Home Birth
Most people assume that if you’re having a home birth, you’re some sort of “Spiritual Earth Mother” who doesn’t believe in non-organic cotton or vaccines. And if you have an unmedicated birth, people congratulate you for being tough. But — while I hate to disabuse anyone of the notion that I am a Zen Badass — I must confess that I’m not even good at recycling and I have been known to cry when constipated. I am, alas, just another Amazon shopping, paracetamol popping, make-my-life-as-easy-as-possible millennial.
The prospect of giving birth scared the shit out of me so I bought a bunch of books (Amazon Prime next day, naturally), listened to several podcasts (while on the spin bike at the gym #multitask). And, at the end of the day, home birth just seemed like the easiest option.
Before embarking on my paranoia-fuelled research journey, I had definitely never considered a home birth — or even appreciated that it was something non farm-based women of the modern world would do. When the midwife asked me what my birth preferences were, I had no idea what she meant. I said something along the lines of: “The same as everyone’s I suppose… a healthy baby delivered with minimal pain?” I was certainly not trying to be a hero or achieve Feminist Enlightenment. I was just trying to get through it all alive — and ideally without tearing my perineum which I had heard was a thing that happened. I assumed The Medical People would handle the rest of the decisions.
But from the midwife’s unimpressed nod, I gathered that I was expected to take a bit more responsibility for my “preferences.” And in my attempts to educate myself, I learned a few things that started to shift my thinking.
- The stages of labour are regulated by hormones and the autonomic nervous systems (fight or flight). Unsurprisingly — given how humans evolved — births in dark, warm, private, quiet and safe spaces tend to progress more quickly than those in bright, loud, chaotic places full of strangers.
- Induction aids such as Pitocin are said to cause more intense and painful contractions.
- With each intervention, there is an increased chance of having a cesarian.
- Recovering from a C Section takes up to 6 weeks, compared with 1–2 weeks for a vaginal birth.
- Breast feeding and milk supply are also potentially complicated by cesarians (and other interventions such as epidurals).
None of these are certainties — just sliding scale probabilities and risk factors. But I was definitely interested in faster labour, less painful contractions, shorter recovery time and easier breastfeeding if any of those were a possibility.
There was the option of an unmedicated birth in the birth centre which seemed to have more chill vibes than the labour ward. But there were a few more things* that tilted my preference scales towards home birth.
- A spot in the birth centre wasn’t guaranteed. If all the suites were taken when I went into labour, I’d have to go to the ward.
- I’d still have to drive to the hospital in active labour — a car journey I’d heard described by multiple women as absolute hell. But if I planned a home birth and wanted/needed to transfer to hospital at any time, I’d go via ambulance — lying down, sirens on, the works.
- If I went to hospital, I could only go home when I was discharged. If I stayed at home, I could go into hospital at any time.
- If I planned a home birth, all of my antenatal appointments would be done at home, with the same midwife throughout. No cycling in the rain!
- When it came time to call the midwives for the birth, there would be two of them. They would be completely dedicated to me until everything was over (unlike in the hospital where there could be shift changes at any time).
*Note that much of the above are specific to Edinburgh which is, excluding Scandinavia, the best place in the world to have a baby— not least because (like the Scandis) you get a GIANT box of free stuff from the government.
I knew myself well enough to know that the faff of getting in a car, “checking in” at some sort of reception desk and interacting with strangers would definitely stress me out and slow my labour down. (See what I mean about being an entitled millennial? Cars and humans? Ugh — isn’t there an app for that?) I worried that if my labour slowed down, something would have to be done to speed it up which would kick off the cascade of interventions etc etc — things that could really cramp my summer running plans.
So I opted for the home birth. But I am always bemused when people say things like “Wow, brave!” or “Damn, that’s crazy.” (Or, my personal favourite: “Oh God, you would wouldn’t you?”) It was a decision driven by convenience and a desire to avoid negative outcomes. And it was the option that left all options open, which is always my preferred M.O.
My daughter was born at home in the end and everyone was perfectly fine (except for the permanent damage inflicted on my husband’s hands by my teeth). It was nice to not have midwives prodding me with instruments every five minutes throughout the affair. I attribute my relatively short (12h) labour to my fairy lights and “Chill Vibes” playlist.
That said, I am not a mega #homebirth influencer/evangelist. There are a million reasons why it is not a good choice for everyone and there are a few claims made by Home Birth People that I’d like to challenge:
- The body’s hormones, left to self regulate without medical intervention, act as natural painkillers during labour. This may be partially true, but I certainly experienced some very-much-alive pain in labour. If my hormones were an anaesthetist employed to KILL the pain, they would be fired.
- Babies born in calm environments have calm temperaments. If someone could please remind my daughter of this fact (particularly in the evenings around 6pm), I would appreciate it. She was also the only baby in the cafe with five other hospital babies to kick off so…
- Breastfeeding is easy when you have a home birth. Ok, to be fair, no one actually says this. But I kind of thought all the Magic in the air would somehow bestow my breastfeeding journey with fairy dust. That was, alas, not the case. See Boob food and Breastfeeding 101.
