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Just curious -- have you chosen NOT to know gender until baby arrives?
I joined in a discussion in the insurance group in the Health area and brought up the subject of midwife and doula etc and got so beat up by others about my thoughts. I was born at home in 1938 with family doctor assisting. Everyone was born at home for decades/centuries...my brother at home too in 1942 and sister in hospital in 1948.
I was wondering how many young women TODAY even consider the midwife home birth experience? Hospitals are so cold and so for the sick. But it's 21st century.
Good wishes and I'll check in to see how things go for you.
When my daughter got preg with first child, I suggested the home birth experience and got slammed by her husband. She did have a natural first birth, second ended up stillborn at 8months and 3rd was C section. They weren't taking chances. Take care.
Ya think? Not your place whatsoever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot
This is exactly why most women don't choose home births.
And please, don't bombard us with statistics about how home births have better outcomes than hospital deliveries. Only women in the lowest risk groups even consider home births. If you know you have any medical condition or any risk of complications, you go to the hospital where there is an actual doctor. There's a reason for that.
OP, best of luck to you!
Amen.
OP- it's nice to have a "birth plan" but as the mother of 4 myself, you have very little control at the outcome.
Just noticed some new replies and thought I'd check back in to let you know how things are going. I'm at 29 weeks now and the baby has turned head down, past the fibroid, so it looks like barring emergency complications I will be able to deliver vaginally. Yay! I have had to give up the birth center plan, however, because my placenta is partially implanted on the fibroid, which means a higher risk of post-partum hemmorage.
Aside from the hassle of having to find a new care provider who has hospital privileges, I'm feeling okay about it. I've been doing a lot of reading about preparing for a hospital birth with as little intervention as possible, and I have strong advocates in both my husband and my midwife, who is willing to be with me as a doula. I have some nervousness about the chance of getting stuck with hospital staff who won't respect my wishes, but I'm hoping those concerns will be eased a bit when I go for my tour next week.
I appreciate the assurances that having a healthy baby would trump my birth plan concerns. You were right! Baby is healthy, moving around a lot, and big! I am feeling blessed and much more at peace with the situation. Thank you!
I'm due in a few weeks, and am having the same issue with my current pregnancy as the last (mentioned previously on thread) which is breech positioning common to my uterine anomaly. This time, they will be trying to perform an external cranial version (manually turning the baby), to try to avoid c-section. ECV only has a 50% success rate, though, and less in cases like mine, so it's really just a hail mary. I learned last time, make your plans in pencil, don't get too attached to the idea of a solid birth plan, be flexible and roll with it. I more likely than not won't have a standard birth experience...we'll have MY birth experience. And that's okay.
I had not planned on "bombarding" this group with any stats, believe me...
Just another point of view and I'd bet enough women STILL elect more natural settings for birthing. Thanks.
I've had two pregnancies in the past two and a half years, and my observation has been that natural birth techniques and trends are definitely on the upswing...among low-risk pregnancies and mothers who don't require medical intervention and extensive monitoring. Doulas and midwives are doing booming business in populated areas where people are of a SES to afford them (many insurance providers will not cover doula and midwife services and fees can be steep. Even traditional hospital and birthing centers are adding a variety of more natural options for laboring techniques...squatting bars, equipment for water births, etc. This is less common in rural and poorer hospitals, many of which have bare bones obstetrics/L&D units, if they haven't done away with them entirely.
Going naturally as possible is currently trendy.
That said, how naturally you can go is subjective, depending on your particular pregnancy's level of risk and complication. A home birth was never an option for me in either pregnancy due to a uterine condition that leads to complicated-to-deliver presentations most of the time. My first pregnancy resulted in induced delivery due to preeclampsia, which requires a lot of close medical monitoring, because going into full blown eclampsia can be fatal. Straightforward, low-risk pregnancies definitely have more options open to them.
First of all, I would not have commented but the OP's comments hit a chord with me. Going organic and gluten free is "trendy"...but I believe here to stay.
Guess things were trendy in the early years of my life as brother and I were born at home and foods were just about organic without being called organic.
And if gluten was used in early breads etc, I don't know but iodine was used and today it's been taken out so hence more thyroid issues..I've digressed but get what I'm saying. My daughter and her daughter are majorally alterantive/holistic and her daughter is 20.
Just having options other than hospitals for childbirth is positive as I see it. Up to me I'd love to avoid all hospitals.
First of all, I would not have commented but the OP's comments hit a chord with me. Going organic and gluten free is "trendy"...but I believe here to stay.
Guess things were trendy in the early years of my life as brother and I were born at home and foods were just about organic without being called organic.
And if gluten was used in early breads etc, I don't know but iodine was used and today it's been taken out so hence more thyroid issues..I've digressed but get what I'm saying. My daughter and her daughter are majorally alterantive/holistic and her daughter is 20.
