Not pregnant yet, hell, I'm not even ovulating yet, but I've been thinking and planning for some time already. Mainly as I need to pick a better/more supportive midwife for next time. I've been putting off this post until I was pregnant (determined lurker in this section) but I was trying to talk to OH about having a homebirth last night and I realized he was going to take some convincing. I knew he would, but for a variety of reasons I'm going to be moving fast on finding a midwife once I do get pregnant so I need to know if the self advertised homebirth midwives are ones I want to include in my interview process.
What pros and cons are there to a birth centre birth over a home birth?
For background here we generally choose our midwives (much like independent MW's in the UK except it's free for us to do so), though rotation hospital MW's are an option. A normal pregnancy is preferred to give birth at a birth centre (or home) of which there are various ones throughout the town. I think the earthquake closed at least one, but I can think of 2-3 other ones not too far from me. They have gas and air, a pool room, various monitors, but for anything problematic they'd transfer you to the hospital.
Here is what I've come up with
Birth centre pros: No pool rental/purchase cost and G&A available if I want it (I don't as it doesn't work for me), no clean up, midwives on staff around the clock, free food for a few days (I swear this is the most common reason for not doing it at home here, the most popular facility is the one with the best food
), visiting hours for DD...not really sure if that is a pro or con tbh.
Birth centre cons: Not at home, away from OH (and DD), dealing with midwives who are not familiar with my history and likely will not be able to help me with some of the post birth issues I expect to face. Have to travel there and back. Will have to hire in home childcare to care for DD.
Home birth pros: At home, no travel either way during labour or several days after (unless medically indicated and then I'd need to transfer to hospital anyhow), my stuff, my bed etc. Possibility of no extra childcare needed for DD. Will have OH around to help rather than just at visiting hours.
Home birth cons: Have to buy/rent pool, extra bedsheets, towels etc. No real clue what I'll need, but thinking in terms of pool and birth mess. DD right now is a terrible sleeper, so I'm concerned about that as well. House is a rental....? As you can see not so many cons here.
I'm pretty sure either way I'm going to need to line up childcare for DD-either to be used or as a just-in-case measure as we have no family, no friends, nowhere for her to go other than daycare or with us. I know OH wants me to go to the hospital again, which I'm open to doing if necessary as they have pools, balls and birthing stools there, but I think they put the fear of god, or rather uterine rupture (this is a VBAC), into him (also in his mind babies come from the hospital IYKWIM).
What pros and cons are there to a birth centre birth over a home birth?
For background here we generally choose our midwives (much like independent MW's in the UK except it's free for us to do so), though rotation hospital MW's are an option. A normal pregnancy is preferred to give birth at a birth centre (or home) of which there are various ones throughout the town. I think the earthquake closed at least one, but I can think of 2-3 other ones not too far from me. They have gas and air, a pool room, various monitors, but for anything problematic they'd transfer you to the hospital.
Here is what I've come up with
Birth centre pros: No pool rental/purchase cost and G&A available if I want it (I don't as it doesn't work for me), no clean up, midwives on staff around the clock, free food for a few days (I swear this is the most common reason for not doing it at home here, the most popular facility is the one with the best food
), visiting hours for DD...not really sure if that is a pro or con tbh.Birth centre cons: Not at home, away from OH (and DD), dealing with midwives who are not familiar with my history and likely will not be able to help me with some of the post birth issues I expect to face. Have to travel there and back. Will have to hire in home childcare to care for DD.
Home birth pros: At home, no travel either way during labour or several days after (unless medically indicated and then I'd need to transfer to hospital anyhow), my stuff, my bed etc. Possibility of no extra childcare needed for DD. Will have OH around to help rather than just at visiting hours.
Home birth cons: Have to buy/rent pool, extra bedsheets, towels etc. No real clue what I'll need, but thinking in terms of pool and birth mess. DD right now is a terrible sleeper, so I'm concerned about that as well. House is a rental....? As you can see not so many cons here.
I'm pretty sure either way I'm going to need to line up childcare for DD-either to be used or as a just-in-case measure as we have no family, no friends, nowhere for her to go other than daycare or with us. I know OH wants me to go to the hospital again, which I'm open to doing if necessary as they have pools, balls and birthing stools there, but I think they put the fear of god, or rather uterine rupture (this is a VBAC), into him (also in his mind babies come from the hospital IYKWIM).
