The Safest Birth- PODS

For many people, the choice between an empowering, natural home birth and the safety net a hospital birth provides is a difficult one. I have the perfect option.

 A Cochrane Review* came out a few weeks ago stating that, though there haven't been enough randomized controlled trials (RCTs--the gold standard in research) to absolutely prove it, an increasing body of observational studies show that planned home birth is just as safe as planned hospital birth for low-risk women.

The best part about it is that the evidence points to unnecessary medical intervention (which leads to complication) at the hospital as the reason home birth is as safe if not safer. It's the hospitals that are making home birth a safer option!

I would be willing to bet most, if not all, home birthers are indeed afraid something will occur that requires hospital specialty.  Luckily, in the overwhelming majority of such cases, a non-emergent transfer to a hospital fills the bill (no pun intended). Women birth at home to avoid being processed like so many cattle, putting themselves and their babies at risk for complications.

From the Cochrane abstract (emphasis mine):

It seems increasingly clear that impatience and easy access to many medical procedures at hospital may lead to increased levels of intervention which in turn may lead to new interventions and finally to unnecessary complications. In a planned home birth assisted by an experienced midwife with collaborative medical back up in case transfer should be necessary these drawbacks are avoided while the benefit of access to medical intervention when needed is maintained. Increasingly better observational studies suggest that planned hospital birth is not any safer than planned home birth assisted by an experienced midwife with collaborative medical back up, but may lead to more interventions and more complications.*

Your baby is probably safer at home. The c-section rate is through the roof. No birth professional is going to say that c-sections are better for moms and babies. The evidence to the contrary is similarly through the roof. But many hospital interventions and policies lead to c-sections.  


In my years of reading and thinking about this, the answer is obvious. Also, it is the perfect thing for all the moderate or higher-risk moms. Breech baby? VBAC? No problem! The safest place to birth your baby is at home, and in your front yard is one of those temporary PODS units. Inside the PODS unit is an operating room, an anesthetist, a surgical nurse, and an OB, reading the Times. Should the OB's services be needed, s/he is called into the house for a consult and either helps the midwife through the difficulty or transfers the woman to the module for a life-saving alien (pod) birth. These portable, on-demand OBs, or PODOBS, could travel around town making births safer--instead of complicating them.

PODS rental not an option for you? It's true, the safest place to birth your baby is at a hospital where A. you feel comfortable, B. they leave you alone until you need them, and C. your wishes are respected. Here is a list of such hospitals.

*Planned hospital birth versus planned home birth
Olsen & Clausen

Editorial Group: Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group

Published Online: 12 SEP 2012

Freedom for Birth (Review)

Yesterday I was at the premiere of the wonderful and much-needed new documentary Freedom for Birth. The film is about the abuse of human rights inflicted on childbearing women around the world. It featured interviews from a number of high-profile professionals in the birth field (Ina May Gaskin, Michael Odent, Sheila Kitzinger--who, might I add, is old and adorable). It revolves around the disturbing story of midwife/obstetrician Agnes Gereb, who was arrested in Hungary and jailed for years without any evidence for the accusations against her.


Here in Maryland, there is a CPM on trial for practicing without a license (CPMs can't practice here, though we're working on it). They are trying to convict her of practicing medicine without a license, which is ludicrous because midwifery is not medicine (they don't deal with illness) and it is legally considered an advanced form of nursing here. Yes, it is a witch hunt.

My little brother, born at home with an underground midwife when they were illegal in Ohio.

The film mentioned a NJ woman who had her baby taken away because she refused to sign the c-section consent form (she had a healthy baby vaginally-who was promptly removed from her care). Then there is the FL woman who was forcibly taken from her home IN LABOR because she was trying to have a vbac. She was strapped to a stretcher kicking and screaming and given a c-section.

Speaking of torture...

Just reading this old article about the NJ case makes me feel like digging my eyeballs out with a spoon. Did this really happen? Creepily, yes, in 2006 and not far from where I live. I could die. The more I read about hospital birth, the more determined I am to stay home.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amie-newman/does-refusing-a-csection-_b_682840.html

After the Agnes Gereb disaster, the European Human Rights Court came out with an addition to their laws affirming that women had the right to birth their babies however they wanted no matter what the situation. (Ternovsky vs. Hungary) This of course includes breech presentation!

We need this in the United States so badly. Enough fear-mongering on the part of the obstetric institution. Thank God for hospitals and c-sections and yes, for obstetricians, for sometimes we do need them. But enough! Enough already of the punishment and threats and falsifying. Enough persecution and insensitive treatment of two people at such a time. Let women birth their babies how, where, and with whom they may, according to the dictates of their own conscience.

JOIN THE REVOLUTION!
http://www.freedomforbirth.com/

Jake didn't breathe right away so we called 911. He started breathing before dad hung up, but the paramedics came anyway and mom's midwife hid her bag in the closet and pretended to be a neighbor. That's me rockin' the Land Before Time top.