Girls, would you consider having a home birth?

[PetiteParisienne]

Each woman must do what is right for her, however. Birth is extremely personal....and precious.

A safe birth is a successful birth.

[CelticViking]

When confronted with the idea of home birth, many women are fearful and dismissive. Indeed, many women are fearful of the concept of birth at all. Why has our culture created this fear? This article will seek to explore both the subject of home birth and birth in general and our attitudes around it.

Prior to our grandmothers’ generation, nearly every child was born at home. Those few unfortunate women who had no family to assist them, were alone in the world or suffered serious health risks, were assigned to the maternity wards of hospitals. These wards were filthy and germ infested and more mothers and babies died here than anywhere else. After World War II, it began to be common practice to have babies in hospitals, due to the fact that many women’s husbands were overseas in the war. For some reason, we never went back to the ways of our foremothers and now it is taken for granted that most babies will be born in a hospital. In fact, home birth will account for less than 7% of all births in the United States. Births in first world countries such as the Netherlands and New Zealand are very well attended by midwives and over a third of all birth in the former country are at home. Netherlands, in fact, has one of the lowest infant/mother mortality rates in the world, while for a first world country, the U.S. has one of the worst with a nearly 25% C section rate, which is much too high by WHO standards which sets it as 10% to 15 % for all developed countries. This is nearly non-existent for home births, as midwives allow a woman to work with her body and take her time. Also, epidurals vastly increase the risks of needing a Caesarian. One obstetrician remarked at how the c-section rates had increased since the ‘70s with the introduction of epidurals. In addition, hospital birth promotes complications not found in home births such as the use of fetal monitors, an unfamiliar environment, and unnecessary procedures to name but a few.

I will not spend a lot of time comparing home births versus hospital births and the benefits versus the disadvantages, because I believe that if you are reading this article, you simply want to know how to have a good home birthing experience, not be convinced of one method over another.

My experience with home birth began in 1999 when I became pregnant with our daughter. I already knew I wanted a home birth and I had little trouble finding a midwife, as a personal friend already was apprenticed to her. I did not go to several midwives and interview them, though that would have been wise, for as it turns out, I found I was much more compatible and at ease with the midwife who attended my following two children’s births. I highly recommend finding several and interviewing them, though I did not and found the midwife most suitable to me via trial and error. Some things to look for might be as follows:

* How long has she been practicing midwifery?
* Is she licensed with any organization such as MANA? (Midwives Association of North America)
* Is she comfortable with water births and attend them often?
* What is her transfer rate? (That is, how many women does she have to transfer in an emergency to a hospital)
* What is her hospital transporting policy?
* Does she do twin pregnancies?
* How about breech births?
* Does she work with assistants?
* What are her fees and how and when does she expect payment?
* What sort of postpartum care does she provide?
* What is involved with her prenatal care? Ask about things such as early detection of problem areas for the mother and her baby; nutrition information, exercise recommendations, recommendations for parent education via books, videos, or classes
* How long does she typically spend on one visit?
* Will she do home visits late in your pregnancy when you don’t feel much like traveling? (My midwife was an hour away and I loved her for this!)
* And last but not least, note how compatible your personality us with hers. Don’t hesitate to let her know (within reason) how you would like to do things. This is your birth and she is here to make it the best possible experience.

My first midwife was a very experienced lady who knew what she was doing and did it well. But she wanted to do it all her way and when she came over the day of the birth, she pretty much took over. She took one look at my pelvis and declared I would have to labor in a squatting position, which I found to be very uncomfortable. She was very rigid in her approach. She provided most of the basics and told me to get a certain kit with everything I would need in it. If you are the kind of person who does not care to take responsibility for your own birth and is uncertain of it, this kind of personality is for you.

However, if you already have some preconceived notions and have done a lot of reading in the subject, you will want some one who is far more flexible with how she will do things. This is my preference and my next (and current) midwife was this way. She told me I could labor any way I chose. Her philosophy was that a woman’s body is made to produce babies and women have an intuition on how best to labor. She gave few orders and merely listened to the baby’s pulse and measured the water temperature from time to time. When it came time for our son to crown, I caught him myself and brought him forward out of the water.

I found when I went into labor with my youngest, I had, thanks to her influence, become so at ease with labor and with my own body, found I was very relaxed and had little pain aside from pain from the contractions, and was chatting amiably with my midwives in between. My youngest was pushed out in a matter of ten minutes, after only about four hours of hard labor that wasn’t really very hard at all! His father caught him and passed him forward to me. In short, how your midwife makes you feel is very important in how you will feel during the birth!

