Home birth vs. hospital

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

I belong to another parenting board & one of the debates that surfaces every so often is home birth vs. hospital birth. There are so many pro-home birthers that talk about how natural home birth is. I understand that the many interventions used in hospitals can turn a mom off to birthing there, but I still cringe at the idea of a prolapse, abruption, previa, etc. happening at home. Also, in the short time I've had clinicals in a postpartum unit at the hospital, I've seen two babies turn blue from lack of oxygen and been rushed to the special care nursery.

Would any of you care to share incidences where a home birth would have resulted in serious harm? Thanks for your time!

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.
Again, maybe we can take the thread in a direction that is neither defensive or offensive? Lumping anyone into a stereotype is not productive. Thank you.

Sorry but what are we talking about here? Who got lumped? What is the random category?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I won't belabor it; please do feel free to reread the thread (esp the latter parts) if you don't understand what I was saying. Thanks and have a great night!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OBSTERTICS-POSTPARTUM,L/D AND HIGH-RISK.

After working in a level three hospital OB unit for 25+ yrs, I am totally for hospital deliveries. Mainly because during my 16 yrs in L&D I saw many normal low-risk labors become crash c/sections. A woman can have her baby medication free in the hospital. She has the right to say "no" to anything. And she has the right to informed consent. Practices have changed a great deal even in 16 yrs. Patients don't get enemas, perineal shaves or routine episiotomy(Thank God).Midwives are more accepted and respected today. But if anything should happen, then the safety of the mom and baby can be taken care of in minutes. :caduceus:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.
After working in a level three hospital OB unit for 25+ yrs, I am totally for hospital deliveries. Mainly because during my 16 yrs in L&D I saw many normal low-risk labors become crash c/sections. A woman can have her baby medication free in the hospital. She has the right to say "no" to anything. And she has the right to informed consent. Practices have changed a great deal even in 16 yrs. Patients don't get enemas, perineal shaves or routine episiotomy(Thank God).Midwives are more accepted and respected today. But if anything should happen, then the safety of the mom and baby can be taken care of in minutes. :caduceus:

The problem is that many of the mechanisms that allow a mother to have a comfortable, relatively painless labor without drugs are simply not available in the hospital. It's important to achieve full relaxation and be able to concentrate totally on your labor if you want to be drug free, and for some women this is difficult to do in a hospital. There are just too many distractions, strangers coming in and out, strange sounds and lights, etc.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Like I said before, I am for choice of the birth venue and coping techniques/methods. The hospital can be a horrible place to have a baby for many people! HOWEVER: I also am all for people accepting responsibility in making those choices-----the responsibility should be recognized by everyone, the laboring families and their midwives, as well. THIS is where things get sticky.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.
The problem is that many of the mechanisms that allow a mother to have a comfortable, relatively painless labor without drugs are simply not available in the hospital. It's important to achieve full relaxation and be able to concentrate totally on your labor if you want to be drug free, and for some women this is difficult to do in a hospital. There are just too many distractions, strangers coming in and out, strange sounds and lights, etc.

The hospital you describe above - I haven't seen it in years. Out labor patients are isolated from the rest of the floor. One nurse is assigned to their care. The monitors are the only evidence in the room of medical equipment (OK, the IV pole). If there's too many people in and out of the rooms, its the familites. There's a hot whirlpool tub. OB tends to be the most "customer" oriented unit in any hospital. I realize that my views are perceived as harsh, but home births, in my view, are a form of child abuse. After 30 years of nursing, I also have seen many normal deliveries go sour. Women can have their deliveries as normal as they want. The problems isn't that women can't have a low-intervention delivery in the hospital; its that, as a group, they don't WANT it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I can't nor will ever believe home birthing is a form of child abuse. I think that is extreme!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.
I can't nor will ever believe home birthing is a form of child abuse. I think that is extreme!

Agreed.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in postpartum, nursery, high risk L&D.

If I wasn't an L&D nurse I would definitely go for a home birth, if I could find a midwife I trusted. With my second birth, driving to the hospital in transition was by far the worst part of the whole experience, and then my contractions petered out for awhile once I got there. I think it just would have been so much smoother and nicer at home. But realistically, I've seen too many scary things since I started doing L&D. There's no way I'd be totally comfortable at home.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Yes, people who plan home births believe they are doing the BEST thing for their babies. To put them in a class with people who neglect or beat their children is extreme, to say the least.

I'm glad that your hospital is such a great place to give birth, but it certainly isn't the norm everywhere. Anyway, that's beside the point; many families still choose homebirth when they have such hospital options available. It depends on the reasons one has for choosing homebirth. For some people, the option of having "homelike" suites, the waterbirth option, no EFM, and so on provides all of the things that are important to them, and they will choose the hospital or birth center instead of the homebirth. Others simply want to give birth at HOME, and nothing else will ever be home. As long as they make responsible choices (not attempting it with certain risk factors, being prepared, having a plan), I feel they have that right.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am planning a homebirth for my next child. Watching countless babies welcomed into the world to lay on a warmer alone for an hour and get shots and eye meds before they have even been on the breast seems more like child abuse to me than obtaining prenatal care, watching my nutrition, being screened carefully, taking appropriate precautions and welcoming my baby into our home.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Can we stop with the child abuse analogies already? It is every person's individual choice where they give birth. I would never have a baby anywhere but a hospital. I have seen some scary doctors where I work but there is a couple midwives I would stay as far away from as possible, whose practice goes beyond negectful as well.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment