Would you have your baby at home or prefer the hospital?

texas star

Well I think Im going to have them at home.I dont think I could relax in a hospital.So yeah my first is goin to be born in her/his own home.I dont like the idea of hosptial.:)

metrovelvet

If I could do it over again, at home. I cant walk past that abbatoir [hospital] without crying.

Nevyn

texas star wrote: »

Well I think Im going to have them at home.I dont think I could relax in a hospital.So yeah my first is goin to be born in her/his own home.I dont like the idea of hosptial.:)

It can depend if there is a midwife in your area that will take you on for a home birth and how your pregnancy progresses and what risk level you are at.

Home for sure!

Zaph

Moved from The Ladies Lounge

tallaght01

Hospital for sure.

I've seen too many things going wrong for me to ever let any of my kids pop out at home.

LordSutch

I have friends in England who have taken the Birthing Pool route 'twice' to great effect

Dunno if Home Births are popular here in Ireland, but apparently they are very popular across the water, I actually visited them two days before their first birth & there was this three foot high empty 'Pool' assembled on the the living room floor (like a waterproof childrens play pen) The husband then explained about the pool being filled on the day with luke warm water, the Midwife being present, & himself also getting into the pool (in his swimming trunks) during the Birth, etc, etc,etc ...........

Amazing, but I get the impression that birthing pools are a 'Niche' event for young mothers in their 20s.

RIRI

Humm, I'm in two minds about this.

There's alot to be said for being at home & going to sleep afterwards in your own bed, but that said I don;t know if I'd have the confidence to stay home.

I did find I got no sleep in hospital at all after my son was born, in fact I discharged myself so that I could get some sleep.

Mink

RIRI wrote: »

There's alot to be said for being at home & going to sleep afterwards in your own bed, but that said I don;t know if I'd have the confidence to stay home.

I did find I got no sleep in hospital at all after my son was born, in fact I discharged myself so that I could get some sleep.

+1. Not having comfort of own private home & bed would drive me nuts. I would definitely try & have home birth & rent the birthing pool on 1st & all subsequent kids. What I would do though is arrange through my midwife to give ambulance drivers the heads up on the big day & give them directions etc. just in case anything went wrong. I would do home birth if I lived far from hospital or I'd try & arrange to be nearby nearer to the day.
Also, if I had major complications during the pregnancy, I would probably have to go to hospital. But if it went fairly normally, definitely at home, without a doubt. I have 3 good friends who hired private midwives & had all their babies at home (6 kids between them). Each of them couldn't recommend it enough.
I wouldn't do it just so I could have my bed that night the biggest reason is that you're more able to relax & less interference. That's just my feeling on it. Having said that I also know of people who've had great hospital experiences & did great there too.

JP Liz

Hospital - with plenty drugs

Mink

JP Liz wrote: »

Hospital - with plenty drugs

LOL. I was with my sister through whole thing for her first & she was so determined to go with no drugs but ended up getting anything they could offer. She was absolutely off her face on the gas though, they let her have far too much. Then her epidural got topped up right & the head appeared & was very hard for her to push as she couldn't feel a thing. She couldn't feel the head at all. I had to hold her legs up :eek:

ArthurDent

I had all 3 of mine in hospital - didn't particularly enjoy being there for any of them - couldn't sleep, hated the food etc but in my mind the deciding factor was what if there was a problem with me or baby - I wanted Dr's around just in case. First birth my son was in scbu for 3 days - swallowed meconium, didn't breath by himself initially - don't know what outcome would have been if he had been born at home, DS2 relativley easy labour, but cord wrapped around DS2's neck 2 and had to have cord cut before he was fully delivered - again not sure how that would have been like if it happened at home, but we did go home asap after the birth - best of both worlds imo. With DD I doubt that she would have survived if I had chosen a home birth - she was transverse and I had to be sectiond at 40+12 days for her delivery.
If I was ever to go again - which I'm not, I'd deliver in hospital and get the feck out as soon as I was able to (6 hours or so)

LordSutch

Re the previous Post; Wow, what a story you have to tell re your three births, and as a matter of interest were your three delivered Privately or Publicly ?

deisemum

I had my first lad in London over 13 years ago. I was gobsmacked that I was given the option of a home birth. I opted for a waterbirth in hospital and if the pain got too bad then epidural please.

