Homebirths

[Miss Chicken]

Ladies - Have you/would you have a homebirth (assuming you plan to have children)?
Guys - Would you want your wife/girlfriend to have a homebirth (or has she already have one)?

A homebirth was never an option for me because I had complications with all my pregnancies and births.

 

[gturner]

All my bunnies were delivered at home.

I think I'd be nervous about having a wife deliver at home, though. What if she went into labor during a game when all the guys were over? I'd be hard-pressed to follow the action because in between fetching beer and snacks for the boys I'd have to bring boiling water to the bedroom.

 

[Snaploud]

I'm a guy. I would much prefer a hospital birth (preferably with drugs to remove the pain).

There are just too many risks in homebirth, and the pain is unnecessary with modern medicine.

 

[gturner]

You just don't want to admit that you can still watch the game in the waiting room.

 

[Miss Chicken]

You just don't want to admit that you can still watch the game in the waiting room.

Do any fathers still hang around in the waiting room? I thought that they went in the delivery room with the mum-to-be.

 

[gturner]

No, they usually send in a stunt double. Wives don't notice because of all the meds and the required surgical masks. Most guys are still either watching the game in the waiting room or, if the waiting room doesn't have a TV, down at the bar. When the doctor calls us with the weight and sex, along with an estimate of when the wife will wake up after a nap, we settle all the bets, finish our beers, and then set our watches for the approximate wifey wake-up-time. Then we pretend we were there all along. It's a huge industry with a tradition older than prostitution. We just don't talk about it in mixed company.

 

[Kelthaz]

It's the 21st century. Go to a freaking hospital.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I plan on having either a homebirth attended by a midwife or going to a freestanding birthing center run by midwives. (I'll probably do the birthing center for the first one, and if I feel comfortable, stick with home for any subsequent births.) The studies I've read show that for low-risk pregnancies, midwife attended births have equal or better outcomes than physician attended hospital births.

 

[auntiehill]

Well, at my age, I'll never have kids, but if I did, my fat ass would be in a hospital, enjoying some serious pharmaceuticals.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I plan on having either a homebirth attended by a midwife or going to a freestanding birthing center run by midwives. (I'll probably do the birthing center for the first one, and if I feel comfortable, stick with home for any subsequent births.) The studies I've read show that for low-risk pregnancies, midwife attended births have equal or better outcomes than physician attended hospital births.

By birthing center do you mean "rock slab n the middle of a cave". Always really hated that scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLa11zbvKNk

 

[gturner]

I plan on having either a homebirth attended by a midwife or going to a freestanding birthing center run by midwives.

I know it's traditional and still common in Africa, but are you sure you want to give birth standing up?

 

[RJDiogenes]

The complications attendant to home birth have more to do with insurance than medicine. I was the manager of a Midwifery service for fourteen years, and I was amazed at how many women would have preferred to give birth at home.

 

[HighteeHeller]

I gave birth in the hospital with my first child. It was a terrible experience. I chose a midwife for my second child who gave me the option to have my son at home. After talking it over with my husband we decided that a home birth was what we wanted.

Everything was moving along fine until he became stuck on the way out. Turns out their estimation of his weight was a little off. They expected him to be about 8lbs, he weighed in at 10lbs. He was just too damn big. Long story short, there was a lot of blood, he wasnt breathing, and after he was born we ended up going to the hospital anyways.

The experience hasnt changed the way i feel about home births. If everything is fine, then there is no reason one needs to give birth in a hospital. Most pregnancies and births are fairly easy. That mine wasnt is a shame, but if i had to do it again i would choose a home birth over a hospital every time.

 

[Scout101]

I'd have to vote for "Hospital". Just too big an unacceptable risk of things going wrong, and then your feel-good story about wanting to give birth at home becomes a horrible story about how you lost your wife and kid by doing something stupid. I don't think I'd get past it when anyone asked why I didn't just go to the hospital, where the doctors, medicine, and equipment were...

Say what you want about wanting the experience to be natural, or calming, or whatever, but I'm not putting any magical significance on any one moment like that. Not like newborns have memories from the 1st second anyway, let's get 'em out first, and THEN we can work on a positive environment to raise them in.

 

[Deckerd]

I and my 3 siblings were born at home. I wasn't given the choice. Now women have the choice and many choose to give birth at home.

 

[Shaytan]

I don't plan to have kids but if ever, it would be in hospital. If I was born at home, both my mother and I would have died this day so I'm not going to take a useless risk. Plus, it's more usual to give birth in hospital or at least in a medical structure here.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I cannot fathom how anybody could want to give birth at home instead of a fully equipped hospital. Do people also plan to have their appendectomies done at the pub?

 

[Deckerd]

Giving birth is not an illness iguana. It shouldn't be treated like one. Recent research shows there is no difference in infant mortality between home and hospital births amongst normal births.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I was born at home, apparently without a problem. It's sort of nice knowing exactly where you were born, but personally I don't really see the point. If I ever become a father (heavens forbid), I would want it to happen in a hospital.

 

[Shikarnov]

I'd have to vote for "Hospital". Just too big an unacceptable risk of things going wrong, and then your feel-good story about wanting to give birth at home becomes a horrible story about how you lost your wife and kid by doing something stupid. I don't think I'd get past it when anyone asked why I didn't just go to the hospital, where the doctors, medicine, and equipment were...

Say what you want about wanting the experience to be natural, or calming, or whatever, but I'm not putting any magical significance on any one moment like that. Not like newborns have memories from the 1st second anyway, let's get 'em out first, and THEN we can work on a positive environment to raise them in.

This.