OMG
Baby Who Died During Home Birth Is Just Another Reason Laboring Moms Should Head to Hospitals
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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MeowLove
i think if your to have a home birth their should be someone there like a midwife to deal with an emergency situation like that. that said i prefer hospital care, the nurses and doctor were very nice and professional and it made me more comfortable knowing that if there was a situation they would promptly deal with it. and for me there was i had mec staining and my daughters lungs had to be suction as soon as she was out to prevent an infection. if i had chosen a home birth i wouldnt have known and there could have been consequences.
xredstarsx
regenbogenpilz
This IS NOT about home birth, this is about not having the care of a professional!!! How dare you lable homebirth as unsafe!!! A planned home birth wth a PROFESSIONAL midiwfe is just as safe as a hospital birth. Period.
Albond86
PonyChaser
Wait. The woman had a c-section (usually done for complications, unless it's previously schedled), AND a second pregnancy with a complication (uterine hemhorrage), and she STILL opts to have a homebirth with nobody capable of dealing with a medical emergency?
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.
And I'm a woman who would NEVER have a home birth.
Lilac
Albond86
Mommy2justone
She had previous risks (c-section, and history of hemhorrage) plus no midwife,....... I wouldn't even compair that to the majority of home births which happen with low risk moms and a midwife.
Cate
Rebecca7708