Why I chose homebirth

I recently threw in my two cents on a midwife friend's Facebook discussion board, which asked the question, "Why did you choose homebirth?" I wrote one of my "novellas," which is what my husband calls my lengthy Facebook comments, and I thought this would be great to share here as well. Time to get on my soapbox! :)


I have so many reasons for choosing to birth at home! My first was born in a birth center, but I wanted to birth at home then, too. I asked the birth center if they did homebirths when I very first called them, and they said no. I didn't know anyone else or any idea how to find any homebirth midwives, and at that time, I didn't even consider birthing without a midwife. So, I went the birth center route, and was very happy with the midwives, and my overall experience. I never considered wanting pain meds even during hard labor. It just seemed to me that labor is what you go through to have a baby. I did wind up with an episiotomy, and in retrospect, after 2 homebirths, I think it is because my labor was interfered with. I was sitting on the toilet when my water broke. The midwife, nurse, and doula suggested I get on the bed and had me on my back, which I hated, but was too tired to say so! I've never heard of the stranded beetle position that Sarah mentioned, but that sounds like how they had me! On back with legs up and pulled back while pushing for a long time, maybe an hour, I think I was told. Yuck! Anyway, baby's heart rate got too low and they had to cut me to hurry up and get him out for his safety. I felt like I'd been run over by a truck the next day, but did feel fine the following day. I am convinced that if they would have left me on the toilet, I would have birthed fine, and not had to have an episiotomy. Another thing that I didn't like was that they immediately cut his cord. I had wanted to wait until it stopped pulsating, but didn't even have a chance to say anything as it all happened so fast. I'm still surprised and disappointed by that. With his low heart rate, he especially needed his cord blood, although all babies should have their cord blood, except for when an actual dire emergency demands immediate separation, which is very rare.

My next 2 babies were born at home (I had found a homebirth midwife by then, although the last baby arrived before the midwife did!) I did whatever I felt like doing during my labors. I didn't push either time, but both were born in 3 contractions (after reaching the "pushing" stage) on their own as my body moved them down and out. (We also waited, while I held our new babes, until their cords turned white to cut them.) Again, I was sitting on a toilet with one and squatting in front of a toilet with the other. If I would have gone and laid down on my back when my body was trying to birth, I would have greatly thwarted my body's innate ability to birth. I also felt great right away after those births.

So, there's a little background on my birth experiences. For my many reasons to choose home, let's see...

1. Labor and birth are VERY intense experiences. If I am going to have a VERY intense experience, OF COURSE I'm going to want to be HOME where I feel safe and comfortable! Just like if you're sick or dying (varying degrees of intense experiences), you want to be HOME. I can not fathom WANTING to give birth in a hospital. It's not a fun place.

2. You MUST be relaxed to birth. Mammals will only give birth when they feel safe. If a laboring mammal is disturbed, she will stop laboring until she feels safe again. How on earth can any laboring woman feel safe and relaxed in a HOSPITAL of all places?! You'd be much better suited to birth in a quiet field or forest than in a hospital filled with strangers popping in and out, machines, bright lights, noise, and bad odors. This is absolutely NOT the safe, relaxing environment necessary to birth. Stress and tension, which a hospital is full of, directly interferes with the opening of the cervix, which is a sphincter muscle. We are all familiar with another sphincter muscle, and readily understand that this one only opens when a person feels safe and relaxed and alone, or at least with only very trusted people nearby! The cervix is the same, yet we expect a woman to be able to tune out the many incredible distractions in a hospital, and birth that baby. It is no wonder women wind up with so many interventions in hospitals. Think of all the times a laboring woman arrives at the hospital, and labor stops, and then she gets pitocin to artificially cause contractions, which are so strong they can cause uterine rupture! Think also of all the times women wind up with c-sections due to "failure to progress." These are all results of the same cause: SHE DOESN'T FEEL SAFE AND SHE CAN"T RELAX!!! Personally, I am amazed by women who have natural birth in a hospital.

3. No interventions at home! If laboring women are left alone to do whatever their body wants them to do, almost all will have a normal, uncomplicated birth. The reason why there are so many interventions in a hospital is BECAUSE of the interventions. Inducing labor, which seems to be the way OBs treat every woman nowadays, is ASKING for further interventions! Except for the few homebirth moms I know, every single pregnant lady I know of is induced BEFORE her due date! It would be bad enough to induce at all, but BEFORE the due date?!!! The baby is NOT READY TO BE BORN!!! Now that you've got labor off to a horrible start, go ahead and throw in some continuous fetal monitoring (nothing like a sharp corkscrew in baby's head to get him ready for a mean, cruel world), and confine the woman to the bed (lying down, of course), prohibit any food or liquids (let her have a few ice chips so you don't seem like a completely heartless ogre), give her an epidural (which causes chronic back pain for 20% of women, and may numb the wrong half of her body or give her a killer, incapacitating headache for a week, and always removes her body's ability to push out her baby), give her some pain killers (which makes for a very groggy, drugged baby who will likely not want to nurse), and after you've squashed all natural ability to birth, give her an episiotomy and use forceps to get that baby out, or better yet, do a c-section. Hey, why even bother with all the trouble of labor anyway? Let's just schedule a c-section when it's convenient for everyone! Ahhh... nothing like the miracle of birth! (Don't forget lots of formula to feed the groggy baby who is too tired to nurse.)

