- First, what is your
research question? Write it out.
Is having your baby at home a
safe practice?
- How would you currently
respond to this question, based on your gut emotions and experiences?
I’m thinking what if there
are complications? That is posing a huge risk when you could be safe in a
hospital bed. On the other hand, child birth is a natural process… I think it
would be more natural to have your baby at home in a quite environment. My sister
had her kids in a hospital and they asked her some really weird questions like,
“do you want to put this baby up for adoption”. We thought they were joking
because this family is perfect. It turns out the social worker had the wrong
room! This brings up the point do babies get mixed up and end up getting the
wrong treatment? This would not happen at a home birth even if you had twins.
- What do you think people
with other viewpoints would say in response to your question?
Well for someone that has had
experience giving birth in a hospital; or maybe a woman who has had
complications would probably say a hospital setting would be a safer place to
consider giving birth. What about keeping your new baby safe from infections? What
about new born shots? I think there is more fear of the unknown.
- What else do you want to
find out to gain a working knowledge and some credibility on this issue?
I would like to know why we
as a society believe a hospital is the best place to give birth. I want to know
when things changed from home birthing to hospital room. And why C-sections are
so popular when there is oftentimes no need. Is it safe to deliver your baby at
home? Do midwifes have enough training? Is the survival rate any different in
home births verses hospitals? Is the cost of delivering at home different, more
or less? Does insurance have anything to do with why hospitals push you to use
their facility? What are other countries doing and what stats if any can they
offer?
~Megs
Megan I find it kind of ironic, for me anyway, that you chose this topic to write about, because I was watching a show the other night that was on home birthing, and the whole time I was watching I was just thinking to myself what if something went wrong? I mean it is a very natural way to deliver, but what if the mother loses to much blood or heaven forbid the baby isn't breathing? I understand that the midwife can call an ambulance, but those are crucial minutes lost if an emergency should arise. I know that women for thousand of years gave birth outside of hospitals, but to me the doctors go to med school for years, and spend thousands of dollars on that education to care for a good reason. . . to be able to care for should something happen. I think some of the questions you asked would make for some good reach and probably would give us woman some good insight into home delivery. Is the survival rate any different in home births? The cost of home delivery, how does it compare to hospital delivery? And does insurance have anything to do with doctors pushing to hospital deliveries?
ReplyDeleteKendall, Thank you for your response. I agree that there is always a possibility that something could go wrong, but so far from the research I have done, it seems like one in 1000 births end in fatality, and that includes still born, any fetus older than 10 weeks. That seems pretty low. Also I have a friend that have given birth in the hospital, and after going home she found out there was a problem and was flown to a level 1 trauma center. I hope to find out for myself how safe home birth is. also I think midwifes have tools for things like, when the baby is not breathing to assist.but I don't think they can give blood to the mom.
Delete~Megan
There are so many women that have their baby in the hospital because they do not even realize there are other options. For a hospital birth the woman has to leave the comforts of her home, pack some things and drive to a hospital. She gets checked into a room that is not comfortable or familiar and waits for things to start. The birth is uneventful and soon they are being discharged. This is when the dad realizes in his haste to get his lovely bride to the hospital, he forgot the car seat. A few hours later the family opens the door to their house and enters with their newest addition. The mom is so tired and
ReplyDeletestarts crying because she can’t remember what the nurse told her about breast feeding, so she decides to bottle feed instead.
Now we are going to look at a home birth. The woman goes into labor and so she calls her midwife. The midwives shows up about thirty minutes later and assess the mom, everything looks good so now they wait for the hard labor to begin. As they wait the midwife reassures the woman that she is doing great and they talk about ways to make the process easier. a few hours later the woman delivers her baby and the midwife assessed mom and baby. All is well, so the midwife get the birth weights and encourages the mom to drink fluids. The midwife shows the new mom how to breast feed, and helps her get settled. The dad is also doing things to help and is relived that the midwife will be staying overnight to help out. The next morning the midwife leaves and the family starts to readjust to their home life.
The difference in these two births is that when you are in the hospital, you leave the comforts home behind and add some stress because you are in an unknown environment. Delivering a baby in a hospital would cost upward of $10,000, compared with the roughly $3,000 it would cost to hire a home-birth midwife to take care of the entire pregnancy. (Michelle Goldberg Jun 25, 2012 4:45 AM EDT)
According to the National Center for Health Statistics Home births have a lower risk profile than hospital births, with fewer births to teenagers or unmarried women, and with fewer preterm, low birth weight, and multiple births. (Home Births in the United States, 1990–2009)
So there is a cost difference and it is NOT as scary to have your baby at home when you realize the survival rate is good and the health might be even better than the hospital. We need to start looking at more facts and not just deliver in the hospital because someone tells us that it is safer.
When I found out I was pregnant I looked at all options to give birth. I was really interested in a home birth and was leaning towards it for a long time. I am not really sure what chnaged my mind, but at about 7 months along I decided I wanted to be in a hospital. I ended up hemorrahaging after the birth and lost a lot of blood. I was so scared when I came to and realized what was going on. I love the idea of home births but feel that I was probably better off in the hospital. I'm not really sure I could have gooten the care I needed from home.
ReplyDeleteMarnie, it sounds like you had a scary experience. I'm glad it everything turned out OK. I think your body gave you the heads up. Did you ever consider having a midwife in the hospital? I Know for a fact that licensed midwifes study for a few years to get their certification, and they are quite knowledgeable in their field. If a woman started to hemorrhage during labor. the midwife monitors vitals and would hopefully catch that there was a problem. I think that home birth is meant to put the soon to be mom at ease, but when she is nervous about the situation that is not good for mom or baby. So if you feel more comfortable in a hospital I would not push you to so something you are not comfortable with, but I think home birth is a very safe option.
ReplyDelete~