Posted on 09/27/2021 6:14:45 PM PDT by george76
With hospital births becoming increasingly unattractive as a result of COVID-19 protocols, many women are beginning to consider home births as an alternative.
When I decided to have my third baby at home, I did so because I felt that a home birth with an experienced midwife would be the safest place for labor and delivery. My first two children were born in a large, Boston teaching hospital, and medical interventions there caused complications for me. My last two children were born at home, on their own time, with no interventions and no complications. You can read more about my home birth experience here.
More women are now discovering the safety and joy of a planned, midwife-assisted home birth. The coronavirus has caused expecting parents to question the safety of a hospital birth, while restrictive hospital policies, such as mask-wearing and visitor limitations, make labor and delivery in a hospital less appealing.
According to Joyce Kimball, a Certified Professional Midwife in Massachusetts, more women are considering a home birth now than they were pre-pandemic.
“My practice has seen an uptick in the interest in home birth and community birth since the spring of 2020,” says Kimball, who runs one of the busiest home birth practices in the state. “Prior to 2020, I would receive 1-2 calls per week from folks interested in non-hospital birth. Now I receive about 4-5 calls per week."
"Every month I have a full panel of clients and refer away several people a month,” she adds. This trend is occurring in midwifery practices across the country.
Many of the reasons why these pregnant mothers are contemplating a home birth now are the same as they were before COVID hit. They want a more personalized, less institutionalized birth experience. They want more control over the labor and delivery process. They want to be surrounded by a supportive birthing team, including family members, friends, and perhaps their other children, in addition to their midwives. They don’t want to be separated from their baby at any time. They may pay more in hospital co-pays and deductibles for maternity care than they would for a home birth. They recognize that for most healthy women, birth is a life event—not a medical one.
According to Kimball, COVID has increased the desirability of home birthing. She says that pregnant women may now feel more uneasy during their prenatal care, with the heightened focus on COVID protocols when consulting with their healthcare provider. They may not want to get tested for COVID in the hospital, and have to wear a mask during labor and delivery. They may not like the idea of keeping that mask on during their postpartum hospital stay, creating an artificial barrier to bonding with their baby. They may not want their newborn exposed to hospital germs, including COVID.
Prior to the pandemic, interest in out-of-hospital births was growing in the US. It is estimated that about 62,000 of the roughly 4 million US births in 2017 occurred at home or in a freestanding birth center, and the number of US out-of-hospital births increased by almost 80% between 2004 and 2017.
This rise in home births may be at least a partial reaction to the country’s dismal hospital birth record. Despite significant spending, the US has some of the highest rates of maternal mortality and morbidity of any industrialized country, especially among women of color. A 2018 USA Today investigative report concluded that “the U.S. is the most dangerous place to give birth in the developed world.”
A planned home birth with an experienced midwife, on the other hand, can be both safe and rewarding. According to a 2021 study published in Frontiers of Sociology about the rise in home births since the start of COVID, laboring women “have been continually achieving safe outcomes in private homes and freestanding birth centers with the assistance of midwives in the United States and abroad…COVID-19 has disrupted the perspective of actual safety because staying at home offers better protection from the pandemic for childbearers than sharing a hospital with disease-stricken patients.”
New hospital COVID policies may also inadvertently drive more women toward home birthing in the months ahead. For instance, FEE’s Jon Miltimore wrote recently about a hospital in upstate New York that announced a “pause” in its labor and delivery services this month due to so many of its nurses and other healthcare workers quitting over COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Some of those expecting mothers may choose to consider a home birth instead, particularly in light of recent efforts to expand home birth access in the state. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order in 2020 to allow Certified Professional Midwives to practice midwifery in the state to help alleviate the burden on hospitals due to the pandemic, but that order expired in June. Advocates have since tapped the state legislature to support the role of home birth midwives in the state.
Until the recent COVID-related executive order, Certified Professional Midwives were forbidden to attend births in New York, and some longtime home birth midwives have been arrested there for delivering babies. One of the highest profile arrests was that of Elizabeth Catlin, a midwife who has been attending home births in New York for decades, particularly in the state’s rural Mennonite community. In 2018, she was arrested and charged with 95 felony accounts for being an unlicensed midwife. Catlin is a Certified Professional Midwife, a credential recognized in 30 states but not in New York until the 2020 COVID-related executive order. Last week, Catlin agreed to a plea deal that dropped 94 of the charges against her and left her pleading guilty to one charge of practicing midwifery without a license. She will be sentenced in December.
COVID has disrupted many previously entrenched sectors, from education to healthcare. Frustrated by COVID policies in schools or fearful of virus spread, more families have shifted away from institutionalized learning and toward schooling alternatives, such as homeschooling. Similarly, more expecting parents frustrated by hospital COVID policies or fearful of the virus are turning away from an institutionalized birth toward home birthing and other out-of-hospital birth options.
Restrictive institutional policies in both education and healthcare are accelerating the growth and popularity of more decentralized choices in these sectors. Continued loosening of occupational licensing requirements, such as those impacting New York’s midwives, along with ongoing deregulation in healthcare and education, will expand choice and opportunity for parents—from where they give birth to how their children learn.
Ping.
