When I first announced my decision to have a home birth, I got a lot of negative reactions. Even though they were meant to be out of loving concern, all I heard was: "you're crazy!"; "you're stupid"; "you're risking your baby's life and yours." Basically, I was made to feel like I was a bad mom and I was gonna kill myself and my baby by giving birth at home instead of the hospital. It was really hurtful and upsetting. I mean, how could people be so mean or treat me like that? It wasn't until I stopped, took a deep breath, and stepped outside of the situation, that I saw what was really going on. No one had a clue about how birth could really be. They were just speaking out of fear of the unknown.
I realized that everyone was like the millions of other Americans who have been brainwashed into believing that the only safe way to give birth is in the hospital. I found this very hard to understand at first, but then I began doing a ton of research. I learned about the myths that the medical community have gotten us to believe as well as the truth. Fear exists in the presence of ignorance and lies, but it cannot abide in knowledge and truth. It is my intention to debunk these myths and thus alleviate the fears that everyone has.
Myth #1 — Hospital births are statistically safer than homebirths.
Safety in childbirth is measured by how many mothers and babies die and how many survive childbirth in less than perfect health. Studies done comparing hospital and out-of-hospital births indicate fewer deaths, injuries, and infections for homebirths supervised by a trained attendant than for hospital births. No such studies indicate that hospitals have better outcomes than homebirths.
The US has the second worst newborn death rate in the developed world. In all other majorly developed countries, midwives are there to take care of the majority of births. The doctors are there to take care of the small percentage of women that develops problems in pregnancy.
Myth #2 — You can get more professional attention in a hospital than you could get at home.
In the hospital, obstetricians do not routinely sit at the bedsides if their laboring patients, but rely on machinery and others for information, then appear at the last minute in the delivery room. Most physicians do not build a relationship with each patient or offer much encouragement to give birth naturally. In fact, most OB's give you the sense that they don't have time for you with their "one hand on the door" approach to care. My personal experience with a great number of OB/GYNs is that they are in such a rush to get you in and out of the office, you feel more like cattle than a real person. Midwives take a more holistic approach to care. They get to know you as a person and observe your whole health.
Midwives are trained professionals and are usually far more qualified to handle natural birth than an OB. Obstetricians are trained surgeons. They should be doing surgery, not be involved in normal healthy births. My midwife has a very impressive resume and I feel far more qualified to handle my birth than the OB I also see. Her list of education, training, and professional qualifications is 2 pages long, so I won't list it all, but she is a Certified Professional Midwife with 10 years of education alone.
Myth #3 - The more modern technology you have on hand, the easier the birth will be.
In a sincere effort to catch complications early and produce healthier babies, medical science has changed the atmosphere surrounding birth from one of a circle of loving support around laboring women to one of space age technology in a laboratory setting. Though technology can save lives in a crisis, the routine use of technology can interfere with the normal birth process.
Continuous fetal monitoring, frequent vaginal exams, even an i.v. can all really hinder the natural birth process. I know when I have ever gotten an i.v., I become extremely tense and uncomfortable. This is not how you want to be during labor.
Women need privacy, darkened rooms, and a calm quiet atmosphere. Basically, whatever a women requires for a good sexual experience is what she requires for a good birth experience.
Myth #4 - A hospital is a more sanitary place to have a baby than at home.
Childbed fever killed thousands of women in the 19th century — about the time physicians, who also cared for the ill and dying, began to attend births in clinics. As hospitals became the places to go for birth and death, infections became a plague upon childbearing women and other hospital patients. This was hugely because doctors did not wash their hands between doing autopsies and attending births.
Today, infections acquired in hospitals are becoming more and more problematic. New "super bugs" (antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria) are showing up in hospitals everywhere. The more "sterile" we try to make hospitals, the more dangerous these germs are becoming.
Hospitals are for sick people. Pregnancy is not a disease.
Each family becomes accustomed to its own household germs and develops a resistance to them. Since fewer strangers are likely to be present at a homebirth than at a hospital birth, the chances of acquiring foreign germs are less likely in a homebirth situation.
Every effort is made to provide a clean environment at homebirths. Midwives and homebirth doctors wear sterile gloves and use sterilized instruments for cutting the umbilical cord.
At my homebirth, I plan to bleach the heck out of everything and sterilize as much as possible. My midwife says this is not necessary, but I'm slightly germ phobic. I've gotten separate towels to use for the birth that I've bleached and rinsed out a lot and will be sterilizing sheets and all other things being used during labor and birth.
My personal beliefs:
I was raised in a Christian family. We believe in God and the power of natural medicine. I believe that God knew what he was doing when he designed a women's body. Childbirth is as natural a bodily function as pooping. Every time you go to the bathroom, you don't have to rush to the hospital and have a doctor tell you when to push it out. Your body knows what it's doing without any help. Likewise, if you allow your body to do it's job and you don't fight it, it will birth without anyone telling you what to do. I have faith in my body's own ability to give birth.
I want my children to have the best advantages in life. I believe that the way a child is born into this world, affects it for many years to come. Children who are born without drugs, in a calm and gentle way, tend to get sick less often and have less problems with learning disorders. They also tend to be calmer and more well adjusted. I want to raise my children to be healthy, well-adjusted adults. I am more than happy to go through a few hours of labor pain, so they can have a healthy life.
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