Hi. Mrs JJ and I are expecting our first within the next couple of weeks and we were all for a homebirth, following a 5 week course in Hypno-birthing and positive comments from our mid-wifes. This report that came out on friday http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15861280 has hit us for 6 (particularly the wife) as it states complications are 3 times more likely for a first-timer homebirth than if in hospital. BUT this is still below 1% (i.e 0.3% increased to 0.9%). Anyone here had a homebirth (particularly first time)? How did you find it? We especially like the idea of immediate bonding and relaxation after the event? Would you still go ahead with 3 times the risk but it still being a very small risk? Just getting an opinion, clearly it’s up to us to make an informed decision.

i’m nowhere near having a kid, at all, but if i was going to have a homebirth and there was a complication (however small that risk is) which could have been prevented by having a hospital birth, i don’t know how i could forgive myself for that.

We would have liked a homebirth for any of our 3 but due to complications with the first it wasn’t an option. My wife used Hypnobirthing for our Son and only had a bit of gas and air and no medical intervention form the midiwfe. We used a birthing ward, which is midwife lead rather than the labour ward which is Dr lead. This may be an option for you, just ask.

The Picturedrome is a good venue and the cafe’s nice.

Not the same since they stopped filming ‘Summer Wine’ though. 🙁

Me and the missus are due in 8 weeks – we’re doing the hypno-birthing thing too, but in the hospital. But I think for the first one I’ll feel better knowing she’s in the safest place she can be.

I guess if you live relatively close to a hospital, then it shouldn’t take much to get her there if something does go wrong. But if it’s over a 20 minute drive, I’d play it safe.

jamjar – there’ll be another report somewhere that completely contradicts that one. Go for what you want to do, stressing about it will do more harm than the miniscule increase in risk that reports suggests. Stick to the plan, man 😀

Tried it – ended up not even getting started getting taken to hospital for induction shortly followed by emergency caesarean.
Know a couple of people who have had first times at home though and also others who got transferred for c-section or similar but don’t know who anyone who had problems due to being at home and not being able to get to hospital in time. Obviously it is a risk though – how far from hospital are you?
I think the midwives will play it safe with transferring if it looks like there will be any problem?

I guess the other thing is it’s claimed that being in a foreign environment such as hospital can halt labour – so if your wife has any fear of hospitals etc, home may be better?

we opted for home birth went to all the classes and all that crap… after our 5th sweep, which was 11 days after the due date, and it doing nothing and our childs heart rate fluctauating greatly, we were rushed into hospital and My son was delivered under emergency C section.

he would be dead if we hadn’t got to hospital.

But saying that if theres no complications you’ll be fine… best if there is a hospital pretty close though.

We had our first in the local hospital, and then our 2nd at home. The benefits of a home birth were:
A dedicated mid-wife the whole time, a second mid-wife arrived near the end of labour. At the hospital one midwife was looking after several people. I think the standard of care we got at home was higher than in hospital, really down to this dedicated attention.
The first night was much nicer with us all being together as a family, with our first it seemed strange going home to an empty house after he was born.
My wife seemed more relaxed during the birthing process.

Our local hospital is only around the corner, so if there had been any complications, we would have had to rush there.

The cleaning up was a bit of a pain afterwards. We have wooden floor, I don’t think a pale carpet would have survived!

We especially like the idea of immediate bonding and relaxation after the event?

Hmmm think someone’s read to many NCT pamphlets. Only advice I’ve got is not to believe all the rubbish about birthing plans etc. Go with the flow, you’ve enough pressure on the two of you without creating all sorts of expectations you’ve no way of knowing are reasonable or not (and then feeling guilty on top of everything else because things didn’t go as planned). Personally I think some people concentrate on having this perfect birth afraid they’ll somehow damage the child. You’ll have time to ‘bond’ or whatever where ever you are, not to mention the rest of your lives.

As for home births, after my wife needing a C section for our first (hospital delivery) I’m sure glad we didn’t have to get her in an ambulance, moving from the birthing room to the theatre was bad enough.

