The Ganoe Blog

Long take on birthing controversy!

The home birth vs. birth in a hospital debate is very interesting to say the least. But like most "controversies", I hate how each side argues for itself. I wish more people were able to successfully argue for BOTH sides of things and include facts supporting both sides...because in almost any "controversy", each side has at least some sort of valid point/points.

Two things that bug me about the home birth vs. hospital debate:
First of all, I hate when anti-home birth type people say that midwives shouldn't be used because they aren't medical doctors. My take is that this is a decision that should be left up to a woman. She should do research on local midwives before choosing one, and she should ensure that it is somebody she is comfortable with, has a good reputation, experience, etc. A certified nurse midwife may not be a doctor but they do have specialized training. If you are dealing with a experienced MW, they will have lots of, well, experience to go along with their special training as well. This is not something to be looked down on or dismissed. Like I said, it is up to the pregnant woman to do her research and what not in making her own decision, and if she is comfortable with a midwife, then that is great, and nobody should judge her for her decision. How great is it that women have the option of a home birth if that is what they desire! And how rewarding of a job would that be - bringing babies into this world in such a comfortable environment, knowing you are are fulfilling a woman's dream for a home birth...very cool!

Second, something that bugs me about anti-hospital types (or extreme home birth advocates):
You always read their quotes or statistics about how home births are safer than hospital births, and that their c-section rate is much lower than that of a hospital. But you never see them acknowledge that this is probably affected by:

(1. The fact that midwives generally only take on clients who are low-risk from the beginning - regular Ob-Gyns or even a Perinatologist receive the majority of high risk patients.

(2. There are socioeconomic factors. Women who choose a home birth are more likely educated, at least middle class, married, and have planned pregnancies. In contrast, a hospital receives all sorts of walk-ins and different characters in addition to regular patients. For example: low-income women who didn't have prenatal care, women who smoked during pregnancy, the crazy situation where she didn't know she was pregnant, women who had undiagnosed complications due to little to no prenatal care, etc. All of these things are not as likely to come into play for a midwife offering home births,.. because like I said, they generally take low-risk pregnancies, probably of married, stable, educated women who have planned their pregnancy and taken a lot into consideration when choosing a midwife and planning a home birth. So anyways it seems obvious to me that, since hospital statistics include many more high-risk pregnancies as well as the variety of other types of people and situations I mentioned, then yes, of course the statistics will be more negative than that of home birth! Home birth statistics don't have nearly as many "out of the ordinary" situations to skew them.

(3. When something does go wrong in a home birth and it can't be remedied at home, then the woman has to go to the hospital. And when the decision is made to transport the woman to a hospital, won't the birth then be included in that hospital's statistic? So if the complication ends up warranting a c-section, it is no longer a home birth statistic. It is a c-section in a hospital but failed to take into consideration that it didn't start in the hospital.

4.) What about situations where a women is in pre-term labor? More than likely, they go to the hospital and have their midwife go there, rather than calling the midwife to come to their home. Therefore, home births generally don't have deliveries at 26 weeks pregnant. Yet another complication that the hospital receives and in turn, is obviously going to change the stats.

It is true that unnecessary interventions are sometimes used probably due to doctors convenience, patient fear, or both. And interventions do sometimes lead to more interventions. But just like a woman should research and choose a midwife the are comfortable with, they should also choose a doctor and hospital they are comfortable with and trust.

One last thing: I am so glad that women have the ability to choose they way they want to do things, However no matter what statistics say, you won't change my mind after my own personal experience that a hospital birth is safer in the event of an emergency. I am not saying home birth is unsafe - because I don't think it is...UNLESS something goes wrong. People can argue until they turn blue but trust me, when Kaitlyn's heart rate dropped, and it wasn't resolved with changing of positions and oxygen, and what not...I am THANKFUL that I was right at the hospital and not 5 minutes away. And I bet some of the more extreme home birth advocates would be shocked to hear that yes, the doctors and nurses DID know of techniques to try and resolve the heart rate issue before declaring c-section. But it didn't work and I sure wouldn't have wanted them to sit and try for 10 minutes while my baby faded away. Also, my emergency happened after no interventions or even pain meds - so it can't be blamed on "interventions leading to interventions". Up until the c-section, I thought my hospital experience was great. Nobody pushed anything on me, I was allowed and even encouraged to get up and move around, etc. It wasn't like some anti-hospital people make it out to always be. It was not evil. Hospitals are not evil. Yes, there are aspects of health care that are just not right. We all know this. But I thank God that I had the medical staff I had when I needed them, I am also thankful that women are able to do their own research and make decisions on their labor and birth experience based on their own physical and emotional wants and needs. If you are a good candidate for a home birth, you do research based on what is important to you, and a home birth is what you dream of, then YOU GO GIRL! lol