Also there is a huge issue with mothers getting TRUE informed consent about any of the medical procedures done to them in the hospitals. For example Cytotec ( Misoprostol) is used quite often now for induction in hospitals however there has been no scientific research done on this drug and its effects on mothers/babies to show it is safe for use. In fact there is an FDA warning that it should not be used as an induction method. There are documented cases of fatal uterine ruptures resulting in the death of mother and baby from the use of this drug and the label warns of the potential of birth defects in pregnant mothers. Do you honestly think that the doctors are telling their patients this before getting consent?

I have also had a homebirth loss and I am still an advocate for homebirth, still planned 2 more, and am planning another in the spring.

Hospital birth may work for some but definitely not for all.

Hospitals carry a risk of interventions that lead to a snowball effect of more interventions. The u.s. cesarean rate is something like 34%. In 1970 it was about 6.5%. There is a much higher rate of infections to new moms and babies in hospitals than born at home. There are other studies that find home births to be as safe as hospital births for normal pregnancies. I’m sorry for your complications in your pregnancy and your son’s disability. If you were having a planned home birth, and you did not feel your baby moving, you’d call your midwife and she’d tell you to go to the emergency room and meet you there. When a symptom of an abnormal pregnancy arises midwives are trained and experienced to be able to spot them and have you transfer to the hospital. It doesn’t sound as though your situation was any different having a planned hospital birth than it would have been had you been planning a home birth.

There are so many choices for women who want a ‘natural’ birth, there are birthing centers attached to hospitals and etc, why would you take even the small chance that you are too far from the help you need in an emergency situation? No one forces medical care on you unless you are unconscious.

I hear so often women talk about how women having been giving birth for thousands of years and ‘babies know how to be born’…..well my comment back would be yes they have been doing it for thousands of years and until fairly recently women and infants died on quite a regular basis in childbirth. If I have cancer, or have a heart attack should I scoff at medical care because those are ‘natural’ things as well?

I hear you and I know your points are true and valid to you. I respect that. However there are many points to your well thought out post that are simply inaccurate. Starting with your commentary on research, it is important to not that there are many examples of junk science in every medical field. Cochrane Database offers a wonderful look into this. There you will see the highly regarded pieces of literature that have stood up to further review. You will also notice the withdrawal of certain studies, yes, the peer reviewed studies you speak of, which have been further scrutinized and have been found to be either biased, unfounded by fact, inconclusive, etc. They keep the rest and get rid of the junk. Looking back at peer reviewed studies of the past some can find comfort in the “safety” of regular routine x-rays in pregnant women, certain medications such as Thalidomide, and the “benefit” of continuous fetal monitoring in all pregnant women, etc. All of which we now know to be unsafe practices resulting in harm to mothers and babies. I’d also like to point out that my studies to be a midwife have taken many years of extensive training. I am well qualified yet I continue to learn to better serve my clients. During this process of training I have attended 9 years of hospital birth. Some of which have been lovely, but the majority of which resulting in unsafe and unfounded practices that the “patient” was blissfully unaware of. And sadly there have been a few births that resulted in assault, which I witnessed yet again 3 days ago. This breaks my heart and is frustrating beyond my ability to quietly cope sometimes. Many mothers would not have been the victim of an unnecessary surgery, their babies separated from them, medications pushed on them because their bodies were on a time clock, their patient rights stripped away/ignored/refused, etc. had they not put their faith in the system that is sold as the best and safest. To see a mother in the midst of the most poignant life defining moment she will ever experience (as designed by the release of incredible birthing hormones to cause her to fight madly for the protection of her newborn AKA- survival) be told that she is not strong enough, fast enough, quiet enough, she asks to many questions, etc is nothing short of cruel. And while I will agree with you on one thing… ” (re: midwives) they did not make the cut to be doctors. They didn’t pass extensive board exams testing every aspect of their qualification.” No, we, I, did not and will not “make the cut.” I am not a surgeon nor would I ever want to be. That is why I am a midwife. I have more training in normal birth then an obstetrician. OBs are trained very briefly in normal birth physiology. The majority of their training is spent on the pathology and complications of pregnancy, labor, and birth. This is why we need them. They know right well how to handle an emergency (though sadly many have lost the art of hands on techniques in place of technology and surgery) It is the 100% healthy normal “patient” that challenges them. And while you say that the OB’s would jump for joy if 10% of women would birth at home, their extensive lobbying says otherwise. Lastly I would happily put the skills of our local midwives who serve the Amish in their humble conditions, and our urban mothers as well in cases of normal, breech, twin, and VBAC delivery any day. Without a knife to “make the cut.”

Secondly, I’m all for natural, but midwives can’t handle things when it really goes wrong. They don’t have surgical training and they don’t have extensive medical training. 2 yrs of whatever school is nothing compared to 15yrs of MD training to be an OB.

I am a firm supporter of NATURAL hospital birth. You have to fight for an OB who gives you respect or take the midwife to the hospital with you. BUT don’t go around telling women that hospital is unsafe. My friend had a healthy pregnancy, everything under midwife supervision, but when her baby was born, she had difficulty breathing and the midwives didn’t have the training or equipments to handle this child. She died.

How do you know if your midwife is qualified, you will never know. You can go on and on about how great they are, but lets face it, they did not make the cut to be doctors. They didn’t pass extensive board exams testing every aspect of their qualification, and they haven’t faced enough medical emergencies to see how bad things can become for a perfect labor and delivery and how fast that time frame can be.

Child birth is scary, make no mistake about it. Hospital births and C-sections were invented for a reason, because so many women use to die. Doctors push for C-sections at times because they would rather have you upset than grieving over a dead baby. They’ve seen it enough, and trust me, you never want to be next to a mother with a dead child.

I am wondering if the ones arguing so firmly for homebirth are the same women who believe that birth practice can actually make you a better mom. This whole competing mentality about how a kid is born is so stupid. Make sure the baby is safe! your preference doesn’t matter!

It is common to not feel the baby move for 3-4 hours in a day during the last few days and thats what happened with me but my Dr was just cautious and wanted to check. For checking they had fancy machines and fortunately they were able to know that something is wrong inside which is not apparent from the outside. I am sure midwife would have been cautious too but after listening to heartbeat she would have sent me back with a chillpill to wait for labor to start.

May be in 98% of the cases everything is fine and you go on with your life with a healthy typical baby when you plan for a home birth but as I belong to the remaining 2% I don’t think it is safe.