I doubt anyone likes the idea of a hospital birth, but I'll take preparedness at the hospital over a hunch that everything will be okay with a homebirth. As much as I would have preferred the comforts of home, a hospital birth--and all those trained medical professionals--saved Toddler in Chief's life. Where is the best and safest place to have a baby? Check out this week's debate over childbirth choices on Oxygen Media's Oh! Baby Opinionated Parenting blog.
Speaking as someone who is walking into a hospital in two hours to be induced, I actually don't mind the hospital birth at all :-).
ReplyDeleteMy hospital's in a fairly wealthy suburban area, to be sure, so my experience likely does not map to that of a rural or insurance-lacking mom-to-be.
The nurses at my son's birth were all quite capable and friendly and I always felt like I was in good hands. Granted, I also don't have anything against interventions (obviously, since I basically scheduled this one :-)... if I felt strongly about those I would probably have chosen a different method of birth, but stories like yours definitely bring home to me that the most important thing about a childbirth experience is bringing home a child.
There's a wide expanse between the "preparedness at the hospital" and a "hunch that everything will be okay." I had two homebirths which involved a whole lot more than a "hunch." I'm sure you didn't mean it that way and that you do realize that home birth does involve normal prenatal care and closer attention during labor than a hospital birth. I was attended by a midwife, a naturopathic doctor and an RN and could easily have been transported should something have gone awry.
ReplyDelete(I'm fairly new to your blog and enjoy it a lot.)