Big push for home births: Too many babies are being born in hospital, say doctors

Women should no longer assume they will give birth in hospital with a doctor on hand. In a watershed moment, leading medical experts declared that mothers should be given more opportunity to have babies at home because a maternity ward is not necessarily the 'safer option'. A report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggests that as many as a third of all women should give birth 'without a doctor going anywhere near them'. It calls for a radical shake-up in the NHS which could lead to thousands more women having babies at home, as was the case

Sorry, Scotsman. Not able to get on the ‘puter as much during the summer. Kids! LOL!

“1—How did you find the NHS overall?.
2—How did you find Britain overall (likes/dislikes)?.
3—When did you live here and where?.”

(1) I found the NHS poor, if I can be brutally honest. Have many stories. Most of the time it would take me several days to get in with a doctor if I was sick, and never could get the doctor of my choice (3 in the surgery). One story of many: Had to go to an ER because the surgery couldn’t get me in until 4 days.....ER doc took 20 minutes flipping through a PRD (physicians desk reference) to find the medications to treat me. I was pregnant. He told me there was no guarantee that the meds would not hurt the baby. On, and on, and on. Don’t even get me started on the poor care my elderly FIL received. He was, basically, sent home to die.

During the time of my FIL’s illness, I did a little digging into NHS databases (they were once open but are all locked down, now). I called up one such database that the doctors used. It told them, step by step, what to do if the patient exhibited particular symptoms, the steps to be taken, what meds were available, how much it cost ‘the state’, the timeline for next appointments, and when to refer. I was shocked and showed my husband this. Basically....anyone with a slight bit of medical knowledge only had to follow the government guideline.

(2) I liked GB OK. GREAT pubs, loved the ability to be able to walk or cycle to places, LOVED the rich history, the humour. Found it particularly hard being a ‘Yank’ at times and that there was profound ingnorance about the US that was mainly swallowed and spewed thanks to Hollyweird’s influence and ‘Auntie Beeb’s’ anti-American slant. I’m from the South.....so I got a lot of ‘Jerry Springer’ comparisons. XD Made a few, good friends, tho, and still keep in touch. I learned A LOT whilst living there and it gave me a different perspective of the US from when I left. I was quite young and naive.....ESPECIALLY politically.

(3) From ‘93 to 2001. Yorkshire. Sheffield and then near Hull.

Your moniker says you live in (are from?) Scotland? I LOVED Scotland and vacationed there quite a bit. “Local Hero” is one of my favourite movies. Spent many times in the village where it was filmed. Loved an interesting, little town we happened upon called ‘Wigtown’ which was nothing but bookstores. Got to view a near total eclipse of the sun there.

Husband grew up in Cumbria. Many tales of the Solway Firth when he was a boy.

Hi, thanks for reply.

1—Sad to hear you didnt like the NHS. I am a conservative yet here I defend to an extent the NHS. Odd I know. More the fact that ‘criticism’ here tends to base itself on myth than proper criticism, which I dont mind.

I have to say that I and my family and friends have never had anything but great help/service on the NHS, any criticism I have personally is very minor.

I think the NHS is overall good. No better than that, and could be much better, equally its not a third rate system/horror show. You at least have experience of it, unlike 99.99% here and of Americans who criticise it.

2—IMO most British people are not antiamerican, if anything we swallow too much US/Hollywood culture. Some of the ‘bashing’ youll have taken was genuine from idiots, some probably most is simply the British taking the mickey. If you were Swedish or Thai, we’d do the same.

Ironically, with Clinton, Friends, The Simpsons et al, we were fond of America in the 90’s, ironically as there was a resurgence of British culture (Britpop and UK dance/techno in music, the resurgence of the British film industry with films like Trainspotting, The Full Monty, Lock Stock, Shallow Grave).

3—I am from Ayrshire. Ayr to be exact.

I didnt expect you to like everything about Britain 1993-2001, at least I think you found more to like than dislike.
Some good things happened to us then, some bad.

Interesting.

Both of your posts were interesting as is this thread.

Personally, I had four high risk pregnancies and c-sections. Two of my children had to be in NICU immediately and one a few days after delivery. Thus, I’m a bit biased.

Pregnancy and childbirth is natural and usually normal. Sometimes it isn’t and since I’ve experienced that four times I tend to lean toward hospitals/doctors when it comes to delivery.

Rubbish. C-sections are not pushed. C-sections are major surgery. TLC Baby Story is a freakin’ TV show.

I was on complete bed rest for the last six weeks of my pregnancy and then hospitalized in the Maternity Observation Unit for a week and a half. They induced me for two days before giving me a C-Section. With my second pregnancy, VBAC was pushed until four and a half weeks before due date. After daily visits to the hospital for Doppler Ultrasounds, and finally an amnio to determine if the lungs were developed enough for safe delivery, there was no longer a choice for VBAC. Four and a half weeks before full term, C-section. Surgery complications (dehissing hematoma) which required the doctor to open me up on my hospital bed, out of a sterile environment, and another eight weeks until wound was healed. After eight weeks of a home care nurse and my husband and mother irrigating and cleaning and packing the wound until it closed, the wound finally closed.

Third pregnancy was easy but we weren’t taking any chances given the other two, lol.

Fourth was a nightmare and epidural for C didn’t work, as I felt them cutting, so they had to put me to sleep/knock me out. It was kind of funny, the conversation...it’s pressure, hell no this is my fourth c section and that is not pressure that is pain, like a knife cutting into me pain, lol.

I will never be convinced that OBs want to perform C sections. They do them because they are medically necessary.

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