Thanks for the replies, luckily we are less than 10 minutes drive from Hospital (probably 5 if blue lights required) and up until this report we were well aware and happy with the pro’s and cons. But the risk being 3x greater is something that my wife in particular is finding hard to ignore and a telephone call to the mid-wifes this morning didn’t really help as she got probably the only one that we haven’t seen and she was very patronising and upset the wife even more. We’re seeing them tomorrow for more of a chat and hopefully some more re-assurance, I’m thinking our close proximity to the hospital could be the trump card! BUT I completely agree about Hospital being the best place should complications occur, but it’s still less than 1% and medical intervention is far more likely there than a “normal” birth at home (including episiotimy……). We’ll see what they say…

We tried for home births for both our two.

The first ended up being delivered in hospital due to it taking too long during labour. No real problem transferring to hospital and it all went smoothly once there. We were also sent home very quickly as we were meant to be a home birth.

Second was a breech birth so was at the hospital.

Both times we really benefited from the extra care levels that the home birth team give you that Jason describes.

Several of our friends have had very successful homes births, including first timers. Plenty of babies aren’t born in hospital.

my youngest was a planned home birth as the others arrived so quickly after the first twinge – 45 and 30 mins(!) and we lived way out in the sticks. little bugger took three hours though, nice chilled experience, music on, tea and toast and the older kids met their new brother when they got home from school.

he would be dead if we hadn’t got to hospital.

Likewise. Emergency C Section here too.

Plan changed from “giving birth naturally” to “whipped into the operating theatre and out through the sunroof” in what felt like minutes after the foetal heartrate dropped through the floor (crushed umbilical cord).

We especially like the idea of immediate bonding and relaxation after the event?

Despite the scary delivery I was handed our little bundle as soon as she was out and checked. Bonding was very immediate and we were placed in a recovery room where she latched onto mum before the blood was dry on her stitches.

Me and Mrs Richie The SF are expecting our first in 12 weeks – there’s no way we’re having a homebirth.

Hospitals are full of highly trained medical professionals and expensive electronic equipment. Our house is full of oily bikes and surf boards.

Surely you spend your time as a parent trying to limit the risks in your childs life, why actively increase those risks before its even born?

I realise there are ‘possible’ benefits from a homebirth but none of them are medical and thats what concerns me.

Well if anything goes wrong, then you have no back up team at home.

Didn’t even consider them for my 3, tbh it wasn’t ‘trendy’ then…, but as it happened:

First one was going fine until something ‘happened’, and then within 5 mins there were about 6 extra people in the room, the bed was dismantled and changed around and my son was pulled out – blood/bits were everywhere.

Second one, just popped out with no troubles.

Third one, long, long labour very difficult and then the jab in the back (forget its name) and in the end a rush to the theatre and an emergency c-section and mum/baby into intensive care.

Takes your choice.

Also think about the drain on resources. For you to have a home birth you are taking staff away from other people.

Ok I get the fact that your home is more comfortable and relaxing, but in full on labour does the Mrs really care where she is?? I cant see how the bonding thing is any different being at home or hospital.

Also without being rude to any mid wifes, they are very good at delivering babies and support the Mother very well, but they have near zero medical knowledge compared to a Doctor. Wouldn’t you want a doctor to be around if any thing did start to go wrong?

Also birth plans are only there to give the Mother some perceived element of control. The reality is the Mother has no control over what happens and mid wifes/doc will take what ever action is necessary for the birth to be succesful go with the flow and you wont get stressed if some thing doesnt go exactly as you planned.

Also.. think of the sheets!
Do you really want to be doing that laundry??

First Blobby Jr due next year. Hospital is the plan. We live a good half hour away from the hospital (even with the blue lights) and heard enough stories from friends (and on here now) about how quickly things can go wrong to consider a home birth. Maybe the odds are very low for things going wrong we’re but not prepared to take that risk with something so important.

We had our first at home a couple of year ago. Can only recomend it, Mrs Bigsurfer was adament that she didn’t want to go to Hospital as she definately wears the trousers and didn’s want to be told what to do and be restiricted to a room or even worse a bed.

It took about 12 hours from start to finish. The midwives were fantastic. They first came to visit and check everything was going ok and agreed to come back in a few hours time. Again one came back and when we had reached a set point a second midwife was called.

