My wife had 2 very complicated pregnancies, no way would I risk it only at a hospital. Then again nothing I will ever have to worry about again.
"real" doctors have only been "practicing" for about 2 centuries out of the 100's of centuries. The term "midwife" is a relatively new term used to describe (usually) elder women experienced in child birth. UNLESS a history of poor health or previous births exists, midwives are easily able to deal with birth and many complicated births too. A very strong argument can be made for comfort, and security and a birth under direction of a midwife who works on a schedule of the mother to be, rather than a hospital schedule is far more likely to be less stressful. Look at the number of C sections that are being performed.... absolutely a result of birthing by hospital schedule to maximize profit... certainly not needed or a best option for mothers. T
Fun topic. My wife is an identical twin (mirror-image, in fact -- which is even more rare) and she and her sister couldn't be more polar opposite on the subject. My sister-in-law regularly lobbies her state government (Alabama. I know, imagine that...) for stronger rights to be able to home-deliver and have a midwife and all that crap... Thankfully, I got the one that believes in modern medicine. We often talk about the example of having our first son. I was at the bedside watching his heart-rate monitor when it suddently dipped from 178 to 100 and then proceeded to give off readings of 75, 70, 65... all within a span of less than 30 seconds. When it hit 55 the door to our room was flung open and three pediatric nurses walked in. My wife, who couldn't see the heart-rate monitor from her bed as I could, asked what was going on. I gently squeezed her hand as a flurry of activity started up. A couple more minutes and our OBGYN walked in and pronounced we were about to undergo an emergency C-section. My wife started protesting, talking about our five years of infertility challenges and how she wanted to deliver naturally. The doctor very nicely knelt beside her bed and said, "Alison, your birth canal isn't big enough for your son to come through (She's 5'1" on a good day). Your son isn't getting enough oxygen. You can either have this boy naturally and he may be dead when he comes out, or at the best he'll have significant problems for the rest of his life... or I can take him real quick and you'll have a perfectly healthy boy to raise." Five minutes later I was holding my son in my arms. We talk every so often about what would have happened if we weren't at the hospital... I don't want to think about it.
Far from thinking about kids but I definitely want my wife in a hospital. Like others have said, too many things can go wrong.
I made my wife stay home, tole her there was no freaking way I was paying for all the fancy doctor crap. Women were pushing babies out 1000 years ago and you didn't need no fancy drs to do it.... We went to a hospital. Had some complications with our first one, who knows how that would have turned out had we not been in a hospital.
Yeah... damn them lerned doctors with their high and mighty degrees. They act like they are given over a decade of intense schooling and training to know the human body inside and out and how to deal with medical emergencies.... Oh wait, they really are? Never mind man you are on your own there.
Yes. My wife and I have talked about this, actually. But obviously there's positives and negatives. 1 positive is no hospital bill. 1 negative is what if my wife needs an emergency C section or emergency surgery. I'm about as green as it comes to the whole birth/hospital thing but I would be up for it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wow, calm down big guy, he just gave his view on it. I've had family members give birth with midwives at home, a few cousins then my sister. All successfully with no issues. They had three midwives at the time of the birth and its not like they're uneducated. I guess its up to the mother, if my wife was having a child I'd feel more comfortable at a hospital but ultimately should be up to her.
Countless women through the ages have given birth with no problems. And we often see stories of women giving birth in a taxi or the back of a police car. But this post illustrates the reason you have an obstetrician and go to the hospital.
No, you're certainly not an idiot who doesn't care if his wife or baby survives. But you'll have to admit, you're kind of rolling the dice. The likelihood is that you'll come off a winner. But if the dice come up wrong ............
The vast majority of births in America are without complications. Besides being present for both of my children, I have been fortunate enough to deliver two others. One took place in an ambulance and the other in a bed at the women's home. Of course nether were planed that way ...but none the less in both cases both mother and baby were fine. Both my children were delivered at a hospital. If we were to do it again( not happening ..snip snip) I would chose a hospital again. The one primary consideration that I would advise while weighting your options is the close proximity and 24 hour a day availability to PROFESSIONAL emergency medical assistance. When I say that I mean a full time paramedic staffed ALS equipped ambulance. No volunteer pager wearing, I just left the lumber yard and I am going to help kind of situation. The next consideration I would also research is your proximity to a hospital with a NICU unit. If your in fairly close proximity and you have access to EMS they way I stated above then I feel a home birth is something you justified in considering.
I don't think anyone is knocking midwives (that I have seen yet)... its the environment you are planning for a baby to come into. Sure most pregnancies go fine, but do you REALLY want to risk not having instant access to emergency staff/drugs/medical equipment should the rare need arise? I get hospitals being uber expensive, I just doubt that if/when I have kids the birth of my child is where I'll look to cut corners in order to save money. Not saying people are bad parents who go this route, just that it's hard to argue you adding a calculated risk for something to go wrong with the delivery to save that money.
