revelinfreedom answered your question: Study weighs pros/cons of home versus hospital birth
Who did the study? I’d be skeptical. research studies are very vague. in most states CNM’s cannot deliver babies at home only CPM’s
The study was performed by UCSF, I’d say they are pretty reputable and when it comes to less-mainstream health trends they are more likely than others to be unbiased. In regards to your comment about CNM’s versus CPM’s, I actually don’t know much about legal issues of performing home births, but I thought this statistic from the National Center for Health Statistics is pretty interesting: only about 20% of home births are performed by a CNM. This isn’t a small number, but the fact that it is not more may speak to your comment about CNM’s not being allowed to perform home births in some states. Seems like a good advocacy opportunity!
Really interesting study looking at outcomes of home-births versus hospital births. They found that babies born at home had lower Apgar scores (which measure the baby’s vitality) and were at greater risk for seizures. This was less true when the provider was a certified nurse-midwife as opposed to another variety of midwife. Curious to know what the home-birth advocates out there think of this finding. If you had or are planning a home-birth is your provider a CNM?
This is a great piece exploring “glamour shots” during childbirth. Honestly, I would not have wanted photographs being taken while I labored for the exact reason she cites: having a camera in your face affects how you act. In those moments or working through pain, I think I would have felt distracted by the camera.
However, I was so focused on pushing during the delivery, that I might not have cared about having a photographer there at that moment. When you are that task oriented, it is as if everything else drops out of view. If it was a good photographer, I assume that they too would just recede into the distance.
Also, I’m struck by the image of the first (beautiful) woman delivering her baby. On the National Geographic site, it says that at this moment she was screaming “I love you baby.” I love that. I had that exact same moment of calling out my son. As you may have read, he was a little slow to come out. I had a similar moment where I needed to harness my power to summon him out into the world. I screamed his name and beseeched him to come out. It was the first time I’d (purposefully) said his name in public. I love that she’s captured that exact moment in childbirth. If I had a photo of our moment like that in which I looked even half that good, I would have been thrilled. Maybe I wouldn’t share it with the world, but I’d keep it and remember the power I had to welcome my son into the world.
amotherisborn:
Several people have sent me links this week to birth photos entered in National Geographic’s 2011 Photo Contest (examples below).
Here’s the thing about this. I think childbirth, and the body, are pretty awesome and fascinating, and I wish we had more images in our collective consciousness that…
Hey there pregnant folks! If you are thinking about your childbirth preferences, this may be one to add to the list, especially if you plan to breastfeed. Most pediatricians recommend giving breastfed infants an iron supplement (as mom’s iron leaves the baby around four months.) I’m not saying that clamping the cord later would eliminate this need, but it might ensure that your baby has more of a reserve to draw from.
I’ve been meaning to post my son’s birth story since I started this blog, but have remained too caught up in the day to day to really reflect. In his baby book, I have the story as I remembered it from a month out. But it has been two years, and I’m curious to determine how time has affected my memory of that time (I honestly can’t say that “day”…you’ll see why.) So here it goes, I’ll keep it as abridged as possible, but it is a long story.
Two weeks before my due date I was slated to be in my best friend’s wedding about three hours south of Philly (where we live.) From day one I told her, I’ll be there if I can, but babies are unpredictable. I lucked out: just before the trip I had no signs of labor. I was given the green light to be a whale of a bridesmaid. I spent a weekend celebrating love and life with my best friend and our families, anxiously awaiting the little guy who would change my life. The whole weekend we kept our fingers crossed that my water wouldn’t break while they said their vows, and that we’d make it home before labor started. The weekend went off without a hitch, and we headed home thinking that labor was still a ways off.
But just about two days after we returned (this was Tuesday, October 13th) my water broke after an awesomely rich meal I’d prepared for our neighbors. It was about 9 pm, and my husband and I began waiting for labor to kick in. Mind you, this is no Hollywood birth story. We didn’t rush off to the hospital the minute my water broke. We were hoping for an unmedicated birth, and we knew that in order for this to happen we needed to let labor progress naturally as long as possible. With the help of our doula, we decided to wait until just about the 24 hour mark to call our doctor and go into the hospital. So for 24 hours, I walked, danced, cat napped, and waited for the contractions to get closer together and stronger. By Wednesday afternoon I decided that things weren’t moving fast enough, so I got my acupunturist to squeeze me in and induce labor via acupuncture. While still on the table I could feel the contractions getting closer together and more intense. But at 24 hours in, they still weren’t close enough, so into the hospital we went.
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“Failure to progress” is a common reason that women end up being recommended various interventions to help childbirth along. While in some situations these interventions may well be warranted, often providers jump to intervene without recognizing that their own practices (constant checking, fetal monitoring, etc.) may be what is slowing down the birth process. This post on babble gives some great tips for helping the birth process, and highlights the video above as great illustration of how things can get held up.
It seems like the lesson here is, “Privacy please!”
This is such an important decision. Labor is tremendously hard work, and women need to be able to move to help speed the process and work though pain. Shackling female prisoners while in labor is just barbaric. So glad the courts see it that way too.