The birth went to plan and as you say 30 minutes after the birth we were all 3 sat on the sofa relaxing in our own house.

We did have to fight a little to be granted a home birth for our first but was well worth it. We have our second due in January and that will be another home birth if everything continues to go well.

I just take the blissfull attitude that it will all be fine and find that it pretty much always is. I am not a natural born worrier.

I presonally belive that the atmosphere in most hospitals and the stress this can induce is very unhelpfull for simple uncomplicated births. Our experience of hospital births is a staggering amount end up in C sections.

Let me know if you want to contact us privatly for more of a private chat.

Cheer Bigsurfer.

You might find an alternative view here
http://www.midwifery.org.uk/

there are benfits to home birth including medical ones and it does not divert resources from elsewhere.

On a slightly lighter note I did completely underestimate the amount of toast 2 midwifes could eat, make sure you get plenty of bread.

The nature of birth is a political topic in this country. You need to accept that.

You’ll hear lots of scare stories about emergency c-sections (remember, “emergency” means ” once labour has started” – i.e. not planned – rather than what people usually mean by emergency).

I bet you don’t hear much from people about how straightforward their births were, and how they could have been perfectly well managed at home.

Having your first child *is* scary, there is no doubt. And the NCT stuff about birth plans and post-delivery bonding is somewhat overplayed. But so is the apparent importance of medical professionals being available in an instant for all births.

Whatever you decide, jamjar (and Mrs jamjar), I hope it goes well..!

(Unlike others here, I speak a little more dispassionately – my daughter was born via planned c-section.)

The last thing i would want to do after giving birth is clean up the mess i made doing it , ugh no way.

I had mine in hospital where somebody else get thats job 🙂

Also things can and do go wrong, not just for the baby but for the mum too.
what happens if she looses a lot of blood and needs a transfusion or tears so bad she needs stiches? she will still end up in hospital anyway.

there are a lot of things to consider.

Our hospital offered birthing pools at the hospital and also a large side ward which was more like a Hotel which was offered for non c section or births with no complications. This seemed a good mid way point between the two although we could not take up on this. Did not find a hospital birth a stress and had plenty of bonding time, although made easier with the missus being a nurse. My take on it, is you get so caught up in the moment, you really don’t care where you are, so may as well be in hospital.

You’ll hear lots of scare stories about emergency c-sections (remember, “emergency” means ” once labour has started” – i.e. not planned – rather than what people usually mean by emergency).

Hmmmm… Foetal heart rate drops through the floor when wife rolls over. Doctor dives across the room and rolls her back. Room goes very quiet as everyone watches the monitor and listens to the bleeps. Heart rate comes back up, but is now accelerated meaning foetal distress (on top of existing pre-eclampsia) . Consultant is paged from home to come in (it’s 2am). In theatre within ten minutes.

We could have lost her. I’ve got a knot in my throat thinking about it.

That’s as close to “emergency” as I would like to take it.

YMMV.

First at hossie, Second at home. Your missus’s feelings outweigh any study – if she’s stressed it ain’t gonna be fun. The at home experience was great for us but it went smoothly apart from the phenomenal amount of tea and biscuits the midwives go through!

TJ, if you can see the rotors at the maternity clinic then you will see how additional cover is required, Im not trying to argue a point, just stating what happens in hospital I have knowledge of.
So maybe some hospitals dont cover the midwives being out on a home birth, but some do.
It also seems a bit of a piss take that some expectant mothers want two midwives exclusively in attendance at home when others can manage in hospital with one midwife covering a few mothers.

But we do seem to want everything for ourselves dont we.

We had our first at home in a birthing pool only 6 months ago. Neither of us are yogurt weavers but it seemed like the best way for us. rjpenny1@yahoo.com if you or your wife would like more info from me or mine.

Couldn’t fault the care and my wife was much more relaxed due to being in a familiar and friendly environment. Wasn’t that messy, but I have a mate in the pool industry so borrowed loads of plastic to cover the cream carpet in the lounge. We are only about 20 minutes drive from the hospital should any problems have arisen that the midwife couldn’t sort out.

