People often ask if I wasn’t scared to have a home birth. It’s easy to understand, since I was nervous about the idea when I first heard about it. Wouldn’t it be scary to have no doctors or nurses or emergency equipment ready to rush in and save the day?
And so the process of research began. I tend to be cautious when investing time, energy or money into something, so I began to look up information on home births versus hospital births. It was quickly apparent that home births were as safe as a hospital birth for someone without a high risk pregnancy. It was also obvious that there is a sort of downward spiral that can occur in a hospital birth.
It starts with stress. This is not really the hospital’s fault, but there is no way you can truly feel relaxed, cozy and comfy while in a hospital, no matter how nice the room looks. This stress can keep your body from producing hormones that act like a natural anesthetic and relieve the pain of labor.
The second step is the bed. Many hospitals still want women in labor to lie down, have fetal monitors strapped to their body and not move much. My wife, a certified pre-natal yoga teacher, wanted to sit on a balance ball and let gravity help deliver the baby. When my wife laid down momentarily while giving birth, she was so uncomfortable that she immediately got up again.
Next comes the epidural. Once the mother is in pain and laying down, they give her a nerve block. This reduces the effectiveness of the contractions and may reduce how much the baby can push as well.
Ineffective contractions?Bring on the pitocin! They then give you a drug to mimic the hormones that your body is not producing to make contractions stronger. This may cause the baby to emerge faster than nature intended, causing more tearing and damage than neccesary.
If all that doesn’t work, they give the mom a C-section and just rip the baby out through the stomach. It’s a downward spiral that we could hear in the stories and experiences of friends and family. One friend had a C-section after being in labor 11 hours and told that it was needed. Our midwives said that most of their first time moms labor for almost 24 hours.
It’s hard to know what and who to believe out there. I encourage you to doubt everyone – including me – and do some research on your own. Birth is not like buying a new stereo. If you have a crappy one, you can’t take it back. You only get one shot at how you bring each baby into the world. Don’t you owe it to them – and yourself – to make it the best birth possible?
