Talk Birth

This morning as I was brewing my coffee, I overheard that the Today Show was going to be doing a segment on home birthing. I ran to the television immediately to hear what they had to say on the topic. The first words I saw written on the screen were “The Perils of Midwifery”. Perils? Was this going to be an entire session lashing out at midwives? I was already disgusted, and quickly re-evaluated whether or not I wanted to watch the piece. But I continued on. Then they referred to home birthing as “extreme birthing” because there would be no drugs, and no doctors. How can one refer to something that is so normal and natural, something women have done from the beginning of time (with midwives) as extreme (Click here for full article on “A Short History of Midwifery”)? This is not to say that there is not a time and place for a doctor or a hospital when it comes to childbirth, especially with high-risk pregnancies. In fact, most women choose to birth in a hospital setting. It makes them feel safer, and that is understandable. But we now know that home birthing, in a low-risk pregnancy, is just as safe as a hospital birth.

The show went on to question whether or not a home birth is worth the risk when complications arise. They opened up with a couple who hired a midwife to attend their home birth. After four days of laboring, their daughter was finally born–without a heartbeat. The midwife rushed to perform CPR, and they called 911, but the doctors could not bring the baby back. Apparently the baby was strangled by its own umbilical cord. This was definitely a tragic incident, and I truly feel for that family. I don’t know the entire story, only what was presented on television, so it is hard to give a fair comment. But I am confused why after four days of laboring, no one saw a red flag. And I do know that a lot of babies are born safely with their cord around their necks (my son was). Again, I am unaware of the complete details of this particular birth. And this is only one story.

I am in no way attempting to downplay the story of that family at all. I just don’t like the idea of television using it as a scare tactic against home birthing. The truth is that babies die in the hospital everyday. In fact, the 2005 statistics show that out of every 1,000 births, more babies die in the hospital then they do at home. Not to mention the amazing statistics provided by Ina May Gaskin, world-renowned midwife, who has attended out of hospital births on her farm for over 25 years. Click here to read Ina May’s birth statistics

There has been a 27% rise in home births over the past decade. The women who are choosing home births are doing so based on intense research, facts, and medical statistics—not because it is “the trendy thing to do” as the Today Show put it. They went on to talk about some of the celebrities that have given birth at home (Cindy Crawford, Meryl Streep, and Demi Moore to name a few). The Amercian College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) says that “childbirth decisions should not be dictated or influenced by what’s fashionable, trendy, or the latest cause celeb.” Another doctor was mentioned stating that he “thought home birth had become the equivalent of a spa treatment for women–that it was this sort of hedonistic concept of birthing.” I was appalled and offended at these comments. I personally gave birth to my son at home with a midwife in August of 2008, and had a spectacular experience. I didn’t do it to win a medal, or to make a fashion statement (and I certainly had no idea at the time that the celebrities mentioned above had done it as well). I did it because after doing an insane amount of research on birthing while I was pregnant, I felt it was the safest option for us. Birthing, while empowering, was very hard work—a far ticket from a spa treatment! I find these statments insane, especially in a culture where the c-section rate is 31%, and hospitals are often showcasing their birthing suites to appear as if it’s a room at a five star resort.

Home birth advocates believe that “hospitals often treat normal births like medical emergencies out of fear of malpractice lawsuits, and wind up performing unnecessary c-sections that have risen more then 50% in the past decade.” Marsden Wagner, former director, Women’s And Children’s Health, World Health Organization states, “If you go to the hospital to have a baby, many unnecessary things will be done to you to stimulate your labor, to hurry up the process. And there is a one in three chance that you will end up with a cesarean section.”  One of the reasons I chose a home birth is because I felt that there are warning signs for most emergencies, and that hospitals seemed to cause more emergencies in an otherwise healthy labor with all of their interventions.

At the end of the segment, they did show a clip about a couple that had a safe, successful home birth with a midwife. The mother gave birth to a 10 pound baby boy in April in her Brooklyn apartment and said, “It was always the way that I dreamed of it. You know, I was aware, baby was aware, and we were just finally meeting one another for the first time.”  Her husband comments, “I was really able to see the simple, miraculously amazing aspect of childbirth.”

Although ACOG says that “…the safest setting for labor, delivery…is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex”, a new study has recently been published showing that a planned home birth with a registered midwife is just as safe as a hospital birth. Click here for full article on “Planned Home Birth With Registered Midwife As Safe As Hospital Birth, Canadian Study Finds”.

Home births are set aside for low-risk pregnancies. But no matter what type of birth you choose, always question, do your research, put together a birth plan, and interview providers ahead of time (whether they are OB’s or midwives). You don’t always know what will come of your birth, but just because one home or hospital birth went bad, it doesn’t mean that this will be your story too.

You can watch the segment from the Today Show here

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