A somber, dark sounding voice speaks urgently "who is protecting these babies? These babies "born at home"". Voice fades away, replaced quickly by a closeup of a concerned news anchor woman, who is now telling me, us, the viewers that "she will be investigating the lack of LICENSED care for these fragile "babies born at home".
39 weeks pregnant or not, I found myself vaulting upright in bed, staring aghast at the tv while feeling an adrenaline rush not unlike what is experienced after a near car accident.
Speaking as a mama who has 2 lovely home births under her maternity belt, and #3 coming anytime, I am DISGUSTED by such drivel. I understand that the news is looking for what will drive the ratings up and is backed by whomever is paying for commercials (um, notice how many formula/prescription/vaccine/hospital commercials air around the news???), but STILL.
I guess in my soft brain I keep thinking that somehow, sometime, THIS TIME, normal birth will be portrayed as...well...normal.
Hahaha.
Ok, maybe not.
I actually found myself furiously scrubbing the living room and kitchen floors, on my hands and knees, muttering crazy disjointed sentences to myself.
When I came up for air, I still felt angry. Well, full of rage. Yeah, and say what you want, I am FUCKING sick and tired of being told or having friends told, that home birth is not normal, that it is not safe. You know what? If you ask your doctor what the statistics are, most likely he or she will have no idea. None at all. Not joking here! You would think on such a "life and death" issue, they would have SOME sort of information to give you. I mean, at least so you could spout of numbers to others and guard yourself against the horrors of home birth.
Here is some of the fuel for my still burning fire.
Did you know:
"A 2009 Canadian study compared safety rates for planned homebirths and planned hospital births attended by the same cohort of midwives. They also evaluated the safety of planned physician-attended hospital births for a matched population of low-risk women who could have opted for homebirth or hospital birth with the midwives in the first two groups. Of these three groups, the homebirth group had the best safety statistics and the lowest rates of interventions and serious perineal tearing or hemorrhage; the babies born at home required resuscitation less often than those born in the hospital and were less likely to have meconium aspiration and less likely to require hospitalization. So outcomes for homebirths were better than for births in the hospital setting with the same midwives or with physicians providing care for a matched population of low-risk mothers."*
How about:
"Professional midwives practicing in all settings work to recognize minor problems and correct them before they become major problems. In the hours leading up to a birth, if a serious problem develops and a cesarean becomes necessary, there is a safety margin of 30-75 minutes in which to assemble a surgical team. For this reason, many midwives recommend that women labor and birth within 30 minutes of a hospital, to be on the safe side in case a serious emergency does arise; this provides the same safety margin for women birthing at home as in the hospital." *
Or:
A landmark study on homebirth safety was published in the British Medical Journal in June, 2005. This study showed that homebirths and hospital births had similar overall safety rates, but that there were fewer interventions and fewer complications for the homebirths. This was a prospective study with a rigorous research design and the most comprehensive North American study about place of birth. A suite of homebirth safety studies from the UK in 1996 also showed home to be as safe as or safer than a hospital for low and moderate-risk women. Homebirth opponents sometimes cite studies that show homebirth to be less safe than hospital birth, but these studies use statistics from births with no midwife in attendance or high-risk births far from hospitals. In a 1999 review of all the literature on the relative safety of different places, of birth, Zander and Chamberlain wrote, "No evidence exists to support the claim that a hospital is the safest place for women to have normal births." *
That is just a drop in the bucket as far as info out there on the safety of home birth.
I am also confused as to why there are so many people out there who feel it is their job to convince us home birth that we are damn wrong and should be very afraid. I thought there was still freedom of choice? Yes? And I feel very passionately about birth, but I don't feel this pressing desire, NEED, to share it with everyone! My friends and family have had many different types of birth, and I don't find myself thinking "well sure, you seem ok with it, but it would have been better if you did it my way. Dur."
No.
It is a personal choice, it should be respected as such, and anyone trying to force you to believe otherwise should take a giant fucking leap off of the nearest tall building.
I believe that birth is normal, is beautiful, is painful, is challenging, is awe inspiring.
Do I think that everyone should have have a home birth?
Lord no.
But do I feel an almost delirious amount of anger when someone tells me that the hospital is so much safer. Yes. Yes I do.
Let me now share a few fun facts with you.
"In addition to the specific dangers of individual obstetric interventions, hospital births suffer the effects of any form of institutionalized care. Perhaps the best-known risk of hospital birth is hospital-acquired infections. Those most susceptible to hospital-acquired infections are those with compromised immune systems, such as newborns. In particular, babies are born with sterile skin and gut that are supposed to be colonized by direct contact with the mother's skin flora. If antibiotic-resistant hospital germs colonize the baby's skin and gut instead, the baby is at high risk of becoming very sick from infections that are very difficult to treat. The overall infection rate for babies born in the hospital is four times that of babies born at home, and these infections are more likely to be antibiotic-resistant." *
I am going to write this one in REALLY big letters. Get ready...
"More people die every year from hospital-acquired infections (90,000) than from all accidental deaths (70,000), including motor vehicle crashes, fires, burns, falls, drownings, and poisonings. An additional 98,000 people die each year from general medical error ."*
Yeah, you did just read that right. I feel safer already snug at home, pushing out my baby, in my own germs, thank you so very much.
Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as information goes.
See, what I keep telling people is, fine, you want to got the hospital, it feels comfortable, you are used to having a medical provider tell you what to do, you plan on having drugs and what not...that is great! That is your choice, for your body! Good job making a choice for you!
Now, here is the kicker. I also get to make a choice, for my body, for my baby, for our health. And I choose something much different. Why is that wrong? My midwife is licensed, she has medical supplies, she has oxygen, she has attended 100's of births. She believes in my body, in women's ability to give birth vaginally, to pick positions that will work the baby out when left to ourselves. That birth can be a quiet, nurturing, loud, loving, non violent place of peace.
So fuck off News, and fuck off with you one sided view of birth.
Now maybe I can go to sleep.
* I took many things from articles written by Ronnie Falcão, LM MS.