The same applies to your decision on whether you have anyone else attending besides your child’s father and the midwives. Many women, whether at home or in the hospital, choose to have sisters, mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and friends with them. This is a personal choice, but keep in mind that while it may seem like a good idea to invite them when you were only three months along in your pregnancy, you can quickly be uncomfortable with their presence in the birthing room and your discomfort can impede the progress of labor. The same goes for children. If you are worried how your children may react or are uncomfortable with their presence, it may be best to arrange a babysitter. In fact, anything that makes you uncomfortable or upset while you are in labor can slow or stop it. With my first, my Labrador was hit by a car in the early stages of labor. I was so upset, labor stopped altogether. In this case, my midwife sent me on a long walk to start it up again. But I was so distressed about the loss of my dog, it affected how I labored. So if at all possible, try to seek out any things that might distress you ahead of time and find a way to minimize them. (Unfortunately my dog getting hit was something I could not have predicted!) And by all means, take the phone off the hook! Now is not the time for anxious grandmas to be calling up to see if the baby has arrived yet. In fact, we did not notify anyone when I went into labor, preferring to tell everyone after the birth.

Now there are some other things you may want to consider for your home birth that would be different than a hospital birth, where these things are provided. Remember, in a home birth you need to take much more responsibility. But the payoff is much greater in that you have so many more choices!

Children
* As mentioned before, if you have older children, you will need to consider their needs. If they are very small (three or under) it would be wise for Grandma, another caring relative or a trusted friend to have responsibility of them during this time. If you and they are comfortable with it, it is a wonderful experience to have them at the birth and witness the joy as their new sibling comes into the world. My oldest was present for most of the labor for her youngest brother, but she tended to become easily bored and wandered off to watch children’s DVDs, to return the kitchen from time to time to watch the progress. I was fine with this. My second child, their father put down for a nap in the afternoon and he slept through the birth. He was only two and my daughter four. As you can see, I did not have a good plan in order and simply hoped for the best, as I had no relatives and no friends I could trust close by. When son number one was born, it was late and night and my daughter was sleeping

Nutritious refreshments
* For you, or for your attendants. In the hospital, nutrition is given to you only in the form of an IV, the reasoning being that if you were to need an emergency c-section, you would be able to be put immediately under anesthetic. However, Caesarians are rare in home births and you really do need to keep your strength up. Still, keep food light. The idea here is to keep up your strength, not indulge in a seven course meal. Good ideas for this are whole grain crackers, toast with nut butter, fruit, or anything else that is healthy and you find particularly desirable at this time. I highly recommend pouring non-sweetened fruit juice in ice cube trays and having these to suck on when labor becomes hard. I also recommend making a casserole and freezing it ahead of time for your midwives and partner and/or children. Having a meal readily at hand is always appreciated. While you are at it, whenever you make a casserole or a soup as you near your due date, double the batch and put it in the freezer. Your mate will thank you later, as it will give him more time to spend with his baby and less time in the kitchen as you rest.

Room Preference
* What room will you want to birth in? This may depend on several factors. Some of them may be how comfortable you feel there, the view, how warm or cool it is, or how practical. My last two births were water births, so I chose the kitchen based on the fact we have hard vinyl flooring there and it was close to the water source in the laundry room. It was actually very pleasant as I had the bamboo blinds drawn to filter in a soft light and I had candles burning to make it smell nice. Very few women choose to birth in bed. But if you do, you need to consider things like plastic sheets to protect your bed and if you have carpet, some cheap vinyl shower curtains on the floor would be wise as well. Don’t forget to stock up on several bottles of hydrogen peroxide, as this is very useful for removing blood stains.

Atmosphere
* Since you are having a home birth, you have the room to make choices based on what would make you most comfortable. As I mentioned before, I had scented candles burning in my kitchen (make sure they are placed away from other objects such as curtains and out of the reach of pets and small children and not where they will be tipped over) and I paid close attention to how the way the lighting made me feel. Think about what makes you feel relaxed and try to replicate it to the best of your ability. After all, this is a momentous occasion in the life of your baby and also you and your partner. It is also nice to have soft music playing. I chose a CD of soft soothing, contemporary Celtic. Some soft mellow, Classical would be nice as well. Whatever you choose, keep it soothing and not too loud. If you have automatic replay on your CD player, use this as well.

