Traditional Birth vs. Hospital Birth?

Agreed with Molly Mckee. I like midwives and homebirths but some situations are better handled at a hospital and a good midwife should be aware of that possibility as should an expecting mother. As long as you are dealing with professionals who are compassionate the birth experience will be about as good as is plausible. It will likely be easier to know what is best for birthing after a mother (and hopefully father or someone else personally invested) has done so at least once already. There are a number of conditions that are probably best handled in a proper hospital though many have nice relaxing birth centers and compassionate doctors as health care decision makers realize that these things lead to better reviews of the woman's care. Birthing in a non-hospital or home setting is fine with modern birthing techniques but the ability to make it to a hospital is crucial in case something unexpected happens. There are also physical and genetic differences that could make vaginal birth more or less difficult and a good midwife or OB/GYN will recognize this.

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I'm just standing up for my rights as a consumer.

We recently lost a woman and her twins during birth in our neighborhood. There was NO prenatal care so no chance of learning about the twins. The midwife was not qualified to handle the situation and the woman died, the babies were stillborn. Sad situation.

Is this because of Home Birth, NOT AT ALL. It is because the woman refused to get at least the minimum of prenatal care. With the advances in medicine there should be very few deaths during childbirth like woman have risked for millenia.

For those that have trouble getting doctors nurses to listen to their wishes, you may consider a Doula. They are non-medical assistants that can provide emotional support, and advocate for you. A strong-willed mother or older female friend with her own children can fill the role, but the professional Doula should be familiar with the hospital's procedures and staff already.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doula

Oooh.. and I wanted to add something here. My first 3 hospital experiences were rittled with interventions that compounded and complicated what could have been normal births for us.

My story is super long and my reasons and background information is just too long to post, so I'm not going to go into my reasoning for deciding on homebirth this time. BUT... those of you thinking that all hospitals are horrid and going to do nothing but introduce interventions (you're right for the most part).. let me say this:

Things ARE changing in the hospital scene. I attended a birth about 8 months ago at a local hospital in MA and I literally could NOT believe what I was seeing. When mom was admitted they basically treated her like she was homebirthing with them! She wore her own clothes, was not offered medication or an IV.. the nurse stayed in the room the ENTIRE time (mainly because they don't have central monitoring there) and encouraged her to walk the halls, change positions, EAT, drink, etc. There was a bathtub and shower right across the hall and the nurse put her in the tub, in the shower, down the hall, then back in tub, back in shower, some more walking.. brought the mom food, made sure she was drinking every half hour and so on.

I talked to the nurse in depth about what I saw and she was telling me that their department head actually goes all over the US speaking about this "new style" of childbirth they are offering. I was so incredibly impressed that a hospital was providing a "homebirth-esque" experience for their patients!

This hospital also has a HUGE midwife group that services the patients there. I am hoping/praying that this mindset continues to spread across the nation, it's definitely a better approach to childbirth for all involved. There are still lots of practitioners and hospitals that actually REJECT birth plans and deny the mother any type of control over her own birth and that is incredibly wrong. I'm not against hospital birth or homebirth or even unassisted childbirth.. it's a woman's right to choose remember! Women have the right to choose to abort even full-term babies.. I think they should have every right to choose how they birth their babies, it makes no sense to tell any woman it must be done in a certain way or manner.

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A closed mouth gathers no foot.

Oh I've given birth in "birthing centers" and at least here, they are just as bad as the hospitals if not worse due to they're usually busy and over worked and cranky.
I don't wish to force homebirth down anyone. It's a very personal choice and I for us....I wouldn't have it any other way. Having a baby is a very personal, special experience, and unless complicated....I prefer to have it in a very personal, special place. No place fits that bill better than home. And to me, nothing gets rid of labor pain better than bubbles! LOL

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow

The changes in OB care have been ongoing but the hospitals that were interested in improving and making L&D as homelike and non invasive as possible started doing it over 40 years ago. I don't think there are a lot of the old style surgical type Ob departments left, except in hospitals that are marginally hanging on. People who have a choice go somewhere else and that makes them more marginal. If that kind of hospital is where your doctor practices, you might want to look around.

When I went to nursing school in the mid 80s I wanted to be a midwife. My husband asked me not to say it anymore because it was embarrassing. Our first grandchild was born in December and guess who the primary caregiver was? A nurse midwife. Now, that did not go well. Ended up a c-section. I actually blame the NMW. She wasn't interested in getting that baby here. She wanted to go home.

So, I think it just depends on the individual. I think there are too many c-sections. I think everyone - moms, doctors, nurses, midwives - give up too soon and go to surgery. So, if you want control of that take it BEFORE L&D.

I had three children naturally. No epidural, no pain meds, no pitocin. Fairly certain it wouldn't happen today. The first took a long time. The second was a breeze. The third was one catastrophe after another and I was darn glad we were at the hospital. But there was no predicting that.

Do what your heart tells you and your partner and accept whatever the outcome may be. Good luck.

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http://www.madewithlovebymary.blogspot.com/

Been years since we had kids, but the 2 of us decided, due to her age, things were best handled in hospital. When I was working at the feed store In AK, we sold almost as many water troughs for home births (water births were going big in Fairbanks) as we sold to livestock folks...

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Home is the hunter, home from the hill, and the sailor home from the sea...

Used one for my youngest, worked great

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Idleness is leisure gone to seed

Friend of mine gave birth to her second child in nice hospital with large medwife practice. She was rushed trough pushing and tore badly. She was told some other random things too and her and her doula were treated rudely. She spent less than 3 hours in the hospital and total labor was 7hs. The reason her Medwife was rushing her was that she was going for holiday and if the birth was any longer she would have missed her plane.
Lay midwifes don't even take on clients with due dates around their holidays and have a back up agreement with other midwifes if two of their client go into labor at the same time.

My first child did actually end up with a staph infection that was picked up at birth (according to the doctors who treated her). She developed an abcess in her breast when she was 15 days old and ended up in Children's Hospital in Cincinnati for a week. She had a 107 degree fever and it was a pretty terrifying incident.
But I don't think that is a typical issue and I did have my second daughter in the hospital in Arizona with no problems at all.


In both of my hospital birth experiences, the L&D staff was absolutely wonderful and the maternity staff...not so much.