Having a home birth & midwife/doula vs. hospital?

hospital

I have not, but I did think about it.

I was in so much pain from my first and I also ended up having a small complication with scar tissue so I was very happy that I did go with a doctor and hospital birth.

When you are pregnant with your first you are so nervous about what will happen and what will it feel like and all of that so you get over worked. I say if you go for it then you should look into hypno-birthing. This is a form of pain management where you focus on what your body is doing and the end result and it relieves the pain for you. You are able to move past the pain and place yourself in a trance like state where you do not acknowledge the pain. This worked wonderfully for my second and third.

I had 3 natural births fyi with no pain meds!

Good Luck!

I’ve known several people who had home births with midwives and it all went very well. They are safe. Good luck!

If your doctor can 100% guarantee you that you will not have any complications, then have your baby at home or in a birthing center.

However, should a problem arise at home or a birthing center, an ambulance will have to be called and you will have to be driven by ambulance to the ER to then get taken to the Labor and Delivery unit.

It doesn’t matter if the birthing center is across the street from the hospital. You will still have to go by ambulance from the birthing center to the ER to the L&D unit.

FYI-
Most of the emergencies that arise without warning at a low-risk birth — the baby’s shoulders are stuck (shoulder dystocia); the baby doesn’t breathe; heavy bleeding — can be resolved or stabilized for hospital transport by a skilled pair of hands and readily portable medication and equipment.

Read more: http://parenting.ivillage.com/pregnancy/plabor/0,,6rl1,00.html#ixzz0OIbH0VQr

Not trying to scare you, but make sure you check out all options.

I am planning an unassisted home birth (a VBAC) in water for October.
Birth is more likely to go wrong at a hospital, since you have doctors pushing unnecessary interventions, not “allowing” laboring moms to eat or walk, forcing them to push flat on their backs…etc. It’s terrible that so many moms have to fight for the births they want. My friend as an example was submarined a couple months back; she had specifically stated NO Pitocin on her birth plan, came in doing fine at 5 cm, and the MINUTE the nurse hooked up her IV, she plopped a bag of Pitocin on there!! My poor friend didn’t even consent! It’s disgusting. She was then in so much pain she was shaking and crying (this was her second child, and without the pitocin she was doing totally okay). So she consented to an epidural (her second needless intervention), which was screwed up and only numbed ONE leg, nothing else! Now she was feeling everything and was unable to move. Being confined to the bed made it worse, and they kept making her lie down to push. No surprise 20 some hours later when she ended up having a C-section! Grrrr. I was appalled at that story.
Sorry to rant a bit, but it is just very upsetting to see what birth has become. I will NEVER set foot in a hospital to labor again, unless a serious complication arises.

I had my first baby at a hospital, and I will never set foot in a hospital maternity ward again, barring a life-threatening emergency. I am pregnany again, and planning a home birth with a CPM (certified professional midwife). We had originally wanted to use a birth center, but it was too expensive and I really wanted a home birth. The center was just a compromise with my husband.

Read everything you can about natural childbirth. Make sure you understand the physiology of birth and know what to expect. Find a midwife you trust, educate yourself, and be prepared to transfer if needed, but do not plan on it. Statistics show that home birth in a low-risk pregnancy is as safe as a hospital for a first time mom, and at least as safe if not safer for a mom who has had a baby before.

Good luck and congratulations on your pregnancy!

ETA: Midwives DO have a fetal monitor, I don’t know why so many people think they don’t. They don’t use constant fetal monitoring, because it is proven to increase the c-section rate and actually causes more problems than it prevents. It was never meant to be used universally the way it is in hospitals today; it was intended for high-risk labors only. Intermittent fetal monitoring is more effective, and allows mom to move around, so it doesn’t slow down labor. Midwives also carry Pitocin to prevent maternal hemorrhage, and can handle any complication that comes up, even if it is stabilizing mom and baby for an ambulance ride to the hospital. Often, a home birth mama can be in the OR getting a stat c-section faster than a woman in the hospital, because the midwife calls the hospital while she is waiting on the ambulance so that they can prep the OR. If you can get to the hospital in less than 20 minutes, you are likely to be in surgery faster than a mom who labored in the hospital.