Just having options other than hospitals for childbirth is positive as I see it. Up to me I'd love to avoid all hospitals.
In 1938 in Mississippi, my grandfather used an outhouse. Things change, sometimes for the better.
"Having options" is best for everyone. Selectively remembering the good old days as universally better is not. Natural childbirth and home births are GREAT options, but they aren't for everyone, and holding them out as "the best" options is just as harmful to an inexperienced mother.
First of all, I would not have commented but the OP's comments hit a chord with me. Going organic and gluten free is "trendy"...but I believe here to stay.
Guess things were trendy in the early years of my life as brother and I were born at home and foods were just about organic without being called organic.
And if gluten was used in early breads etc, I don't know but iodine was used and today it's been taken out so hence more thyroid issues..I've digressed but get what I'm saying. My daughter and her daughter are majorally alterantive/holistic and her daughter is 20.
Just having options other than hospitals for childbirth is positive as I see it. Up to me I'd love to avoid all hospitals.
OOHB isn't necessarily the best option for even low risk pregnant women. There's an issue of access to highly skilled and competent birth attendants and the resources needed to pay for OOHB, which is most often OOP. It's a matter of privilege to be able to afford these providers, and having access to one. While OOHB can be great options for some low risk women, it isn't the only option.
I've planned three homebirths, and if we were planning for a sixth baby, I'd plan another, with the same CNM I used with my youngest. It's a great, smart, option for me due to my labor/birth history, but there are many other factors and variables to consider that may not make it the best or preferred option for another expectant mother.
Being able to have a healthy home birth may well be many people's ideal.
For me, my ideal is having access to necessary medical intervention as needed for my safety and the baby's.
Were I to have had family in an earlier century, and only had access to home birth, my first kid and I would have both died. Medical intervention is not an evil.
Just curious -- have you chosen NOT to know gender until baby arrives?
I joined in a discussion in the insurance group in the Health area and brought up the subject of midwife and doula etc and got so beat up by others about my thoughts. I was born at home in 1938 with family doctor assisting. Everyone was born at home for decades/centuries...my brother at home too in 1942 and sister in hospital in 1948.
I was wondering how many young women TODAY even consider the midwife home birth experience? Hospitals are so cold and so for the sick. But it's 21st century.
Good wishes and I'll check in to see how things go for you.
When my daughter got preg with first child, I suggested the home birth experience and got slammed by her husband. She did have a natural first birth, second ended up stillborn at 8months and 3rd was C section. They weren't taking chances. Take care.
Yes, we've chosen to have a surprise. I remember deciding that way back when my mother didn't know my younger brother would be a boy, and my husband didn't have a preference one way or the other, so surprise it is!
I'm in Alaska where, for a large number of people, getting to a hospital is just not practical for a routine pregnancy, so I think there is more acceptance of home births and midwives for that reason. However, it's important to note that out-of-hospital is not the same as home birth. I would not be comfortable with a home birth for my first experience, though I could imagine being comfortable with it after one or more uncomplicated births. The birthing center option is somewhat in the middle - depending on the midwife's certifications she will still have access to certain interventions and drugs, has equipment to monitor the baby's status, and of course is trained to recognize complications requiring hospitalization more quickly than the pregnant woman will. A doula can be helpful no matter where the birth happens; she is basically a coach, so that the burden of that is taken off of the father or other family members.
For myself, the reason I wanted to be in a birthing center instead of a hospital was because I wanted to be surrounded by people who know that birth can be a natural, positive experience; who understand that the vast majority of babies can be delivered vaginally and without intervention; and who would allow me to labor at my body's own pace and not force me into a certain timeline. However, knowing the post-partum risk I'm now presented with, there is no question that a hospital is the right place to be.
I've only been looking into it for the last four or five years, so I can't be positive about long-term trends, but it does seem that more and more women are understanding of this approach, if not fully committed to it. It also seems that doctors and hospital staff are more inclined to be supportive of natural birth than they would have been, say, twenty years ago.
There are pros and cons to any choice, and ultimately it's up to the mother-to-be to decide what she's comfortable with and what will be best for her child. It's unfortunate that people often want to defend their choices with harsh words rather than reason, but that's the case with just about any difference of opinion, isn't it?
My first child was delivered, as my second will be, at a birthing center...that is on the campus of-and part of-a major metro hospital.
This particular hospital and birthing center is highly dedicated to as natural of birthing methods as are desired and medically safe, with every access to any interventions on standby as needed. Def not a "we overbook c-sections out of convenience" kind of facility.
Right now, my OB and perinatologist team is doing everything within their power to avoid a c-section for me, and I appreciate that.
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