Hellobee Boards

@teawithpaloma: What also concerns me is that many women who choose unassisted birth have little to no prenatal care. They have no idea if the baby is healthy enough for a vaginal birth, if they have placenta previa, etc.

I'm torn on judging these women, because most made the decision after experiencing a traumatic birth in a hospital setting. My first reaction is to cringe, and wonder why they don't seek the support of a loving midwife who would support them in their home setting.

@littlejoy: I cringe too, but living where I do (Kentucky), I know that a lot of women in the rural areas do not have access to midwife care. I birthed in a hospital with a CNM, but I had to cross state lines because none of the hospitals in my city at the time employed CNM's and the professional midwives are not allowed hospital privileges. It's actually illegal for a professional midwife to attend a home birth. The closest hospital with a CNM was almost an hour away.

@littlejoy: I had H in Indiana and I'm so pleased with the level of care I received from my midwives.

Absolutely yes. I had a home birth with my first, and I'm planning to do so again for my second, who is due next week. It isn't for everybody, though, and I think knowing your own comfort level, health risks, etc is important before you make the decision.

For my first home birth, it was imperative to me to choose a midwife that was experienced because I was nervous about the whole thing going south. My midwife had done literally hundreds of home births, so I felt very comfortable with her. I had a pretty difficult labor and there were a few moments we did discuss transferring, but that was mostly just because things were moving slow and I was getting a bit tired. But dangit, I was determined! So even though DS was asynclitic and I was utterly spent, he was born safely at home at 38 weeks. DS was totally healthy and fine Keep in mind, I live literally 2 minutes from a great hospital, and we are good family friends with two of the OBs on call there, so....we really felt completely okay the whole time.

This being my second home birth, I ended up switching midwives (for a variety of reasons) and while I'm still nervous, I at least have some idea of what to expect. And my doula the first time around encouraged me that number 2 would be easier if I didn't have to deal with poor baby positioning. So we are crossing our fingers for that!