Thinking about Home Birth

In my daily wanderings of the web, I came across a well written, straight forward, no nonsense, quick loading home birth site. <- www.thegoodbirth.co.uk

I particularly like the answer provided to the following question.

Many women assume they will be having their baby in hospital because that is what their friends or relatives did. or it is what they have seen in television programmes or read about in magazines. Home birth has very many advantages which deserve careful consideration when you are choosing your place of birth. These include:

• A less painful labour
• Knowing the midwives who will be at your birth
• One to one midwifery care
• More privacy and control in labour and afterwards
• Greatly reduced need for medical intervention
• Healthier mum and baby
• Baby is more likely to breastfeed
• Lower rates of postnatal infections for mum and baby
• Dad is never sent away or reduced to visitor status: you can start family life from day one.
• If you have other children they can be as involved as you want them to be

Sounds lovely doesn't it? Wait let's look at some of the answers again...
- A less painful labour. Yes labour can have a measure of pain involved, but if you can minimise the intensity of pain without the use of drugs, why would you not? Have you ever felt a bit poorly and just wanted to be at home, because you know you will feel better at home, you can rest at home... EXACTLY!

- Knowing the midwives who will be at your birth. I cannot stress the importance of having a connection with the members of your birthing team. How do you feel when walking into a room full of strangers? A bit self-conscious, a bit shy, a bit awkward? All natural responses but in your labour, you cannot afford to be bogged down by all that self-consciousness malarkey. When you know the people who will be at your birth, when you have spoken to them prior to your labour and honestly spoken about your birth expectations, you can just BE yourself and concentrate on the important work of birthing your baby.

- One to One midwifery care. I had 3 midwives at my home birth in 2009, one shift change, but the two middies who were there when dd was born were there for my active labour, birth and 2 hours post birth. I was really comfortable with them in my space.

- More privacy and control in labour and afterwards. Let me start by saying throw the idea of controlling your body during labour out of the window (you do not need to control your body, it knows what its doing, it knows how to birth your baby) so spend your energy on things you can control. Like your birthing environment. In your home YOU have total control of your birthing environment. You can light candles or not, listen to music or not, sleep in YOUR BED or not, eat your choice of food or not. It may seem inconsequential but its all in the details. This is opposite to a hospital where I personally don't feel I have control of anything but my body... but during birth my body does not need to be controlled.

- Greatly reduced need for medical intervention. Be wary of the slippery slope of intervention, once an intervention is introduced, others can and usually do quickly follow. Why is this? Well during an intervention and drug free labour a women's body will release oxytocin, oxytocin is the bodies natural pain remedy and it is strong. Very strong, quite lovely actually :) . I think its all about 'out of sight, out of mind', eg: when there is no pitocin or IV equipment available, you will not have your labour automatically induced and or speeded up (augmented) which means your body will be able to naturally handle your intensifying contractions by releasing oxytocin, which means no need for man made pain killers, which means you can move your body however you like (no big needles, no IV lines, no nausea, no feeling of being out of body etc etc etc), which means birthing in a position perfect for you, which means no need for an assisted birth (ventouse, forceps) which all equates to a natural birthing experience.

Home Birth is safe. Home Birth is calm. Home Birth is kind.

Love - what we all aspire to do and have done to us.

Babies deserve to be handled gently, during pregnancy, during labour and birth, just after being born and throughout their young lives. Is that not a big part of feeling love for your children, ensuring that no undue harm comes to them? Causing undue stress or harm, which is not just a physical concept but extends to the emotional too, is not a loving act. It is cruel and unkind, expecially when the little person doesn't understand why the person they love most in life, the person who is literally their entire universe is making them feel so sad (ignoring their cries, shouting at them, towering over them, hitting). 

