<p>This trend seems to me, is going to be favored by older, better educated, and financial stable women. So I doubt it will be very popular.
I wonder what she used to stay calm. Just the thought of childbirth, with no medical help, will drive me crazy.</p>
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<p>That’s about the funniest thing I ever heard!!</p>
<p>I think this is a very dangerous trend. There are so many things that can go wrong that can be taken care of routinely in a hospital that I just don’t see it.</p>
<p>But what do I know? I got the epidural as soon as possible.</p>
<p>I did natural childbirth twice, but it was in a hospital with a NICU, just in case. Fortunately, both were uncomplicated deliveries. As someone said earlier in the thread, this is about what the parents want, not what’s best for the baby.</p>
<p>"That’s about the funniest thing I ever heard!! "</p>
<p>By this reasoning only folks who have participated in group sex can have the hospital staff present…?</p>
<p>I agree with Booklady and others. Parents who choose their own comfort and fantasy birth experience over the health of their infant are selfish. It only takes a few minutes to deprive the brain of oxygen, and change forever the life of the child. Hospitals aren’t a place any of us would choose to spend lots of time, but for the sake of the baby, this is where they should be born.</p>
<p>^I disagree that hospitals are where babies should be born. Hospitals are for sick people, not natural processes like birth. Midwives are trained to screen for risks. I had my first in a hospital due to slow labor, and my next 2 in a free standing birth center with CNM. They have never lost a baby.</p>
<p>Some people just aren’t up on their history and also haven’t done any geneological research. Having a baby is a relatively dangerous event. There’s a lot that can go wrong which can result in the deaths of the mother and baby as well as damage to the baby in the event the baby is deprived of oxygen during birth or has other issues. Having the baby born with medical professionals in attendance and at a location with tools and devices that can help if needed greatly mitigates the potential problems.</p>
<p>I think this couple in the article have their heads in the sand.</p>
<p>I had my second at home with a midwife who came with all the works: oxygen, suction, etc. Her practice was strictly midwifery but they coordinated with an OB who was on standby, although not present. It was exactly what I hoped it would be, except, of course, for the pain. </p>
<p>It is NOT crazy to have a home birth if you prepare properly, have a midwife who is experienced and works with an OB, and there are no complications in the pregnancy. Unfortunately, in many states, midwives are banned from doing home births, so that may be a factor in women giving birth without an attendant. And my midwife never lost a baby or mother either.</p>
<p>I did have my first in a hospital and the whole experience was so unpleasant (before, during, and after giving birth) that I was determined to never go near one again with any other pregnancies. I had an epidural which made the end point–pushing out the baby–excruciating because it killed my body’s natural urge to push. It wasn’t until I had my second at home that I even realized that no one has to remind you to push, you are basically just along for the ride at that point. It WAS empowering to realize that my body was so strong. I had never felt that sensation before and probably never will again. Sort of explains where the expression “Mother Nature” comes from. I really felt like a force of nature.</p>
<p>I do think it’s incredibly irresponsible to give birth at home alone or with just the father. They are in La-la-land. Even apart from possible disastrous complications, most men are just not up to the task! It’s a cliche, but true. My own H, who is a physician and has seen births, was pretty ineffectual at my first delivery.</p>
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LOL! That almost happened with my daughter … the OB walked in just as the head was crowning, while the anesthesiologist & pediatrician were looking at each other wondering which one was ready to do a delivery. My d. was one of those fast, easy deliveries – I was almost disappointed that it was over so quickly – but the pediatrician was on hand because there was meconium in the fluid. I’d note that I also had demorol — part of the reason that particular birth seemed so pleasurable probably had to do with the narcotics in my system… but I had a very, very long labor with kid #1 and wasn’t about to make the “natural” childbirth mistake a second time around. #1 wasn’t “natural” either – at a certain point I was screaming in pain and begging for that epidural. </p>
<p>Now that I am going to be a grandma, I am SOOOO glad that my son has good health insurance and that his partner is a rational young woman who has opted for whatever tests along the way her OB deems necessary.</p>
<p>I just finished up a month-long clerkship on labor and delivery at a hospital in St. Louis that does the majority of high-risk births, and I 1)Am relieved that I don’t have a uterus, 2) Would want a neonatologist and surgeon standing by in the event that things went poorly, and 3) I would want the epidural as soon as they let me have it.</p>
<p>I was a 10 pound baby that was delivered via c-section for occiput anterior and failure to progress/ arrest of labor after close to 40 hours of strenuous effort on my mom’s part. After I caught my first baby on the rotation, I called her and apologized :)</p>
