For those on the fence about out-of-hospital delivery

[redneckhippy]

My little guy is here now, but I wanted to come and share his story. I'm not sharing this to scare anyone away about a home or birth center birth, but just as something to consider, because I never did. I was planning to have my son in a free standing birth center with my midwife. My pregnancy was very low risk and I felt comfortable because I asked about all the scenarios and also the birth center is only 2 minutes away from the hospital. Plus if anything started to look wrong during labor, they will transfer you to the hospital. Well, after not having any issues my whole pregnancy, my blood pressure suddenly went up at 40 weeks and my midwife said I needed to deliver in the hospital just to be safe. I went into labor and everything went very well with no drugs or interventions. I was on the monitors and the babies heart rate was excellent the whole time. After 10 hours of labor, my son came out and the midwife immediately placed him on me, but quickly it was clear something was wrong. He was blue and not breathing and had no heartbeat. The midwife grabbed him and started doing all of her resuscitation things, but couldn't get him back. She called for help and the NICU nurses came running him and thank God they were able to get him back. 2 minutes seemed really close to me before, but let me tell you, when your baby doesn't have a heartbeat, you don't want to be 2 minutes away from help. My midwife did everything she was trained to do and wasn't able to bring him back, so if I had been at the birth center, the outcome may have been very different. Normally there are signs during labor that something is wrong, which would allow for transfer, but in this case there were none. The second before he came out, his heartrate was 150, so nothing would have signaled her that I should be transfered to the hospital. I realize that my situation is very rare and most birth center are home births are wonderful experiences, but I just wanted to share my story because it was something I never considered could happen and thank God my boy was in the hospital.

 

[Menelly]

I'm so glad your little is safe! That's terrifying.

 

[butterflywolf]

Glad he's all right! I was also one that was thinking about home birth with my first child, but my gut said do it at the hospital (which my hospital is not like many others. You aren't just a number there and the entire area is dedicated to only labor/birth/nicu). Anyway, glad I did. 11 hour labor including 90 minutes of pushing in there, as soon as I had my daughter I hemorrhaged really bad. Well over 2 liters lost and it was close to transfusing me and taking out my uterus.

The reason for my issue? My daughter, my first baby, was 9 lbs 3 oz, AND 22 inches. My uterus was too exhausted to clamp down and do what it needed to do. There was no signs that she was going to be this big or long. The entire time I only measured almost a week ahead when it came to fundal height measurements. Where she hid we have no idea.

Glad everything worked out for you and congrats mama!

 

[redneckhippy]

I also ended up having issues after the birth as my placenta would not detach and ended up having to be manually removed by the doctor on duty. I was so low risk all the way, I'm just so thankful to God I ended up at the hospital where I needed to be.

 

[LisaL79]

Thanks ladies for sharing your stories. I think this is what a lot of women forget about birth. You can be low risk until that second you're not and everything could go wrong.

 

[mayacat]

I was considering a home birth, but my family dr decided against it for reasons like your story. I wasn't set on any particular location, so it was an easy decision to just go with a hospital instead. I know a few people who had home births with no problems at all and recommend it, but there are certainly risks. Thank you so much for sharing!

 

[Eurydice]

Congratulations on your baby! I'm so happy that things worked out for the best in the end; it sounds like your midwife was very cautious and smart.
I am planning to give birth at a birth center which is located on hospital grounds. If anything were to happen, we'd have to cross the street to the hospital and make our way to L&D, so there would be a delay. I'm wondering what resource your son needed at the hospital --was it some special equipment in the NICU?

 

[redneckhippy]

Congratulations on your baby! I'm so happy that things worked out for the best in the end; it sounds like your midwife was very cautious and smart.
I am planning to give birth at a birth center which is located on hospital grounds. If anything were to happen, we'd have to cross the street to the hospital and make our way to L&D, so there would be a delay. I'm wondering what resource your son needed at the hospital --was it some special equipment in the NICU?

Honestly I'm not certain what exactly they did because they took him over to a different area and I was just in bed praying.

 

[SAmummy]

So glad it all was fine in the end ! There is always a reason for everything .... As crazy as it sounds it was a good thing your bp went up so you delivered in the right place ! Congrats