I didn’t know hospitals were making women wear masks even during labor. Of all times to restrict and hobble the air flow! One almost expects a nurse to tie an itty bitty mask to the newborn once the eye drops are put in.
I had six kids born at home. Why would I want my children born in a building fill of sick people?
Yes I personally know if two planning their next child birth at homes opposed to hospital even though they had originally planned hospital.
Due to covid insanity, restrictions.
Many years ago I was part of a home birthing team. If I were having babies today, I would definitely opt for a home birth.
We used to carry quite a lot of equipment “just in case”, but it was rare to ever have to use it beyond what was necessary for a normal birth...which wasn’t much. Most of the new moms had their own birthing kits which included sheets, blankets, towles, washcloths, plastic shower curtains, white shoe laces, all sterilized.
It was a wonderful experience for all involved.
As a guy, one of the most wonderful experiences was assisting a midwife in delivering our first-born. She handed me a scissors and I cut the umbilical cord. For our second child, we were set to do likewise but the baby was breech so a C-section was done at a hospital. Complications can occur; our second had to wear braces on her feet for a couple months after birth. That same second child grew up normally and had a midwife deliver her child (a grandchild of mine). Definitely a wonderful thing for family involved.
Again the free market responds with the best options for patients not some damn Chief Hospital Administrator or a head Rn, who hasn’t treated a patient in decades:
According to Kimball, COVID has increased the desirability of home birthing. She says that pregnant women may now feel more uneasy during their prenatal care, with the heightened focus on COVID protocols when consulting with their healthcare provider. They may not want to get tested for COVID in the hospital, and have to wear a mask during labor and delivery. They may not like the idea of keeping that mask on during their postpartum hospital stay, creating an artificial barrier to bonding with their baby. They may not want their newborn exposed to hospital germs, including COVID.
Locally there was a lady that fought with the hospital almost her entire pregnancy (along with her husband) to be allowed to have him in the room with her when giving birth.
It’s beyond idiocy to have this level of lock down.
I see an excellent business opportunity, for the Ob/Gyn nurses NY is firing ping.
Fake news
One granddaughter was born in a birthing center. It was located in an old barn. So if anyone ever asks her if she was born in a barn, she can truthfully answer yes.
It is ridiculous to have a woman in labor wearing a mask, or not allowing the father of the baby in the room.
On the other hand, too many women who opt for home birth only think about what the birth experience is for them, not the baby. Anoxic encephalopathy is a horrible risk. You want someone there able to do a c section immediately. The birth process is a one to two day affair. Having a baby with anoxia is a horrible lifelong disability which causes divorce , financial instability , 24/7 ICU type care at home with home nursing caregivers in your home, and parental depression.
I would opt for the hospital to give birth, nothing is 100%, but your chances of complications are much less with someone able to wield a scalpel.
Our Hospitals have unofficially sworn allegiance to Satan.
There is nothing else, in terms of an explanation, to note why they have all become so inherently evil.
From forcefully brain-swabbing women in labor with duh tesst, to force-jabbing poisons into women in labor with duh vaxx, to threatening to steal newborn babies and giving them to the State (for refusing duh vaxx and duh brain-swab), they are all hotbeds of evil now.
We, as a Nation, have been overrun by evil creatures.
If one is pregnant or has a loved one who is pregnant, beware of the vile creatures at the hospitals.
They are as evil as Hell.
COVID policies, yes, but also a growing distrust of a medical profession co-opted by pharmaceutical korporations and government criminals such as Mr. Fauxi.
My three children were born in hospitals, but I still managed to snip the cord.
Our 2nd child was breech, and the Dr had the scalpel out when I argued against an immediate c section (a scenario my wife and I agreed upon just in case)...2nd baby was smaller than the first lets give it a try...and the Dr. listened and breech birth...after the birth, the nurses attending congratulated me and said it was the first breech they had ever seen as sop was always an immediate c section.
My wife always managed to get out of the hospital in less than 24 hours...today we would definitely be at home, but that ship has sailed.
Our first grandchild is expected in December...a little girl, God willing.
Our first 4 children were born at home. Our last 2 were born in the hospital.
The primary reason that led my wife to home births was her hatred and distrust of doctors. Most of our subsequent experiences reinforced this view.
“Shut up, woman, we know what’s best for you!” was the general attitude of most industry workers. Don’t ask questions. Don’t educate yourself. Don’t dare think you can know more about anything than a doctor. You must be told how to give birth, what you will be allowed to do while in labor, and everything you and your child must be subjected to. Don’t question why women for time immemorial have been giving birth outside a hospital. Anything you read online, or that is contrary to the doctor’s view, is quackery. Birth outside a hospital will likely lead to you or your child’s death. All this, and more, is basically what we heard.
Yet the home births were, in comparison, pleasant experiences. The hospital births, and the blood sucking nurse-bots sent to prevent my wife from getting any rest, were the worst.
Your mileage may vary :).
My mom says I act like I was born in a barn.
:)
Grandchildren are wonderful, we have 3 granddaughters and they bring joy to us every day. My wife was disappointed that she had the c-section, and felt that it contributed to later problems (fibroids leading to a hysterectomy). Natural childbirth is far better.
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