Due to the hottest summer ever recorded and pre-eclampsia I didn't have the waterbirth. I did not receive medical help and was just left in an ante-natal ward where midwives wouldn't even check me until the day staff came on duty at which stage the head had crowned and I was delivering in the bed, too late for any pain relief. I'd have been safer delivering in the middle of a field.

I had 2nd lad over here and got good care but felt one midwife was trying to interfere with nature but I was assertive and just worked with my body as nature intended.


If I were younger and having another then I'd look into home birth. Anyone I know that had home births had very good birth experiences, also got a lot more care from the midwife. I only live across the road from the hospital anyway. It's a longer walk from the main entrance to the hospital up to the delivery suites than it is from my front door to the hospital.

iguana

When I was pregnant (I miscarried in Sept) I was signed up to a midwifery unit in Kingston (on the outskirts of London). I was planning a home water birth as long as there were no complications. But if I had to be taken in, the unit was more homey than a hospital and also offered on site water births. It was also on the same grounds as a hospital with maternity care so if there were any serious complications there would be specialist care. So it had the best of all worlds.

I won't ever get an epidural, as I have a long-term back problem and on occasion epidurals can cause damage to the back and I won't risk that. I'm all up for gas and air though, and I'll rent a TENS machine. And it is my deepest wish though that between now and when I eventually do give birth transporter machines like those on Star Trek get invented, so once labour starts the baby can be teleported out of me.:D

The main reason I'd prefer a home birth is that I believe you'll get better care that way. In hospitals a single midwife can be caring for 7 women, at a homebirth they are just focused on you, so if there are any problems they will pick up on them much faster. My mother had bad experiences at my and one of my brothers' births due to poor care by overworked midwifes. When I was born she very nearly died and at my brother's he had a secondary sac which was missed by her midwife.

I'm also going to store the placental blood. Which I'm not sure is offered as an option in Ireland yet? But the stem cells in the blood can be used to treat a lot of serious illnesses, like leukemia and certain cancers, in the child as it is their perfect match. And more importantly in the future doctors will be able to utilise the stem cells more. Hopefully they'll never need to use it, but it's a good insurance policy.

ArthurDent

iguana wrote: »

The main reason I'd prefer a home birth is that I believe you'll get better care that way. In hospitals a single midwife can be caring for 7 women, at a homebirth they are just focused on you, so if there are any problems they will pick up on them much faster. My mother had bad experiences at my and one of my brothers' births due to poor care by overworked midwifes. When I was born she very nearly died and at my brother's he had a secondary sac which was missed by her midwife.

I'm also going to store the placental blood. Which I'm not sure is offered as an option in Ireland yet? But the stem cells in the blood can be used to treat a lot of serious illnesses, like leukemia and certain cancers, in the child as it is their perfect match. And more importantly in the future doctors will be able to utilise the stem cells more. Hopefully they'll never need to use it, but it's a good insurance policy.

I agree with you to some extent re having one to one with a midwife being fab in a home birth - but what would worry me is the speed at which things can go wrong - for my births where there were problems they occurred v quickly - for example with DS2 labour and delivery were grand and I was doing my own thing supported by fab midwife - I laboured walking around, in a shower and on all fours and was delivering on all fours until my sons head appeared with the cord wrapped tightly around his neck twice and then all hell broke lose and there were Dr's and peadiatric drs and god knows what suddenly there, all a bit scary but within two minutes he was delivered and safe and in my arms - I really don't know what would have happened if all of those people weren't available at less than a minutes notice. With DS1 they knew he was in distress before I delivered and he was delivered with the help of forceps and had to be resussed because he wasn't breathing on his own.


Re cord blood you used to be able to bank it, I think - but as far as I know hospital personel wont bank it for you - you can send away for a kit and presumably get your partner to harvest it. I know on my second birth I donated my cord to the blood bank - was asked to do so as part of some research project.