That survey doesn’t tell the whole story because it’ll be a complicated tale. Just as an example, how many people have an epidural because it’s easily available in hospital and then suffer complications?

Sancho – its far more complex. You are not seeing the savings

Firstly there should be a team of community midwives, secondly by virtue of being in hospital you have far higher intervention rates and far higher risks of infections and other ill effects.

You either accept the medicalisation of a natrual process with the risks and costs that entails or you accept the natural approach with the risks and costs that entails.

Its not as simple and black and white as you make out. The trend towards hospital births over a short timespan has greatly increased medical interventions far beyond what is justified medically.

There is a whole alternative take on this which is very strongly resisted by the medical establishment. Have a look at the radical midwives stuff and Wendy Savages experiences

We didn’t even get as far as writing a birthing plan…

Day 43 in Derriford NICU.

Ouch Jambo

good luck

Just top be clear – any indications of possible issues with childbirth and hospital should be the only option IMO

“ Costs for antenatal visits and tests, staff presence in labour and delivery, procedures and pain relief in labour, perineal damage, and most importantly, days in hospital, all confirmed the greater cost of hospital delivery.” [1]

I am aware of only one other study on this matter in recent years – ‘The Cost-Effectiveness of Home Birth’, by Anderson and Anderson in the USA. It concluded that:

“The average uncomplicated vaginal birth costs 68% less in a home than in a hospital.” [2]

1. Home Births – The report of the 1994 Confidential Enquiry by the National Birthday Trust Fund, The Parthenon Publishing Group, 1997. p204.

2. The Cost-Effectiveness of Home Birth, by Anderson RE; Anderson DA (Dept. of Economics, Centre College, Danville, KY 40422, USA. )
J Nurse Midwifery, 44(1):30-5 1999 Jan-Feb

http://www.homebirth.org.uk/homebirthuk.htm#average%20cost

@GrahamS – yes, that sounds like an emergency in anyone’s language. However, as you know, not all “emergency” c-sections are actually real emergencies as you and your wife (and child) went through. Glad it all worked out right.

@jambo – sorry to hear that. Hope you get there in the end. Fingers crossed for all of you.

Hmm I didn’t spot there was now a separate thread on this topic.
I shall leave you in TJ’s capable hands and get on with some work.

omitn: agreed.

In our case home birth was just never an option we had (mum with existing diabetes) and pre-eclampsia meant she was in hospital for a week before the actual birth (which was induced).

Plus of course, she wanted all the pain relief known to (wo)man readily available 😀

Glad it all worked out right.

You and me both 😀

Good luck jambo.

incase you missed docrobsters link on the NHS thread

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2010/July07/Pages/hospital-births-home-births-compared.aspx

Its useful to read the entire thing but this is a couple of key findings

It is also important to note that there was no increased risk of neonatal death with home birth compared to hospital birth once the analyses excluded those studies of home births attended by people other than certified midwives. That is to say, when the home birth was assisted by a certified midwife, there was no increase in mortality compared to a hospital birth.

Planned home births were associated with fewer maternal interventions, including epidural analgesia, electronic foetal heart rate monitoring, operative delivery and episiotomy (an incision to widen the vagina). In terms of maternal outcomes, mothers who had home deliveries had fewer infections, vaginal and perineal tears, haemorrhages, and retained placentas (no difference in the rate of umbilical cord prolapsed).

Home birth was never an option for my wife, far too much can go wrong and then it’s a long wait for an ambulance to arrive then transport them when your wife and child are at high risk of complications.

However, the choice is between you and your wife if you’ve discussed everything with midwife and/or consultant and they are happy then go ahead. As for the hypno bit well I’m sorry pain tolerance is something you have or don’t. Some women can go through childbirth without so much as Paracetamol others scream the place down even of an epidural.

Good luck whatever you choose.

We had 1st in a hospital, 2nd at home – 3rd TBC…

We were 5 minutes from the local hospital for the 2nd and it all went smoothly – home birth was excellent (recommend a pool).

Since then we’ve moved and are probably 30 mins from the hospital – I think we’re going home style again, but it’s more of a consideration.

Good luck (and to Jambo too)