Weddingbee boards

With the growing popularity of homebirth and other alternative birth options, I am curious about where our moms-to-bee are planning to have their babies. Where do you plan to give birth?

I've always assumed hospital but now the idea of a homebirth is growing on me.  Unfortunately, there's not much for birthing centers within 50 miles that I know of so I think I pretty much just have two options.  Fortunately, my SIL is a L&D nurse at the regional hospital so at least I would have a good advocate if I wind up there.

ETA: Great idea for a thread!  I'm very curious to see how it lines out.

I definitely plan to give birth in a hospital. They just built a new “birthing center” inside the major hospital by our house (not sure if “birthing center” generally means something else, like, not a part of a hospital), and it’s really nice. Everyone gets a private room with a separate bed for dad, they have private whirlpool baths, and are very open to all different birthing plans and preferences.

Childbirth is dangerous, and I want to be closest to all the medical professionals and the OR and ER, just in case those are necessary, for me or the baby.

Things going awry is definitely a concern with homebirths.  My childhood best friend nearly had things go very badly with her first child.  The midwife mistook the shoulder for the head and so she had to be rushed to the hospital (25 minutes away) for an emergency C-section.  After hearing that story I didn't understand how you could feel comfortable giving birth anywhere but a hospital. 

I've definitely learned a lot since then but I think a lot of my comfort with the idea of a homebirth comes from the fact we may live outside of town but we're not far from the hospital.  When J's grandmother had use her "I've fallen and I can't get up button" we beat the ambulance there even though she lives in town! 

That and I love water and am guessing I will probably want it when I'm laboring.  I think if more hospitals had birthing pools I would be more inclined to go for it.  If we do go the homebirth route it will be interesting to see what my family says.  They probably won't understand it.  And seeing how J's mom and sister both work in the hospital they probably won't either. 

Fortunately, that decision is still a long ways away for us!

Not there yet, but DH is adamant that it happens in a hospital... I never liked them and feel they don't have a warm feeling to give birth, I was hoping for a more beautiful setting for this experience... But, he wants doctors and medical equipment right there next to me in case something were to happen and doesn't trust anything but a hospital. So there it will be.

I never seriously considered anywhere but a hospital - feel safer there, want a doctor to deliver my baby and planning on pain meds!

I am not pregnant, but have thought about this quite a bit in recent months. I would be very open to having a home birth, but there is absolutely no way in hell my husband would let me.

Maybe that seems hash, but he inhaled his meconium during delivery and was not breathing when he was finally delivered. They had to airlift him to another hospital better qualified to deal with the emergency, and I think his mother is still traumatized by it to this day. There is only one hospital that even delivers babies in our area, and just about any labor emergency or high-risk delivery is airlifted out of here. To be at home if there was an emergency would mean one extra step before getting where we needed to be. They won't even deliver twins in our town. 

Hopefully, when the time comes, I would love to find a doula to advocate for me. There is no way I would want to just blindly let the doctor do whatever he wanted without having someone stick up for my birth plan. 

Homebirth. And I don't give a crap if my SO doesn't like it. There's no way I'll go to a hospital or medical environment. I'm terrified of surgeries/needles/medicine and would just shut down if I was put in that setting.

*I am not pregnant*

But I have serious reservations about birthing in the US medical system. Because of the weight and amount of lawsuits, US doctors have to do whats in their best interest. I completely understand that, but I also want whatever is being done to be in my best interest. It's not that I think they are against me or anything, it's more that I know they need to do what is safest for them. 

The US has so many more interventions than Europe when it comes to birth - are european women's bodies so different?

Ideally, I'd like to give birth in a birthing center in a hospital. In England the hospital will send certified midwives to you - so maybe if the NHS is still around when Mr.D and I are ready for kids - we'll pop them out there. It's just hard to imagine going through pregnancy/birth without my mom. 

Just as a side note - I know we're discussing personal stories of our own and of others we care about - but I encourage people to remind themselves that these are anecdotes and alone cannot be taken as evidence. 

Bamboo, where has it been suggested in these posts that women who chose home birth are less caring or responsible mothers?

I don’t think any post has insinuated that women who want to give birth at home care less about their children. The only thing I can see that some people have said is that they would prefer to have doctors and medical equipment closer, which, factually, would be true of giving birth in a hospital vs. your home, unless you have a fully functional and stocked ER in your home. I don’t think saying this passes judgment on how much you care about your child, by any means.

I would like to be in a birthing center, but I know I will end up in a hospital setting. I have a heart condition and too much strain on my heart is not good. I will most likely need to have my heart monitered during my entire laboring process. Maybe a birthing center inside a hospital would work. I could have the relaxed atmosphere of a birthing center, and in case my condition is worsened I would already be at the hospital 

I have nothing against the choice of how any mother wants to birth as long as she has made an educated, researched decision and is prepared for any outcome!

Our goal is to have a healthy pregnancy and a homebirth. I am choosing homebirth primarily for safety. Multiple studies have shown that homebirth is as safe - if not safer - than hospital birth. I do not want any drugs or unneccessary medical interventions. I trust my body and my midwife. My husband was initially concerned about not having direct access to an operating room, but our midwife reassured us that 1) most birth emergencies come with advance warning that things are not proceeding properly, so there is time to get to the hospital and 2) studies have shown that the time from delivery bed to OR in a hospital is the same as the time from home to OR in an urban setting with a nearby hospital, and 3) the midwife will do all the same things that they would do at a hosital in the first 5 minutes of an emergency. After we attended a homebirth safety lecture, my husband also became convinced that homebirth will offer us a safe birth.

Now that we have chosen homebirth for safety, we are realizing just how much it appeals to us in terms of comfort as well. Our baby is due around the winter holidays, so we will have Christmas decorations up and there will be snow on the ground. I am hoping to follow Mrs. Avocado's inspiration and bake the baby a birthday cake before I go into labor. Husband has promised he will have some lovely comfort foods available on the stove for us as well. We are looking forward to delivering at home in such a peaceful and comfortable setting.

Of course, if there are any complications before or during the birth, we will readily agree to transfer to the hospital and will accept all necessary medical interventions. Safety is our first concern.

I like your thinking, snmcdowell.  I have been reading a lot lately, though babies are at least ten years off for us, and have found that women who are heavily sedated and in the scary, sterile, environment of a hospital, strapped down to a bed on their backs, which isn't the ideal position for pushing, have less control over their own bodies, which leads to a higher rate of complications.  I used to be the "knock-me-out and cut out the baby, then wake me up and hand it to me sort", but now I think that being fully conscious and being able to push as effectively as possible would be really great. Seeing videos of women who have put lots of time into practicing breathing and controlling their mental states so that they can have a fairly trauma-free childbirth, with no scary needles-in-spine and arms necessary, looks amazing.  They can hold the baby literally TWO SECOND after it comes out, without having the baby forced out by medication, impatient doctors, etc.  I'm hoping that I'll have a low-risk pregnancy and currently plan to give birth at a birthing center with a doula and husband nearby.  I would, of course, transport to a hospital if necessary, but I hate the idea of being so fearful and and anxious and in less than perfect control of my body when pushing out my baby, and I hate that doctors, afraid of lawsuits, so often resort to episiotomies, which I DO NOT want.  The difference between most hospital births I've seen by women who didn't attempt to mentally or physically prepare themselves for childbirth, and natural births at home or in birthing center by women who really worked on preparing themselves for it, is really striking, and I hope to be one of the latter.