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<p>Ah, the stupid “I would sense it” argument. Really? Plenty of women in the era before ultrasounds had surprise twins, because they didn’t know. Plenty of women develop preeclampsia and don’t know it. Plenty of women have postpartum hemorrhages and don’t have any sixth sense ahead of time until it happens. Saying that you can suss out these things “because you just know” is about as stupid as saying you’ll never get into a car accident because “you’ll just know” when another car is going to hit you.</p>
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<p>Nice boy! </p>
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<p>The only times I have ever been hospitalized were for my children’s births. Did I enjoy the hospital? Most definitely not. However, it wasn’t a big deal to put up with the place for a short time. Maybe I just don’t get too romantic about these things, but I was just so happy that both kids were born healthy that I didn’t waste any time worrying about the overall ‘experience’.</p>
<p>Nice idea. I’ll take the hospital and medical personnel precautions.</p>
<p>Withut them, I’d be dead and so would be S1 … C-section for failure to progress (i.e. stuck). If I’d made it through that one, I’d be dead and so would S2 – transverse and mid-forceps. Also stuck, but a smaller baby and the doc was able to maneuver him out.</p>
<p>I am the first female in several generations to have actually given birth without a C-sec. My second was a VBAC but not without the forceps intervention.</p>
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<p>Let the orgy commence!</p>
<p>I think this couple is being very naive, especially by not getting any prenatal care! If they had had ultrasounds and testing throughout the pregnancy and the doctor said the baby was facing the right way and everything looked good, giving birth at home by herself would be much less risky.</p>
<p>I had both mine w/o drugs in a birthing center within a hospital - the best of both worlds, I think! Medical attention if needed, experienced labor and delivery nurses, unlimited hot water in the shower and a shower stool to sit and labor on, big bed and suite with extra little attached room with couch and TV, unlimited chocolate pudding and grape juice, baby never left my sight… definitely the way to go. Unfortunately, they closed down the birthing center due to lack of demand!!! I was glad that the option was there for me.</p>
<p>The decision to have no medical care at all during birth - that’s tragically ignorant, imho. I hope this is a catchy news story and not an emerging trend.</p>
<p>But - hasn’t anything changed? When I was having babies a few decades ago, a not-insignificant number of women (often educated, successful professionals) felt that they couldn’t have good births in hospitals, and elected for home births instead. Why do some women, even today, find hospital births so off-putting? Maybe there’s room for improvement on the medical side?</p>
<p>I’m married to an MD, the sister-in-law of an OB nurse, and the mom of two ds born in hospitals and one in an attached birthing center. I believe in hospital births (though not necessarily for everyone), and certainly in being attended by a certified OB or midwife. But a hospital birth is no guarantee of a good outcome, nor even of good medical care. My hospital experiences were comedies of errors. Twice my labor was unsupervised for hours at a time because the nursing staff was busy with other patients and the MD was sleeping. Twice! That’s 100 percent of my hospital births. And each time I was considered high risk, and was accompanied by my husband, who was a staff member at the very hospitals (teaching centers, no less) where I was delivering. While I was being wheeled into the delivery room the first time, dh actually listed three things he was going to sue for if he lost me or the baby (still have the piece of paper). Doesn’t inspire a helluva lot of confidence.</p>
<p>I get annoyed with medical professionals who dismiss women as selfish for seeking out a “good” birth experience. There is nothing selfish about wanting to be a full participant in one of life’s greatest events. I fully understand that, for some women, birth without medical interventions is unsafe. But when the interventions are for the convenience of the hospital, or solely for its legal protection, I don’t buy into the idea that it’s the woman who’s being irresponsible.</p>
<p>It seems to me that if hospitals and MDs established a partnership with pregnant couples, one in which each team member was respected, fewer women would find hospital births so troubling.</p>
<p>I have three kids. My first would have most likely died had I been home. Maybe I would have too…</p>
<p>I have never understood the “I want to birth at home or in a pool or with no doctor” mentality. It seems totally self absorbed and not at all about the child. I wanted to birth where i knew my baby, and me, would have the greatest chance of survival.</p>
<p>Personally, when I was In labor, I didn’t give a crap at what the decor of the room was.</p>
<p>No wonder we, USA, are hurting for science majors. We decide that what science has taught us is wrong. Never mind so many fewer women are dying in childbirth. Never mind so few children are dying of certain diseases. Immunizations are dangerous.</p>
<p>My masseuse went to observe an underwater childbirth. The woman claimed it’s possible to experience orgasm while giving birth.</p>
<p>I don’t at all feel cheated by my birth experience that resulted all three times in a c-section…and I don’t feel like less of a mother, as was suggested in books and articles that so degraded the c-section mothers of my day…I nursed them ( one for quite a long time ) made my own baby food, used cloth diapers for two and nurtured them to the best of my ability…</p>
<p>I never liked the judgemental mothers who forced their childbirth experiences down my throat and tried to make me feel inadequate…</p>