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Midwifery-Keys of Natural Childbirth

FollowingHim said:
from the numbers I have seen, home births in the USA are on average even more dangerous. Which is really saying something since the hospital system is so bad.
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The numbers I first saw on this question years ago were from Britain, which showed homebirth safer than hospital birth. Previous times this discussion has come up the medical advocates are always explaining away the reletive safety saying high risk patients default to hospital; this is the first time I've heard homebirth being less safe. So I'm not sure what's up in the US. Well I have some theories...

First, a lot of people in the US live quite a ways from the hospital (something that has grown worse with time). Whatever their problems, hospitals have a lot of personnel and equipment for worst case scenarios that a home doesn't.

Secondly, a lot of people doing homebirths do it to avoid the hospital. And hospitals have responded to competition from midwives by refusing to work with them and keep them out, by working to outlaw midwifery, and the like. So a lot of parents are motivated to avoid the hospital; meaning some won't transfer when they should or won't transfer soon enough. Or they'll transfer to a more distant hospital to get one that is friendly to midwives or natural approaches.

Third, people here are very unhealthy on average. That means more complications than other countries; which in a non-hospital situation are more likely to not be handled. Midwives also tend to be dis-proportionally used by certain subcultures which have higher incidence of disease due to genetics and/or lifestyle. When you compare the US to Canada, you have to keep in mind it's not just our birth outcomes that are several times worse; we spend several times more on medical care in general. The US spends more per capita on medical care than any other country in the world.

Then there is the question if we should really trust data from US sources on the issue of midwives. Medical science here is only about 40% replicatable (worse than coinflip) and they have a proven anti-midwife history.

Homebirth has really exploded the last couple decades. I wonder if the difference could be tied to the relative inexperience of recent entry midwives?
 
Exactly. Today, in most Western countries, home birth is at least as safe as hospital birth.

However, those statistics are generated in countries where homebirths are completely legal, attended by qualified midwives, and where midwives have quick access to transfer women to hospital in the case of emergencies. They are not statistics from unassisted homebirths as the original poster was proposing.

The original poster was suggesting that because home birth is safe, you can just do it completely unassisted and should not have any medical support. Several of us have pointed out that this is a very dangerous suggestion, and I am trying to provide some data around this. If anyone has better data than what I have shared, please do share it, I'm quite happy to be corrected, but I'm just making a point.

Home birth can be safe when done right. But that doesn't mean just throw caution to the winds and deliberately refuse to have any qualified medical staff present.
 
FollowingHim said:
The original poster was suggesting that because home birth is safe, you can just do it completely unassisted and should not have any medical support.
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Ya there is a balance to be had. Midwives typically view birth as a natural normal biological process and not a medical emergency like the medical community does. But they are also cognizant of the risks, what can go wrong, trained for how to handle it, and have back-up plans for enlisting extra midwives to help or for transporting to the hospital. It's not zero risk.

And while I've known people who have done unassisted home birth, it is definitely not for first time moms or inexperienced parents. Using a good midwife is better.
 
Hello, for me I believe that they are way too much intervention from the medical profession into birthing a child. My first wife was, first of all, a home birth midwife and then later went to Uni for her BA in Midwifery. here is oz they were out hunting traditional midwives back then so she decided to get legal. before this, she had attended many births as the midwife and successfully delivered many live babies. Along the way, I learnt from her a few things about birthing. My oldest son was born at my sister's house, due to the fact that we were out doing deliveries when my second wife Jez when into labour. (i had been divorced from my first wife for some time at this point). well first of all the baby become stuck and he didn't want to come out, whew at that time I was a little nervous and my sister decided to take it upon her self to call my ex-wife to come over and help deliver my son. WOW, she was there as quick as, and much healing and forgiveness had to be dealt with. Once she arrive she flew into action and after a short time and about 1/2 an hour in a warm bath with lavender oil and a strip and stretch was done he come out quick.... To me a piece of paper means nothing, but training and knowledge does. Dolas are a great thing and worth their weight in gold, as well as any homebirth midwife. A women body was designed by God to have children some times that designs don't work as they should. The part about eating the placenta in the homebirth circles they also would have a gathering where they would cook it up and eat it, for me no thanks. but each tot here own... Good on the Midwives trained and untrained your a blessing.
 
With my 4th child (son), I seriously considered Homebirth with a midwife or doula. I researched to see if my insurance would cover it. I also found out that to have a homebirth with their assistance would be more expensive. It was very disappointing at the time but after my pregnancy and the scary experience that I had with it, I believe God was looking out for my son and I. I am not a small person nor big. I would say that I am where I should be by my height and weight. But for some reason, I developed diabetes and that was the first of my problems. The doctor decided to induce me because they noticed by my ultrasound that my son was rather large. I decided to have a natural delivery. During the delivery, his heart stopped. They told me to flip back and forth. His heart started again. While pushing, his heart stopped again. I started hemorrhaging. He got stuck and the Dr decided to break his arm to pull him out. When they put him on the table, he wasn't breathing. He began breathing after 5 minutes. At the same time, I was still hemorrhaging. This all would have been devastating if the quick medical team was not there to assist me and him. Would I discourage Homebirths? Absolutely not. My other children were easy natural births except my first child which I had an epidural. You never know though what can go wrong. To add that my son was 10 pounds.
 
FairyLass said:
With my 4th child (son), I seriously considered Homebirth with a midwife or doula. I researched to see if my insurance would cover it. I also found out that to have a homebirth with their assistance would be more expensive. It was very disappointing at the time but after my pregnancy and the scary experience that I had with it, I believe God was looking out for my son and I. I am not a small person nor big. I would say that I am where I should be by my height and weight. But for some reason, I developed diabetes and that was the first of my problems. The doctor decided to induce me because they noticed by my ultrasound that my son was rather large. I decided to have a natural delivery. During the delivery, his heart stopped. They told me to flip back and forth. His heart started again. While pushing, his heart stopped again. I started hemorrhaging. He got stuck and the Dr decided to break his arm to pull him out. When they put him on the table, he wasn't breathing. He began breathing after 5 minutes. At the same time, I was still hemorrhaging. This all would have been devastating if the quick medical team was not there to assist me and him. Would I discourage Homebirths? Absolutely not. My other children were easy natural births except my first child which I had an epidural. You never know though what can go wrong. To add that my son was 10 pounds.
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That was a wild ride. Is your boy ok?
 
Slumberfreeze said:
That was a wild ride. Is your boy ok?
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Yes it was! We had our concerns about him from the beginning of course. They popped his arm back in so his arm is okay. He didn't began talking until he was 4 yrs old and then it was like a dam breaking. He started tippy toeing and shaking his arms. We then assumed that he had autism. We don't know if it was related to his difficult birth. He is almost 8 yrs old now and just this year, he is beginning to place things in his hand to write. He gets confused because he tries to write with both hands. It has been a struggle for me because I homeschool but I gently push him to succeed. Besides that, he seems like a normal boy.
 
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My point is if you can't have an at home birth, a family member can be trained to perform the work of Doula. A husband and sister wives should know. G-D delivers the baby, but helping to prevent compaction on baby is important, along with preventing the mother from taring or even death from hemorrhaging.
 
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