anxious? Now that I have been through birth and know what to expect I feel much more confident about doing it at home.

Personally, I wouldn't attempt to give birth at home without a midwife. I think I would feel very uncomfortable without someone trained and competent to assist us.

we're planning an unassisted homebirth ... not so much for financial reasons as much as the fact that i trust that my body is capable of growing and birthing a healthy baby, and also that i know birth progresses better outside of a hospital environment.

i just found a perfect article that just about completely sums up my beliefs on birth actually... http://www.freestone.org/articles/FearOfBirth.html

i think that should give you an insight into why i am choosing freebirth over hospital birth (or even homebirth w/ midwife).