The environmental Impact of Different Modes of Care

[Phteven]

Do different modes of care have different environmental impacts or is it all about the same?
Just a trivial question that came to me as I was hanging out the washing a couple of days ago.
With no evidence at all I presume that a home birth probably has the smallest footprint but if they use more water maybe not.

If there was any research into it would it alter the mode of care you selected?

[Liz]

I guess taking into account travelling to the hospital, the endless hotwater you can use in the shower, all the lighting and air conditioning, plus who knows how environmentally unfriendly the manufacturing of all the equipment etc is.. I'd agree that a home birth would have the smallest footprint.

But no, I don't think it would alter my mode of care... the only thing on my mind is getting the baby out! hehe

[SamanthaP]

Think of the amount of packaging used in hospitals. I feel ill at the waste and amount of rubbish created.

[paradise lost]

During my homebirth i had a bath for a couple of hours but to be honest i DO have baths for a couple of hours sometimes, and it wasn't a birthpool (bigger) or substantially longer, so delineating that particular bath and saying it was a labour "cost" to the environment seems fake. I birthed on a shower curtain which is hanging now in my bathroom as a shower curtain. We used our own freshly washed and tumble-dried towels which we also washed for the birth, for me to sleep on after (to catch milk and blood) which were all reusable of course (and i laundered at 40C, not 60C, for everything, even baby clothes, i never hot-wash unless Smee has had a vomiting bug). So birth was a heavy washing week but not like CRAZY heavy, just a few extra loads.

Here's a thought - do the swabs and packing used during a c-section get balanced out because the mother will probably use less maternity pads afterwards...?

Bx

[Phteven]

Bec, AFAIK you use just as many maternity pads after a c-section. I'm pretty sure I did.

[paradise lost]

Really Dach!? I bled for 5 weeks after DD, my friends who had sections never bled for more than 2... Maybe they were the lucky ones?

Bx

[Phteven]

They might have only bled for 2 weeks after a vaginal delivery too.
After Yasin was born I stopped needing a liner just before my 6 week check-up and with Imran I still needed one at my 6 week check up.