Post Punk Kitchen Forum

just wondering....

i am a member of 2 other forums, one is veg and one is homebirthers. and it almost seems like the 2 subjects are mutually exclusive. so please someone prove me wrong!

ps. i love ina may gaskin

I had a home birth on August 22nd of this year. I'm sitting on the couch where my son was born right now looking at him in fact. Good times.

i'm not one of them, but i know there are several who had homebirths on this forum.

i like ina may and i'm pro-homebirth, but it wasn't a good option for me.

I wouldn't call veg*ns and homebirth a total linked pair, but there are many on here interested in the goal of unmedicated birth and homebirth.

My first baby was a planned homebirth with a midwife but I was transferred to MD care at 39 weeks (and 5 days) when my little one decided to pull a late breech flip and wouldn't turn back around. C-section it was.

But I've already researched HBACs and that's my plan for next time (whenever/if ever I'm blessed with a next time).

I love ina may! I didn't have homebirths myself but I love hearing about others experiences. There are definitely a few home birthers around here somewhere.

I had a homebirth with my second. It was awesome.
My first was an unmedicated, intervention-free hospital birth in England. Things are pretty different over there. No way would I have had a hospital birth in the US unless I needed to.
ETA: I'm rereading this and I feel like it sounds judgmental. I don't think I'm a better mother than mothers who have had US hospital births at all, I just think that US hospitals, in general, do not treat mothers and babies as well as they should.

we had planned a homebirth with our midwife. then my water broke at 35+ weeks and while the midwife was comfortable with letting us make the choice to stay at home, knowing we'd probably have to transfer after the baby was born and the fact that we hadn't really gotten our house prepared for the birth yet kind of decided for us. in the end, our hospital birth was pretty great though... my midwife was our only attendant, i never even saw any nurses or other hospital staff during my whole labour, and it was nice not to have to transfer to the hospital post-birth with a stitched up vag when the baby had trouble maintaining her temps and needed the bili-lights and feeding help.

next time for sure though... and i actually might stay at home even if we have a repeat of preterm ROM. i guess i kind of see it as home birth being my baseline, and everything else being an option under unusual circumstances.

We were a homebirth transfer. I'm hoping next time we can stay at home.

This.
I'm no where near getting ready to have children, and I'm honestly not sure if I'll adopt or give birth, but if a kiddo's comin' from my vag, I want them coming into their own home.

I saw The Business of Being Born and it brought up some stuff I didn't know before about hospital births.

I'm not having kids soon, but when I'm ready, I'd like a home birth as long as midwives and doctors believe it's a safe option for me.

I'd love to hear about experiences and insight!

So you know what's weird? I am a pretty crunchy asparagus hippie and I had a totally unmedicated vaj birth and stuff and would want to do that again next time...

But I am not, was not, and don't expect to ever BE interested in having a homebirth. I think it's awesome if that's the way you roll and I think it should be an option, but I'm just not into it personally.

Maybe if I could have a homebirth at someone else's house. That might be okay.

It's not even an option in my state sadly, but there are many folks here who have had homebirths.

I honestly keep going back and forth with the idea of homebirth vs. hospital birth for the next round. I love the comfort of being in my own home, knowing and trusting everyone around me, and all that - but the fact that I was transported by ambulance out of this house has left me with some horrible memories of a place I used to love. Part of me wants to go to the hospital for one of the exact reasons some people are pro-homebirth: it's a generic place that I'm not attached to in any way. But hospitals also terrify me, and I know that would affect my labor. If we had a birthing center nearby, this would be a lot easier.

I would like to have a home birth, for the same reason that hospitals freak the hell out of me. They don't exactly terrify me, but hospitals and doctors and nurses stress me out to an insane degree that I'm pretty much a sniveling mess the entire time I'm there, and I have a feeling that wouldn't be conducive to a good labor, especially if I want to be med-free. However, I think what we'll probably end up doing is some concurrent planning and see how comfortable I am with the midwives/hospital v. a home midwife/home. Either way I imagine I'd labor at home as long as possible to avoid having to spend much time in the hospital. Of course I have to get myself pregnant before any of this...

ah :) homebirthing really changed my life in the most amazing way, so it's really good to find some other birthing radicals out there! i had a water birth in front of our fireplace in the early morning, it ws absolutely beautiful.