Birth without Violence by Frederik Leboyer is an oldie but a goodie (read it online here). I read it during my pregnancy for the first time and it helped shape my ideas of my (then) upcoming birth, and helped bring to realisation my gentle kind home birth. Unkind acts in birth (bright lights, smacking and holding newborns upside down, vicious suctioning [see pam englands blog piece for the natural alternative to suctioning during a cesarean section], early cord clamping, vigorous unnecessary washing and or drying, seperation from mom and delayed breastfeeding) need to stop. Imagine if you will a birth that goes like this: Mom and Dad labour together, and baby is birthed into her father's loving hands in warm water, the light is dim, the air is warm, the room is quiet, she is lifted out of the water into Mom's waiting arms and gently cuddled and welcomed into the world. That to me is love and it can be a reality for your baby too. 

Being gentle and kind is not only applicable to home birth, or natural birth, or vaginal birth but can be applied to cesarean birth - Pam England's latest blog piece discusses natural cesarean sections. A baby deserves a gentle kind loving birth, no matter which type of birth that may be. Mothering doesn't begin once you leave the hospital, its starts the moment you conceive, protect your baby. Room in with your newborn, he is used to being with you constantly, he is used to hearing your heart beat, the rhythmic inhalation/exhalation of your breath, your voice, don't force him to be alone in another room with a bunch of crying babies for no good reason. It's not kind, the one thing your newborn needs is you. Plus the not uncommon practice slipping a newborn some formula to top them up (to give mom a rest after birth) is detrimental to establishing your breastfeeding relationship. 

What if your baby is ill? The baby who needs a bit of extra care, needs extra care! There is definitely a place for modern medicine and technology, it helps saves little lives but be conscious of his treatment, does he really have to go through all of that? Is there not another way? Can they do their test whilst you hold him (nursing your little one can help soothe aches and pains associated with medical tests and restore peace and calm). Skin to skin contact and breastfeeding brought this tiny one back...have a read here... If Mom is otherwise occupied (you can keep your wriggly gorgeous warm newborn skin to skin on your chest whilst your cesarean incision gets repaired!!!) Dad (partner,loved one) is a very lovely replacement, much nicer than a lonely incubator in my opinion. 

Keeping your newborn in skin to skin contact post birth will help get your breastfeeding relationship off to a good start. My newborn stayed with Dad for a bit whilst I got out of the pool to be checked and we missed our first opportunity to breastfeed, it was a struggle for 3 days thereafter to get her to latch. I will not be separated from my newborn until after their first feed in future. (We all have 100% hindsight, learn from my mistake). 

Love your baby, love your body, love yourself! 

It's not what you can do for your Doula, But what your Doula can do for you!

Doula - (doo-lah) - My interpretation of a Doulas place in the baby rearing team: Support and Love, a calm presence during your labour and a breastfeeding supporter backed up by lots of useful information and experience. They say it takes a village to raise a child, then every village should have a Doula.

Advantages of Doula Care:

"Birth companions (doulas are one type) may help with shorter labor, less medication, induction and augmentation of labor and fewer Caesarian deliveries. Newborns in supported births have lower rates of fetal distress or admission to neonatal intensive care units. More doula-supported women breastfed. Women reported greater self-esteem, less depression, higher regard for their babies and their ability to care for them and higher satisfaction with their partner.^[12][13] These results are similar to findings that support from a female relative during childbirth has similar effects.^[14]

One study found doula support without childbirth classes to be more helpful than childbirth classes alone, as measured by emotional distress and self-esteem four months after birth. Women in the doula-supported group reported their infants as less fussy than those without support.^{[15]" Wikipedia}


DoulaTam - more about me.

I did my doula training in 2007 in Johannesburg South Africa, I have had the privilege of supporting at 7 beautiful births. I am a breastfeeding supporter and have completed a lactation management course and La Leche League breastfeeding support class. 

In terms of personal experience, I had my baby at home in water in October of 2009, she was exclusively breastfed (ecological breastfeeding) for 7+ months and is still breastfeeding.

I live in West Lothian Scotland and am currently available to take on new clients. 

For further information or just a general chat contact me doulatam (at) gmail (dot) com