4. As if all the above weren't enough, hospitals are full of GERMS! I've read horror stories of women (and their new babies) contracting staph infections while in a hospital to birth. We hear all the time of people going into a hospital for one thing and getting some sort of infection FROM the hospital. Why have a newborn baby in a place full of deadly disease?

5. The "agony" of childbirth is far overrated. Natural childbirth is not some superwoman feat of amazing achievement. Giving birth is a totally normal physiological function, which God perfectly designed our bodies to do well. People watch these fake TV shows with a woman acting like she's being tortured while in labor. Our society has the idea that childbirth is at least equal to torture and who could ever be expected to endure something so horrendous? Well... how have women managed to give birth every day for thousands of years with no drugs? Our bodies are perfectly capable of giving birth! Sure, it can hurt, but I'd take a day of pain (more like a few hours) anytime over a lifetime of pain! Remember the 20% of women with chronic back pain following an epidural? Also, people endure far worse pain and live through it. Many people live with excruciating, chronic pain. Labor pain is temporary and very doable. The longest contractions are 60-90 seconds. Anyone can stand some pain for a minute! You just take one contraction at a time, and then you get a baby! By the way, I had fantastic results with my last birth using acupressure points: http://www.childbirthsolutions.com/articles/birth/acupressure/index.php/. I never had any hard labor, and all my contractions were very short and not very painful at all! I used BL 32 only and held the points myself during each contraction, but there are many other points described in the article. Then there are the many horrible effects upon baby from the pain meds. I don't want to drug my baby so I can avoid pain.

6. Baby is MUCH safer! Not only does the hospital want to interfere with mom, they want to get their hands on the new baby! First, they immediately cut the cord, which deprives baby of much oxygen rich blood, just when he is taking his first breaths! They separate baby from all he has ever known, Mom, to do whatever kind of tests and observation they think he needs, when what he really needs is MOM! They put some sort of stinging stuff in his eyes to protect him from Mom's STDs, whether she actually has one or not! They give him a Vitamin K shot, a hepatitis vaccine (which has killed babies), and half of the boys have part of their penises removed, which is excruciatingly painful and traumatic. Unless Mom is adamant, baby will most likely be given formula and pacifiers and kept in the nursery at least part of the time so Mom can "rest." Hospital staff can be very intimidating to parents who want to protect their babies from these routine interventions. I've seen new parents threatened that their baby was going to get invasive digestive tract tests if they couldn't get a groggy c-section baby (induced labor) to consume more formula. I read about a man holding his new baby who was zapped with a tazer by a security guard for daring to try and take his child home before the hospital said they could leave! I think I'd be a nervous wreck trying to protect my new baby from the typical hospital procedures.

7. Birth is NOT an emergency! Hospitals, doctors, and machines are not needed! True complications and emergencies can arise, but they are very rare in un-interfered with natural labors. It's such a blessing that we have hospitals IF we need them. They are major overkill for most births and cause the very emergencies they are intended to prevent! I find it ridiculous that women who are trying to birth are told to wait for the doctor! What?! Any one of the nurses, or mom or dad could catch the baby!!! You'd have to be drugged not to birth when it's time! When my last 2 came out on their own, I sure couldn't have stopped them!

Well, I guess I about covered everything! I am now a huge proponent of un-interfered with natural birth, preferably at home or another comfortable place. I strongly believe that if a woman is left alone and doesn't fear birth (which would interfere with the necessary relaxation of the muscles and of the mind), then her body will instinctively know what to do.

Indeed, a peaceful birth is such a special experience for a woman and her family. The non-drugged, alert baby being gently welcomed into the world with love by his parents and family, and held closely and showered with kisses and smiles and tears of joy, still connected while his cord continues to give him oxygen rich blood, is a very sacred time. There's no comparison between that scene and a typical hospital birth. I think that if people knew the facts, many more would choose homebirth.
Happy birthing! :)

P.S.
I must add more info on an excellent reason to choose natural birth that I only briefly mentioned earlier, the effects of a drugged birth upon the baby. Please read this superb article on the lasting effects of birth upon people. For instance, drugged babies are more likely to become drug addicted adults, and babies who suffer violent births are more likely to become violent criminals. All babies deserve peaceful births.
http://www.natural-pregnancy-mentor.com/birth-and-the-origins-of-violence.html