Letters to the Editor
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To: Milo45
What would it take for you to see how foolish and utterly selfish it is to have a child (especially a son for crissakes) without a father? What possessed you at such an advanced age to want to procreate without a father involved?
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Research on homebirth safety
Many of the respondents here have claimed to have “statistics” on their side. I’d like to offer a few resources where folks can actually check out some reputable scientific studies of the comparative safety of home versus hospital birth, if anyone’s truly interested:
The first is a report on a 2005 study comparing homebirths attended by certified professional midwives (trained and tested for competence in birth care, though not nurses or doctors): http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416). The full text of the article is available.
In the following study from Denmark, only the abstract (or summary) of the study is available here, but the conclusions are similar to those in the study above: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=9271961&dopt=Abstract.
Another abstract of a study from Switzerland: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=8942694.
Please note: I did not select these studies because they show that home birth is generally as safe as hospital birth. I googled “home birth safety studies” and grabbed a few that seemed to come from the most reliable sources.
Why am I presenting this information? Well, it’s clear from the discussion here that birth is a very intense and personal topic. Birth is a life-changing event; before birth there is a woman, after birth there is a mother and a child. Most of us have experience with birth, either directly, or through friends or loved ones. Our personal experiences of this intense event can certainly make it difficult for us to think critically about the subject. It is not unlikely that Ricki Lake’s film (which I have not yet seen) is in part of this nature; after her own wonderful homebirth experience, she wanted to share the joy that of that experienced with the rest of the world, believing that homebirth was the best way to have a baby based on her own lovely homebirth. In turn, some respondents here think that because of the life-saving care they received in the hospital, the hospital is the best place to have a baby. Scientific research can help us to see beyond our own perspective. All of us need to remember that what is right for one person may not be right for all, and in suggesting that a choice other than the one you made is also valid, the validity of your choice is not being challenged.
I have yet to give birth myself, though I have been working with birth for years. Like nearly all the respondents before me, I have some opinions on the subject. But my opinions, and your opinions, and Ricki Lake’s opinions, and Michael Odent’s opinions are just that, our own opinions. However, I am glad to hear that Ricki Lake is presenting people with the idea that they have choices as to where, how, and with whom they give birth; most people in the United States take hospital birth for granted, in spite of the fact that other options exist which, based on the studies cited above, are equally safe. I can’t imagine that anyone would argue with the assertion that there are situation where hospital birth is essential. But I am of the opinion that hospital birth is not essential for every woman and baby, and I have provided well-designed, credible research which supports my belief that if healthy pregnant women without major complications choose to birth at home with trained, skilled attendants (and most midwives, contrary to what some have said or implied in these posts are exactly that), there will not be a significant difference in the numbers of mothers or babies dying in childbirth.
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whoa, jack!
Obstetric fistulas are horrific, but they happen to malnourished women (i.e., history of rickets causing pelvic malformations that obstruct labor) in third world countries without access to emergency medical care, much less prenatal care. I'm not saying it *never* happens in the western world, but I've only ever heard of it as a surgical complication. For a healthy, well-nourished woman with a professional midwife it is not an issue.
I understand where Ricki is coming from, because it's easy to get politicized by personal experiences with birth. I wanted a homebirth after being labor support for friends in hospitals several times (draw your own conclusions). Homebirth went so beautifully that I felt like shouting it from the rooftops. But the reality is that my experience was just that - mine - and I can't speak for anyone else. I just appreciate anything that educates the public that other choices are available. Women here have options and skilled help (unlike those women who end up with fistulas) and for that I am truly thankful.
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Normal and Safe?
Great article.
I would like to mention to all who question the safety and validity of homebirth and choice is to clearly examine the safety of hospital birth. C-section is more dangerous to a mother than any homebirth. Many women are told they must get a c-section and later find out otherwise, these are issues that need to be addresses. Homebirth $2500-5000, hospital $7000-3000. What is motivating your birth options, how is your provider caring for you?
No one questions if hospitals are the safest option, this is culturally assumed. Hospitals are not disclosing their safety, we as a nation are ranked very low in infant and maternal mortality. These are all issues we need to face.
To all who talk about historically women dying at home, those statements leave out nutrition, welfare and the health of the mother, today homebirth occurs only with healthy women.
Here is a great resource
rememberthemothers.net
What everyone wants is safe birth.
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See, this is the kind of thing that pisses me off.
C-section is more dangerous to a mother than any homebirth.
To *a* mother? Including one with pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, a baby in breech position, one who's 45 years old, one whose water has just broken a month early, one whose baby's cord is wrapped around its neck?
If you qualify with "more dangerous to *most* mothers" or "more dangerous to *healthy* mothers" or "more dangerous to mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies", I might actually believe you, but since I have a little brother who's not dead due to c-section, and since I was spared by a c-section from umpteen zillion hours of labor after being weakened by confinement to bed rest for two weeks due to pre-eclampsia, I just have to reflexively throw out everything you just said. You aren't talking to me, and what's worse, you don't even realize I exist. Mothers like myself and my mother are not real in your worldview, so why should I pay attention to you?
Look, if a healthy woman wants a home birth, more power to her. I support her decision. And I expect her to support my decision, as a 34-year-old woman who has a family history of pregnancy complications and who sees absolutely nothing good or positive about unnecessary pain, to have a hospital birth, which ended up in an emergency c-section because after an entire day of induced labor (induced because of the pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes), the baby's head didn't move at all. And if you're going to get on my ass and judge me because I am not a masochist and going without pain medication was never something I seriously contemplated doing, I'm going to get on your ass and judge you for pretending that women who aren't like you don't exist and that childbirth is always an uncomplicated bed of flowers for everyone.
Childbirth kills people. It always has. It was really, really bad when doctors first took over and didn't know about maintaining antiseptic environments, but it's not like childbirth never killed any healthy women before that.
(And brightstar, do you orgasm when you shit? My second birth was in a hospital but totally unmedicated because there was no time -- I started labor at 4 am and gave birth at 7:30 am, after being at the hospital less than 2 hours -- and it felt like shitting out the biggest, fattest, hardest, most painful shit ever. So if you orgasm when you shit, great for you, but giving birth isn't remotely orgasmic for most women.)
So can we knock this crap off? Home birth is not and should not be for everyone, and anyone who judges a woman negatively for not having a home birth is even more of an asshole than someone who judges negatively for having one (because both are judging a woman for a choice that is equally valid and NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS if it's not your uterus, but judging for *no* homebirth is more likely to include women who wanted a home birth and due to health complications couldn't have one.)