Dannii Minogue transfers to hospital...

[PumpkinZulu]

Hopefully it wont put the determined off having a homebirth!

Or the educated

[TeniBear]

I really really hope she comes out and sets the record straight - we don't need any more people turned off the idea! PZ, you said on FB that it serves to show that she had a great IM (or group of them) because she was able to make it to hospital (and think how much harder it would have been, getting her in there without anyone noticing!)... You're so right.

[~Kaz~]

actually up here in the Territory it's a govt funded thing too.....homebirths I mean - they prefer you to have your bub at home....the new legislation thing has thrown a realy spanner in the works....not that up here will really pay that much attention anyway lol.

OT but Kim, I'm coming to stay with you for my next bub!!

[diotima]

(I hope its OK if I post here)
I was just watching the news and they did a segment on Danni Minogue. They then cut to an Ob saying that if you give birth at home the baby is 4 times more likely to die. I've never heard that before. They also said 50% of home births get transferred to a hospital. I didn't know that was true either. I always thought the risks were the same. Sounds very sensationalist and irresponsible to me.
Grrr... sometimes I wonder why I ever bother watching the news. Its so full of kaka...

[Glamourcide]

^ Absolutely! I saw the same segment (channel 9?) and was waving my arms at the TV 'correcting' the sound bites I believe that 'up to 50%' of FIRST-TIME mothers having homebirths are transferred to hospital (he left out the important part of the statement!), which is perfectly understandable to me as a mum who is doing it all for the first time may decide during the birth that this wasn't what she expected and that she would feel more comfortable in a hospital; or simply that a first-time mother may have unforeseen complications arising during the labour that nobody can account for - whereas a woman who has one or more children already can usually be confident of a complication-free birth if she's done it before with no problems, kwim?
As for the '4 times more likely to die'... I'm sure there IS at least one study 'confirming' this statistic, just as there are many, many studies out there that would say the opposite! You can pick and choose your 'results' and 'statistics' to suit any agenda you want, of course an AMA crony is going to insist that homebirths are 'always dangerous' when many other experts will say that's just completely untrue Too right about the mainstream media being full of sensationalist cr-p... it gets ratings and sells newspapers when the scaremongering level is at 'extreme'

[onthefly]

I thought Pesche was saying seven times more likely Very dodgy use of statistics. It's quite safe for low-risk pregnancies I have no idea bout transfer rates.

Here's a quote from community midwifery in WA (note that they do domino births at hospitals sometimes too, so the 75% figure may not actually mean that 25% were transferred).

Since its inception in 1996, over 1,600 babies have been born on the CMP. During the last year over 75% of CMP births have occured in the woman's home. The vaginal birth rate for CMP women is high at 88% and caesarean rates are low; 12% including women with a previous caesarean section and 9% excluding those women. Over the last year, 54% of women who birthed vaginally did so in water.

One more stat:

•97% wished to use the service during further pregnancies - and of those that didn't most weren't planning more pregnancies!

[Jennifer13]

Nothing like talking to an ob, who by the very definition of the role has a conflict of interest, for a segment on HB. Kinda like going to an arms dealer to ask about the peace process, really.

[diotima]

Its funny, I thought that the fact that she had planned a home birth would help to promote home birthing, but there seems to be a big interest in not letting that be the case.
I have been thinking about a home birth if I get pregnant again and I have to admit that when I heard the report it really scared me. When you see a doctor on TV basically saying that home birth is very dangerous you can't help but to feel afraid. I still think a home birth is right (and safer) for me but I can bet that a whole lot of mums who have been thinking about it will change their minds now.

[deletedit]

"there's no way i'd be pushing out my baby on the kitchen floor with no pain relief. This isn't Africa! We have wonderful hospitals and drugs for a reason"

Oi to your friend! I had a baby on the floor without pain relief on the weekend! In Australia! In a hospital!

[allycat06]

Anyone see the segment on Today Tonight? They presented a reasonably balanced argument surprisingly. Andrew Pesce even spoke a little sense at one point..WTF!

[r8chele]

Really? Oh, maybe I shouldn't have turned it off then. As soon aas Andrew Pesce came on I changed the channel

[PumpkinZulu]

Andrew Pesce even spoke a little sense at one point..WTF!

I thought the world wasn't supposed to end until 2012

[allycat06]

LOL PZ!

Yeah he kinda summed it up as ultimatley it's the woman's choice but she needs to realise that in some cases a HB will not be possible and a hospital, necessary.

But of course we already knew that Mr Pesce....why is it that pro homebirthers are always perceived to be somewhat selfish. Danni Minogue's birth is what I would call a responsible homebirth not one gone bad!

[Schmickers]

(I hope its OK if I post here)
I was just watching the news and they did a segment on Danni Minogue. They then cut to an Ob saying that if you give birth at home the baby is 4 times more likely to die. I've never heard that before.

The study this was taken from defined a "homebirth" as any birth where the woman had planned a homebirth at 28 weeks gestation, even if they had later decided to have a hospital birth during their pregnancy. Which means that they included women who had been diagnosed with major complications and streamed back into the hospital system, in their homebirth statistics. I've never seen a study which classified hospital births as homebirths before! It was a very poorly constructed study, but because it was Australian and the AMA and the RANZCOG were involved, they push it pretty heavily.

[Fleur]

Anybody watch the 7pm report?
They were talking about it there as well, they had some bigwig Ob/Gyn on (someone with a better memory can fill in the gaps ) ; even I with my limited knowledge could see that it was only one side of the argument and I want to know, when is the media going to speak to someone for the pro-homebirth side of the debate?
Seriously, it's doing my head in, I cannot believe this is all we have heard so far!

[meow]

The AMA created some study that manages to support their claims of increased neo-natal deaths and they like to quote it. It includes births without assistance though and I'm pretty sure all sorts of other unreliable information. As for the claim that 50% of first time mothers transfer in a HB- this was also mentioned in the senate enquiry and they asked for the reference which wasn't supplied. I'm not sure that it's base don any fact.

[Glamourcide]

...I want to know, when is the media going to speak to someone for the pro-homebirth side of the debate?

Well, they probably *tried* to get a hold of Janet Fraser... she's about the only 'pro-homebirther' the mainstream media is interested in thanks to the awful tragedy that she experienced - ie, they want to talk to people like her because she fits nicely into their little pigeon-hole regarding 'alternative' choices like homebirthing. It's biased, and it's bleeding unfair.

[meow]

The whole thing is a complete crock. I'm not wasting my time with it. My aunty told me that my Nanna called her tonight to discuss it as she was scared of my HB now. My aunty reminded her that she, my grandpa and all of their siblings were born at home