Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Nov
2
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Home Birth Scares The Hell Out Of Me.”
There are 20 comments to this post.
ourlittlefamily had this to say,
Nov 2, 2011 @ 2:55 pm (Quote)
and that scares me….. *thats my que to leave* watches my butt shake as the door slowly closes… I want someone who is willing to work with me, want the bst for me and encourage me. not to shoot me down the first chance you get… I deserve better care.
thats exactly what I would say upon leaving to find better care… <3
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Because doctors are in the business of concentrating on the things that go wrong. Homebirth midwives are in the business of concentrating on the things that go right.
If you could combine the best of both worlds, then women could have low-intervention births most of the time, and high-intervention births when those interventions were necessary. Wild, huh?
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Robyn Reply:
November 2nd, 2011 at 4:35 pm (Quote)
Exactly this. I can’t remember where I read it, but it was something along the lines of midwives being trained to know what is normal front, back, and sideways. When something happens that isn’t in that realm of normal, they send them to someone who’s focus is outside the realm of normal. Doctors go looking for problems because that is what they are trained to do.
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We are often afraid of that which we do not understand. I get it. OB’s are a very superstitious lot. Their specialty doesn’t lend itself to controlled studies. They want every single baby to be safe and don’t want to risk any by putting some in the control group and others in the test group. Unfortunately they have been guessing wrong about which procedures are beneficial and which are risky and have totally screwed up the entire system so today we have a mess. Today you have to pick between what seems the safest which is use of the hospital but actually leads to 30-40% c-sections along with many other “bad outcomes” vs. home birth which surprisingly gives the same infant results and better mom results. Yes, some babies are lost in both models. Probably different babies. Some babies would do better delivered in the hospital and some would do better delivered at home, but we don’t know which ones until it is over and there are no guarantees! Your fear of homebirth has no more basis in reality than my fear of bad hospital care.
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This was said by the very first OB I had. The one that caught my firstborn. When I first started looking into homebirth and unassisted birth, I asked what she thought about homebirth. Then she came out with this on a Facebook message. Followed by some of the more rare complications of birthing at home. I found it sad that she was so closed-minded about it, because I didn’t think she was like that.
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Rachel Reply:
November 2nd, 2011 at 11:08 pm (Quote)
Wait, so she didn’t even say this to you directly but posted it on her Facebook wall sometime after you asked her about it?! Passive aggressive much?
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Suzanne Reply:
November 3rd, 2011 at 2:36 am (Quote)
You can’t assume that someone’s facebook post is related directly to a question you asked. Especially when it’s an OB. Of course home birth scares her, because she sees the things that go wrong with home births and not the things that go right.
It’s hardly a passive aggressive statement. Although, I question the professionalism of an OB friending patients on FB. If it’s a Dr. Jones page that promotes the practice, fine, but if it’s her personal page, she shouldn’t be friends with her patients, IMO.
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I think mamas who birth in hospitals are the brave ones. Seriously, over 4 years after my one and only hospital birth I still shake and sometimes even vomit if I see hospital birth on TV, and I’m not talking reality shows, I mean something as simple as on “Friends” or “Scrubs”
My UC homebirth was easily the best day of my life. I know which scares me more.
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Unfortunately, most OB residents and nurses in hospitals ONLY see homebirth moms and babies when things go wrong… Why else would they be at the hospital? Most have a very negative impression of homebirth because of their experiences, and many have never seen/heard of a successful homebirth (which most are) because their usual clients have hospital births.
3 weeks before my miscarriage, there was a homebirth that wound up transferring to the hospital I received care at that resulted in the baby’s death. EVERYONE at the hospital was on red-alert about homebirth because of this. When I was brought to the ER by ambulance because of hemorrhage after my miscarriage, I was lectured by the OB residents and a postpartum nurse because I had been planning a homebirth for that pregnancy. Nevermind that my baby had already died and I was in critical condition. They had no respect or sensitivity for my loss, but jumped on the chance to “educate” me about the “dangers” of homebirth. ::sigh::
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Jenny Islander had this to say,
Nov 4, 2011 @ 12:58 am (Quote)
Well, at least she’s honest.
Ina May Gaskin tells a story in one of her books about a couple, both OBs, who chose a midwife even though they were ambivalent. All through the pregnancy she had to keep holding their hands because they were irrationally convinced that anything that could go wrong would go wrong, possibly simultaneously, regardless of what the prenatal exams actually showed. Outcome excellent of course.
Doc, you’re like the mechanic who is convinced that every car on the road is about to drop its tranny.
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Add Your Comment.
Points for honesty.
My doula, who is also a midwife, said when I confided that I was afraid of birth and everything, that it was ok. Birth is scary, but you can’t let that control you. Aknowledge it, and trust your body and those around you. I found it really reassuring.
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