Natural hospital birth...how much control do i lose?

[special_kala]

The closer iget to our due date (and inevitable week overdue date) i feel like homebirth isnt right for us this time.

I cant explain it but my gut is saying a hospital delivery is best for the boy, my head is also telling me the help i think we might need could be caused by a hospital enviroment so im really feeling torn!

If i go for the hospitalthey have a new unit with nice facilities birth pools and midwife led which is great but can they insist on things they cant at home?

Regular checks? Monitoring? Will they push for failure to progress if i dont dilate the standard amount per hour?

If he poos (my girls did, its a family trait lol) can they force us to stay the 24 hours? Is oral vit K available?

I want a homebirth for me but my instinct is screaming at me my boy needs something different.

 

[meow951]

I had a natural birth at my local midwife led unit as hubby was too nervous about having a homebirth. To be honest i don't think they can insist on anything that you don't want to do but i think it probably varies from area to area etc as to how pushy they are.

My experience at the midwife unit was:

- No continuous monitoring on machines as i couldn't lie down or keep still. They just checked using hand held machines every 15 minutes or so and just followed me round while they did it, didn't make me lie down or anything

- No examinations until my water broke and i started pushing but i think that was only due to the fact there was some bleeding and meconium

- My son passed meconium and we were asked to stay in 12 hours and we went home at 1am

They didn't offer me pain relief either which i was happy about and just let me do my own thing.

Have you asked your midwife on what the units policies are? At least that way you will know what things you might have a bit of a fight over and then you can prep your +1 on what you definitely do and don't want to happen. I do think it's important to listen to your instincts though

 

[Athena]

I think you should follow your instincts we have them for a reason and this is why I am going to a stand-alone MLU rather than HB.

They can't legally make/force you do anything, all they can do is suggest and tell you the guidelines they adhere to in certain situations. I've also been led to believe that MLU are centered around using as little intervention which is certainly what I'm going for.

Not sure about the oral Vit K but I have discussed this and my decision to go MLU at length with my Mum (she's a hospital consultant) and I am happy to give the injection. HTH and Good luck, we are due within a day of each other!

 

[aliss]

The problem is that it's easy to mentally break and demand things that you know you didn't want. Do you feel uncomfortable doing any of the labour at home? I had my entire labour and most pushing at home, the rest of the pushing at the hospital. Does your instinct tell you to go to the hospital right away?

You've done this twice before so I think you should trust your instinct because as we all know, the best labour is the one we feel safe with.

 

[summer rain]

I think you should follow your instincts. Just a week ago I had my baby at the hospital nearest my in laws, because he was my fifth baby the MLU wasn't an option but they have recently refurbished the CLU to be a lot more homely and 'natural' than you would expect. The only real difference between the MLU and CLU is the MLU has laminate flooring, slightly bigger windows and all the walls are painted in a dark blue colour. I decided against a home birth because the home birth midwives seemed very clinically minded with a serious doomsday mentality and wanted me to go for extra tests and appointments including a GTT at 37 weeks.

Overall my experience was very good the midwives were completely hands off and didn't push me into anything, I had one VE in triage and that was it, nothing once in the delivery room, they did suggest to me to have the drip at the end due to being a 'grand multipara' but at the time I was happy to have it as it was a quick labour and I was worried myself it could increase the risks of bleeding heavily. They didn't try and 'coach' me at any stage which was also one of my major dislikes with some of my other births. The only negative was I had him on a bank holiday and as such there was no paediatric cover so we ended up having to stay overnight. This was inflicted upon the mums who had given birth in the MLU that day as well though and isn't something that would happen often xx

 

[Kimboowee]

I knew what I wanted/didn't want and my midwife was happy to go along with it.

I didn't want to be strapped up to anything, so they listened in every hour or so which I was happy with. I also didn't want any sort of drips. Progress with #1 was slow so I wanted to know how I was doing with #2 so I could change position/pee/eat etc to try and speed things up, I had two VE (one when I went it, one when I asked for one 3 hours later) I also didn't want directed pushing, I wanted to push when I needed to and how I wanted to - She came out in two pushes!

My choices weren't totally 'out there' but I was open to having to change things if needed so they kinda worked with me iykwim? I had a fab natural birth

 

[Seity]

It really depends on your hospital. The one here is the best. The midwives let you have exactly the birth you want either natural or with some pain meds and you have a few choices on those. There is a birthing pool too. My friend just gave birth a few weeks ago and had a water birth at the hospital, even though technically they're only supposed to let you labor in there, but the midwives are awesome like that.
I personally prefer the intrathecal shot, but my labor this time was too fast, so I had a 100% natural birth. They let you push in any position you want, etc.
I know that's not the case everywhere though. I was just lucky that the hospital here has a top rate maternity ward.