Home birth vs. hospital. It's a heated debate among moms.
Many can't imagine delivering a baby anywhere other than a delivery room with an army of doctors and nurses at the ready, while the other side wouldn't even consider that sterile, cold environment.
Well, the death of an Australian newborn during a water delivery should have home advocates questioning how safe that choice really is. After an investigation, a coroner concluded that the lack of professional medical care contributed to the baby's death.
The mother, Janet Fraser, a very vocal home birth activist, had called her previous hospital cesarean "birth rape" and her second child was born safely at home, though Frasier had to be rushed to the hospital with a uterine hemorrhage. Her third, however, had tragic complications. Minutes after birth, the baby girl died when the cord became tangled around her neck and no one had the medical expertise to deal with it.
Even after this heartbreak, Fraser stood by her decision. "There are no risk-free options and I choose the option with which I was comfortable," she said.
She's right. Things can go wrong no matter where you deliver. Though, the risks of a home birth seem so much greater to me. Now, I am not dismissing the choice, which has become hugely popular in the US (1 in 90 babies are born that way). There are even stats showing the percentage of home births that were preterm was 6 percent, compared with 12 percent for hospital births. They had lower percentages for low birth weight babies as well. But experts say the reason for the difference is because women who chose this option typically have low-risk pregnancies in the first place.
And though Fraser did not have a midwife, most women opt for one, which certainly makes things safer. But that still does not compare to the medical expertise or life-saving equipment a delivery ward has, does it?
Anyone who has had a baby knows it is not always a smooth, simple process. I've listened to the arguments that hospitals are only interested in profits and do all they can to add up charges. But honestly, isn't that cost worth having a healthy newborn in your arms?
Do you think a home birth is just as safe as delivering in a hospital?
Image via Seattleye/Flickr
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Comments 171
Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
One woman has an unattended home birth and something goes wrong. So you think we all ought to rethink our decisions? Because of ONE experience? And as others have said, she had kind of a high-risk history!
One story is NOT evidence. It is NOT reason to change your mind. It does NOT negate all the research out there. I would think people would know that by now.
This woman it an idiot who put her own baby's at risk. Judging from her past labors she should have been risked out of a home birth. At the very least she should have had someone who knew how to deal with basic delivery issues such as what killed the baby.
This is not a story about homebirth - this is a story about an idiot activist woman who put her own ideologies above the safety of her child. Un-freakin'-believable.
^^^^ This all the way.
Are you serious?? You are digging yourself a HUGE hole that you might not be able to climb out of.
Shame on you, this is not the way home births are supposed to be because most women do care about their babies enough to do things safely and have a midwife. Plus she was already a higher risk from her prior problems. I don't feel safe doing it at home but I've had two already that were very precipitous and did not go smoothly. I have an amazing Doctor who is more like a midwife in the fact that she is very supportive of natural labor. Both my boys had very minimal intervention natural births in the hospital. You just have to withstand the pressure of the money grubbing doctors like the first OB I had. Second Doctor was amazing! A different Doc tried to convince me of an unnecessary c-section and my doc stood up for me and supported my decision to have my baby natural, NO PROBLEMS!