I've asked this on here before and gotten very little response. Which kind of amazes me because, where I live, it is very common. I would venture to guess like 30-40% of all births.

I thought about it with my first. I even met with our local midwife, who I liked a lot and would have loved for her to deliever a baby. She had a lot of experience, comes well recommened, and was a neat person to boot. But when I asked her about "problems" and could we make it to the local hospital in time. She explained that the local hospital does not deliever babies (which I knew but I thought in an emergency) but they would drive you to the next town over where babies are born. That town is about 40 miles away! That needless to say, ended my desire for a homebirth. And for my second child, I didn't even consider it.

My daughter's birth would have probably done very well in a home birth environment. She might have even done better as, maybe, I might have been more relaxed (but who knows). But my son's birth was a completely different story. I have no doubt that he would not have survived the 40 mile trip to the hospital -- I'm not even sure if he would have survived the trip across the river to our local hospital. And there was no warning that there would be complications. That scares me to think.

Funny thing, on the day my son was born, our local midwife was down in the hospital with one of her moms. Thankfully, that baby was born without any problems. We talked a bit later and she explained that she had seen them rushing me (well actually my husband) down the hall for my emergency c-section -- I didn't notice her! She was probably glad that I had decided against using her as well!

No, all my babies were born in the hospital. I would be to afraid of something bad happening and not being able to make it to the hospital in time.

I attempted a home birth with Lily... it was wonderful

My midwife visits were great, she came to my house and chit chatted with dh, we got to know each other.

So when the time came, my water broke.... and I labored for 24 hours, when she checked me I was dilated only to 2 cm eek... so we went to the hosp, where I then labored under pitocin.... after another 18 hours they did a c section. all and all it was lovely

I was going to do a homebirth with dd #2, but florida has a law, just recently passes that unless you have had a successful VBAC you cannot have a homebirth. it is really screwing things up here... people are now attempting to do it themselves.... crazy

anyway, sorry for the ramble , but I would do it again in a heart beat if I was allowed!

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married 8 years to a crazy Brit, mommy to a banana, she is 4 and a pineapple who is 11 months, mommy to 3 ~angel~ babies

No way!!! I would be too afraid to! I want my kids to have every possible medical option right there. 2 of my children were born with medical issues that required immediate intervention and my grandson was born by emergency C-section (they prepared that in no time flat!) I would have lost them all (and possibly my oldest dd, giving birth) if we would have done home births.

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~Happiness is a large family~

No, but I wanted to. There was a waterbirth clinic a few miles from my house that I would have loved to give birth at too, with a hospital right across the street. We just didn't have the money to pay out of pocket for a midwife and homebirth/waterbirth.
I do have to say that just because you're at a hospital does not mean that they are equiped to handle everything. My dh works in L&D and it's not uncommon for them to airlift mom &/or baby because there are complications above what the staff can do and the equipment that is available (no NICU or NICU trained staff).

I used to be a doula so I'm very pro-homebirth. I would have loved a homebirth.

However, for my only live birth, I chose to go to the hospital because I was placing the baby for adoption. I wanted someplace that was emotionally neutral where I could spend two or three days with her before relinquishing her. I couldn't do that at home or the birthing center.

I planned all my future pregnancies to be home births. Sadly, I ended up with secondary infertility and couldn't fulfill that dream.

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"Poor people work for their money. Rich people make their money work for them."

I looked into it, thought about it. I'm glad I didn't, because there were complications with both kids, that while minor in the big picture, would have become major issues if I hadn't had the medical staff and everything needed nearby.

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Make someone's heart smile today.

The Really Needy, Special, Networking and Talking Mod

I'm so sorry, Cookie. Everything happens for a reason, I guess. Now you have a wonderful dd who I'm sure is so happy you brought her into your life.

I never entertained a home birth. I was also too afraid something would go wrong. I ended up with 2 unplanned c-sections so I'm glad I chose to go to the hospital.

I wanted a home birth, as myself and my 3 brothers were all born at home (my older sister was born in the hospital), but my sister had some complications with delivering her son 2 years before I got pregnant, so the drs considered me high risk because they weren't sure what caused his problems (genetic, etc) and that option was definitely out. Good thing b'c my labor was 72 hours long and quite hard on my body (had to vacuum him out). Ah well, one can dream, right? lol

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~~Amanda~~ Mommy to one Little Man (3 1/2 yrs old), TTC #2

WE'RE ADOPTING!!!
http://daughterinthedistance.blogspot.com/