I found this website...That talks about
home births vs hospital just the safetys
of it.
"i think "what if I need a c-section?" is
the number one question most people ask
about home birth. The thing is, in a
birth that's being closely monitored by a
compitent birth care provider, it's
extraordinarily rare that a c-section
situation would come up so suddenly that
not being at the hospital causes a
problem.
In hospitals, women usually (though not
always) labor mostly on their own and the
doctor checks on them once in a while and
shows up when she calls the nurse because
she's ready to push. This means that
problems often go undetected until they're
at the emergency level.
Also, in hospitals, a number of things are
done as protocol either out of convenience
for the doctor or hospital staff, or as a
"cya" consession to their malpractice
insurance. These things are not always in
the interest of an individual mother or
her baby. Although it's true that many
women have no problem with epidurals,
narcotics, labor inducers, and
artificially broken waters, not all women
are so lucky. The main thing that leads
to "emergency" c-sections is hospital
intervention. Drugs and monitors that
keep a woman flat on her back mean a
higher likelihood of a stalled labor,
which in turn means a higher likelihood of
a c-section.
At home, a good midwife is with the woman
most or all of the time. Usually, she has
an assistant who is with the woman when
the primary midwife can't be. Most
midwives listen frequently to the baby's
heartbeat and keep a close eye on the
woman and how she is reacting to labor.
They anticipate problems before they
happen, and keep them from getting worse.
This is also true concerning the pre-natal
care and the birth preparation. It's all
centered around preventing problems as
opposed to responding to them once they
arise. As my midwife put it, "we have a
vested interest in keeping you low-risk,
because once you're not low-risk anymore,
we lose you as a client."
another thing to remember is that it takes
time to prepare a doctor and or for an
emergency c-section even if the laboring
woman is in the hospital to begin with. A
good midwife will spot the problem at
least as early (often much earlier) than
an ob would. She can then call the
hospital ahead of time so they are
prepared for the arrival of the woman and
they can summon the doctor. By the time
the woman arrives, the nesthesiologist has
the spinal ready and the doctors are all
scrubbed up. The fact is, in most cases,
the time between "decision to incision"
when an emergency c-section is necessary
is not any longer than it is when the
woman is laboring in the hospital. And,
since the decision itself is often made
sooner (because of a more attentive birth
attendant) the safety is actually
increased. Of course the distance to the
hospital is a factor in this and i'm not
sure I would try a home birth if there
weren't a hospital within 30 minutes of my
home (in fact there's one within 10
minutes).
My midwife is actually a naturopathic
doctor (she does gynecology care, too) and
she has all the training that a normal
family doctor would have, plus midwifery.
She's not a surgeon, so if we went to a
hospital she wouldn't be the one doing a
c-section. But she does bring with her
all of the emergency equipment that's
normally available in a delivery room.
She brings pitocin (not for labor but to
stop bleeding afterward if necessecary),
antibiotics, infant recussitation
equipment, a whole buch of other stuff I
don't remember, and another nd as well as
an assistant. That way if there's a
problem and both the mother and the baby
need special attention after the delivery,
there's a doctor for each one of them. I
really feel like if i'm ever blessed with
another child, that i'll be in very good
hands with her.
Of course, there will always be people who
end up with an incompetent midwife who
botches the whole thing, doesn't pay close
enough attention, and/or doesn't transport
soon enough or refuses to transport when
it's necessary to do so. But then again,
there are just as many of these stories
about incompetent obs or other types of
doctors. Birth can become dangerous when
improperly attended. But a good homebirth
midwife should be able to keep a woman and
her baby safe and healthy at least as well
as a good ob in a hospital can do. There
are never any guarantees... There are
some problems that come up that neither a
midwife nor a doctor can solve. But
that's the risk we take when we become
parents - in fact, when we choose to live
life at all.
The other thing I think of is all the
other things we do in life which are more
dangerous than childbirth. We don't drive
our cars in the hospital, learn to ride
our bicycles in the hospital, or play
sports in the hospital. Instead, we go
about our lives, and when something goes
wrong, that's when we go to the hospital.
Sometimes it's true that we don't make it
there in time. But that's not any more
true for childbirth than it is for other
things we do in life." -
http://www.Rainbowapp
le.Com/homebirth.Html :d