The Baby’s Father
* What role do you want him to assume in the birth? What role is he comfortable with? Discuss these feelings honestly with each well before the baby’s arrival. Levels of comfort range all the way from being able take over if the midwives do not arrive on time to not wishing to be present at all. You must both be honest and respect each others needs and wishes. When our children were born, their father was very instrumental at their arrival. As I mentioned before, he caught our first son and cut the cords. Each baby was laid in his arms soon after the cord was cut and while the midwives cleaned me up and helped me to bed. He soothed and encouraged me, massaged my back when I needed it, helped me in and out of the shower or birthing pool and was nearly constantly at my side. Neither he nor I would have had it any other way. If your partner is agreeable to a home birth in the first place, he is likely to have a positive attitude to birth in general. If not, and this is something that is really important to you, you can work to gently educate him. He may wish to catch the baby and cut the cord. This is often a way for a father to participate in a birth, whereas in a hospital, he is so often relegated to the role of sperm donor and spectator. Discuss these options with your midwives

Birth has been, unfortunately, misrepresented to both men and women, though rapidly, attitudes are changing for the better. It is an emotional time for the whole family. Through enriching our knowledge of birth and the options available to us, we can present it anew to our women as a wonderful experience and not something to be dreaded or avoided. One birth, one step at a time, we can make our way to a Whiter, brighter world.

Recommended Reading

http://www.homebirth.org.uk/ Home birth is a subject that has more breadth and depth can be covered in one article. This site has a lot of information to offer.

http://www.mana.org/ Midwives Alliance of North America. A wonderful source for information and finding a midwife in your area.

http://www.homebirth.org.nz/

http://www.homebirth.ie/

Childbirth Without Fear – The Original Approach to Natural Childbirth Grantley Dick-Read M.D. Harper Paperbacks A must read on approaching childbirth with a whole new attitude.

Mothering Magazine’s Having a Baby Naturally Peggy O’Mara editor and publisher of Mothering Magazine Atria Books A good home birth relies on a sound, healthy pregnancy and an understanding, not a fear of your female body. This book is excellent.

Healing Yourself During Pregnancy Joy Gardner The Crossing Press

In addition, Peggy O’ Mara’s Mothering magazines are an excellent source of information in regards to all things pertaining to raising your child the natural way. I highly disagree with the multicultural aspects that are sometimes promoted in this publication, but if you can overlook this, you can glean a lot of good info on home birth, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, organic cooking, non-circumcision and vaccination alternatives to name a few. It is definitely not like your average parenting magazine out there. Here is their web site. http://www.mothering.com/

http://homefrontmagazine.org/

[Foxy]

I had the cord around my neck at the moment of the birth and I was soffocking. Mom needed an urgent caesarium, so no, I exclude it since the beginning.

[larali]

I voted "hospital birth" because I happen to like hospitals and doctors, but that's my personal preference. I would be afraid something would go wrong if I were to try at home.

As a matter of fact, i did have a complicated labor the first time (cephalopelvic disproportion) so I had to have a C-section. Maybe things would have been all right at home if I'd have waited it out... but it's doubtful.

Second time around I had a C-section by default since I'd already had one (hospital rule.) I was OK with that.

[Kazimiera]

I voted "hospital birth" because I happen to like hospitals and doctors, but that's my personal preference. I would be afraid something would go wrong if I were to try at home.

As a matter of fact, i did have a complicated labor the first time (cephalopelvic disproportion) so I had to have a C-section. Maybe things would have been all right at home if I'd have waited it out... but it's doubtful.

Second time around I had a C-section by default since I'd already had one (hospital rule.) I was OK with that.

If the problem was due to your pelvic structure, you could have waited all you wanted and the baby would not have come out and it will make no difference in future pregnancies. So that is c-section for you.

[Leliana]

Yes I could think of it, but with professional assistance only. Everything else was too risky if anything's not okay in the process.

[Queen B]

We have a history of twins, big babies, and long births in our family, so I prefer hospital to be honest.

[Bobby Martnen]

It depends entirely on the woman.

Birth is a painful and personal experience and fear from being in hospital and not understanding of what goes on around them makes some women even more stressed and can prolong labour. A hospital is not the most conducive place for childbirth for everyone.

Many women prefer to do it at home with family members present. The advantages of this is that it is a more personal and intimate experience, it is cheaper, the woman is more relaxed and this can make labour shorter and less painful.

A first pregnancy can bring about some unexpected problems though, should the head not engage well into the pelvis, if the child is breech, obstructed labour and hemorrhaging. Many midwives prefer to do a second birth at home if the first has proven itself normal. First pregnancies can be risky because you are not always sure what you are dealing with.

Some women feel more secure in hospital and a home birth would just increase the anxiety levels.

Personally, I prefer to do first pregnancies in a hospital setting. I am more relaxed about second and third pregnancies. After that its get a bit dicey again because there is a higher chance for uterine prolapse and hemorrhaging after about 4-5.

My great-great-grandfather's second wife (who I am not related to) gave birth to 17 children with him.