Birth seems so mysterious and secret and amazing and terrifiying I love hearing the stories.

My neighbor shared her home-birth stories with me last weekend. We were on the sidewalk at a community flea market and several neighbors jumped in to say how risky it is to have a home birth. We both just waited for them to finish and walk away and then continued our conversation.

A friend just had her first baby and a lot of neighbors have been recounting their birth stories. It really interesting how some people are really closed and afraid of the home birth experience. One neighbor told me "it's totally nuts to have an at home birth." After all this birth talk in the neighborhood the last couple weeks, I started to think how strange it is that most mammals give birth relatively easily compared to humans.

Now I want to read one of Ina Gaskin's books

spiritual midwifery, by ina may, is soooo cute and retro. absolute hippy fantasticness ;) but, obviously, you don't need to be a hippy to be a homebirther...

I couldn't afford a homebirth (no one took my insurance and it would've been 5k without) so for me, the next best option was a birthing center. But then at 44 and a half weeks, the baby still wasn't ready to come out and my blood pressure skyrocketed so it turned into an unpleasant hospital situation.
just wanted to add to the original poster, I love your name...my daughter's name is Dahlia.

I had a homebirth, and it SUCKED. HARD.

I blogged about it, but there's a lot that didn't make it into the story - because it was too painful to write about at the time. To make a boring story even more boring, we living with my parents at the time, so they were there, and my mother in particular was the opposite of helpful. Having her present was a huge source of anxiety for me. I ended up feeling very unsupported and unsafe.

That being said, I'd love to have another homebirth, knowing what I know now. As awful as my experience was, I cannot imagine going to the hospital to have a baby.

i have 3 kids...

my firstborn was a home birth transfer (there was meconium when my water broke, it was "for observation"). i did not enjoy my hospital experience at all :( i now wish i had just stayed home!

my second was a home birth, and my third was a home water birth. both of my home births were fantastic, life altering experiences. if we were to have any more kids, it will definitely be a home birth, barring any medical complications.

I have three kids. My first two were traumatic hospital births and my third was a home water birth. It was so vastly different and amazing that I weep for my two previous births. With all three births, my water broke first, which for the first two births meant instant horror for me because I was put on the clock immediately. With my third, I was up making Tofu Curry and Mocha Chip Muffins, cleaning and hanging out until I was ready to get into the pool. It was great! People came and went and it was a pretty chill, celebratory atmosphere at the house. I wouldn't have changed a thing about it, except for the manual removal of the placenta that hurt more than birthing a 9 pound 6 ounce baby. It just wouldn't come out. My midwives think it was because everyone started to party down after bebeh Maxwell was born and I couldn't relax enough to release it. Oh well, if that is the only thing that I can complain about, then I consider myself very lucky!
Ina May is the shiitake!

Mine got stuck too, but in a hospital birth. They gave me Versed, so I don't remember what happened, but according to my mother and husband it was seriously traumatic and I was in a LOT of pain. Of course, mine was super-wedged in and had to be removed in pieces, which it sounds like yours wasn't. But they probably would've gone a similar route with you if you'd been in the hospital. So at least no one was urging you to be anesthetized?

I had a really awesome home birth and if i were having any more kids (which i am not unless my tubal fails) they would be home births assuming all was well and normal.

i truly feel a woman has to give birth where she feels most comfortable and safe. wherever that is for her. unless it is on a bed of dirty needles or something equally as gross.

Have you been reading my birth plan? How dare you!

i wish i could have done a home birth. my mom homebirthed, or later, birth centered (and she says with a house full of kids, she liked going somewhere else) all her kids but me (i was the first of 5) and my sister was born on the farm with one of ina may's protege's attending.

i have researched my options for a vbac and if we stay here, an illegal hvac is my only option, and the nearest midwife who will do it is an hour and a half away. My husband and i have actually talked about going to stay for a month or so with my family if i get pregnant again bc we don't want to go into a hospital unless it is necessary.