An At Home Birth Experience

I was so excited to, not only be able to find out enough information to feel comfortable doing an at home birth, but also that I had a loving husband who supported this decision. I knew that most of our extended family would strongly disapprove and feel that it was dangerous.
However, all the research I found suggested that for mother’s without prior complications or risk it was actually safer to have a baby at home. I understand that most people write this off immediately as false, however it made perfect sense to me!
There are 5 main arguments for why at home births were safer and they are as follows.
1. A child is born with all the immunities and antibodies the mother possesses. A mother has all the immunities and antibodies for the things that surround her on a daily basis. IE: In her home, work etc. This cannot be said for the mass amount of new bacteria and viruses introduced inside a hospital. Thus as a brand new infant, babies are exposed to possible infections for which they have no way to fight.
2. The length and difficulty of labor is directly related to the mother’s level of stress, which is almost always lowest within the comforts of her own home.
3. THE WORST position to deliver a baby in is laying down. This pinches off major arteries within the placenta, and causes the labor to last longer due to the “unnatural” position. It also causes gravity to work against you, instead of with you. And lastly it avoids your body from using natural means to open up the pelvis and allow the baby to pass though.
4. Hospitals have certain limitations in which labor can proceed, which can cause even minor irritations that prevent a mother from being comfortable, which again can cause labor to progress slower, due to stress or other physical, emotional or mental needs. Such as, music, the ability to eat and drink, etc.
5. Finally and by far the worst is, the drugs administered during a large amount of births in hospitals. First off an epidural slows down labor considerably, and after receiving an epidural a large amount of women reactive some sort of stimulus or drug to speed labor up, which now there is two conflicting messages. Which causes both the mother’s and the child’s heart rates to rise, and thus… your now getting a c-section due to fetal distress. Another example is episiotomy cuts, which act as a rip in an old t-shirt. If you try to rip and old shirt, chances are you’re going to fail because of the hemming around the edge, that is very stretchy, however, if you first put a small cut into the shirt and then pull on it… RIP!!!! You got it… same is true with episiotomy cuts.
There was a study done of 5040 women who did at home births, out of the 5040 women 2 lost babies, both due to genetic defects of which nothing could have been done at a hospital to save them. Of these 5040 women only 16 went to the hospital during or afterwards for help. No women died during their births. The average mortality rate for newborns in American Hospitals is 3.4%.
In Australia women believe that delivering your own child is a rite of passage, and signifies that you are ready to take care of that child, and that the child is willing to allow you to do so. Women often receive no help what so ever, during labor, and are left to deliver their own child.
My labor started at 8am, I took a nap and watched movies with my husband all day. I fell to sleep though out the day, and at 7:30pm I woke up in full labor. I had Evie at 8:55pm. 10 minutes after I had her I took a shower, called my family and with in 1 hour made Spaghetti and brownies for dinner. Josh took our new born baby and laid down, I went to bed around 3am after cleaning up the house, digging out my baby book and writing her birth information into it, e-mailing family photos and bouncing around!
The next day we went to the mall, attended a friend’s wedding, and I went on my usual 2 mile walk while Josh watched Evie.
Not only was it an incredible experience for me, Josh was the first person to ever hold our baby. The first time her eye’s peeked open just after birth, he was the first person she ever say. Our baby was surrounded by people whose voices she was familiar with, and rather than crying for more than just a few minutes, she snuggled in and went to sleep. Her eyes did not swell up, and she showed no signs of typical labor induced trauma. When we took her to the predications office the following Monday (she was born on a Saturday night), they said she was perfect. They were surprised to hear I was in labor for more than a few hours, as they said she looked as if she’s had a very easy delivery.
I’m a full believer in at home births… all of our children will be born at home!