I pray all will go well for you Kendra.

Kendra was a homebirth that transported – my water broke at 37 weeks, but no labor and my blood pressure was borderline. I was induced, pushed for hours, and ended with a C-Section. I hated that they door was always open and there seemed to be a constant parade of new faces coming to look and oogle at me. I was self-consious, HOT, and they wouldn’t let me off those HORRIBLE machines for a minute. The bed was too high and I didn’t get to use the bathroom like I needed to – plus no food or water. It was my worst nightmare. Then I didn’t get more than a glimps of Kendra before she was whisked away for hours. I couldn’t go get her (they way overdid the dosage on the pain shot and it was nearly 12 hours before I could move much, let alone walk) and Tim had run home to shower and change. I was frantic.

Vannan was a home birth, only 2 days “late” and was great except her umbilicl cord was wrapped around her ankle leaving the cord short and she would jerk the placenta as she crowned causing bleeding. The midwife did an episiotmy to get her out faster – not knowing why I was bleeding, but she was too far out to transport. I was fine after they unwound her ankle. They left her cord alone and just wrapped her up with the placenta to help her maintain her temperature and stablize her due to the mild birth trama.

Joel was going to end up a C-Section because of my blood pressure. But I was able to get it down without medication, and at the last minute – after my water broke at 37 weeks, 4 days – we called the midwife and asked her to take us anyway. She did. It was the perfect birth – not painless – but nothing bad happened. I only regretted that because we chose to do it at the birth center (my house wasn’t ready), the girls were not there for the birth.

Now we are looking at #4. I know it will be different from the others. And I’m ok with that. I only regret that my mom won’t be here for this birth – she died on Mother’s Day. She helped deliver both Vannan and Joel. We named all of our children after their grandparents, and this one is hers.

I would add to the list that my two girls are excited to be able to see/eperience the birth too. We’ll play it by ear with Joel.

You are in our prayers for a great homebirth experience.

It sounds like you had a wonderful hospital to give birth in!! Unfortunately, my first two births in hospital were just as I described, with lots more things that I didn’t mention that I really did not enjoy.

I hope everyone understands that I am not bashing all hospital births though!! I’m merely listing MY reasons for choosing a home birth. I understand that not all women have this option, or agree with it.

Please you guys, don’t feel like you need to be defensive. This is simply MY personal opinion from MY personal experiences.

Anyway, just wanted to note that there really can be misconceptions about hospital births as there can be about homebirths. Some have great experiences and some not so great. But really the only thing on your list that was an advantage to being at home was no nurses waking you up at night! I just felt much more comfortable with experienced physicians available incase they were needed (several babies in our family with heart defects).

Good luck to you! And if you DO end up in the hospital, realize it isn’t the end of the world and can be really great!!

I had both of mine in the hospital many years ago, and other than an overly chatty nurse (I just wanted to be quiet!) I was lucky not to have any of the issues you listed. If anything most of my experience was the opposite of your concerns. My labor with the first one was long, and I was really exhausted when he finally arrived. They urged me right away to nurse, and I was just worn out! I remember being surprised that those toothless gums of his could clamp down so hard! Ouch! LOL!