Free birthing

[Fruit Tingles]

I'm hoping this is in the right section.

What are things a woman needs to know about free birthing? Obviously obvious things like infant resuscitation etc for in case it is needed.
What happens after a free birth has occurred? Do you call an ambulance if it was not planned? Do they admit you to hospital if it was not planned?
If it was planned, what do you do with the cord, do you HAVE to keep the baby attached to the placenta til the umbilical cord falls off (Lotus?)?

I'm in the middle of deciding what I want birth-wise, and need these questions answered.

[Alan]

Hi Fruit Tingles
First I need to say that I do not recommend free birthing. In most cases there are no problems but things can and do go wrong.
So here are a few things that you need to know.
Resuscitation is very important but you need to do this with caution. It is very easy to burst a newborns lungs.
What to do if the baby gets stuck. (Shoulder distocia). You only have a few minutes to free the baby.
What to do if you bleed heavily. Post Partum haemorrhage/Ante Partum Haemorrhage.
What to do if the cord comes before the baby. (Cord prolapsed)
How to recognise Bandl’s rings. Quite rare but a client of mine had this late last year.
These are just a few problems that you may come across. There are many more.
You do not need to keep the cord attached.
You do not need to call an ambulance.
You may have difficulty submitting the paperwork. Some states are more difficult than others.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Well done you on wanting a freebirth! I'm having one of those next time. I have a friend who had a planned one and she said it was the best thing ever. I have had other friends give birth with no bullies around and their babies are fine, the bullies just couldn't be bothered to turn up when called so arrived too late to see the birth.

I reckon hospital births are riskier than free births. You know your body and if anything feels wrong then you can call an ambuance and be admitted to hospital. If things are going well, you don't have people walking up to you and saying they want to slice you up while you're birthing. Or give you a hysterectomy.

OK, so free births aren't all plain sailing. But I'm sick of midwives and doctors trying to bully me out of the idea, when it was their bullying that has led me to this choice.

[Floweryfields]

There is a huge difference between having a home birth with a qualified midwife and a freebirth. Free birthing is very risky and you seriously need to consider whether the possibility of the death of your baby or even yourself outways what you might deem to be bullying.

Thing is you may well know your body and when something is going wrong (though I think there's a fair possibility that you won't either) - and if you do, often it can be far too late to do anything about it if you are unassisted. How long would an ambulance take to arrive if, you have a cord prolapse or a heamorrage- and how fair is it to expect an ambulance person to have to save lives when you;ve made the choice to birth that way to begin with?

I know it's all about choice, but I strongly believe choice must be responsible.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I am not sure if the birth of my DD1 is classed as a free birth or not, i was home alone on the bathroom floor on the phone to 000.
It was an interesting experience and although she was breach we were extremely lucky to have NO complications, that said i would never have planned to be home alone.

I made it to hospital with DD2 and like the comfort of knowing that support is there if i need it, i was quite lucky in the fact the midwives were happy to let me do my own thing and i only called them in whilst pushing.

I think it is amazing that some women want to and can do this but it's not for me, i would be way to stressed about what is or is not happening and don't think it would help.

GL with it all and i hope you get the answers you need.

[Smoke Jaguar]

I've gotta say I'm in favour of having someone around. Not necessarily a midwife, but then you'd want to know the credentials of the person attending. So this, technically, makes it not a freebirth. Just that I really like the idea of the village 'midwife' (doula) who attends births, like in my grandma's village in Central America, who birthed all 9 of my aunts, uncles and my mum. I love middies, too, don't get me wrong, but with the current situation, and me birthing in the country next time (though I hear of a IM in the next big town), I've been considering my non-MW options. It's a way off, but toying with it anyway. After DS's birth I started to get involved in the HB community early on, after using a birth centre, so that by the time the next one was cooking I was well-versed and very confident with my journey. There are forums that have lots of members who freebirth, and these kinds of forums can be a bit full on in their opinions of IM's at births, even!! However, the people I know personally who have freebirthed are lovely and DON'T eat their placentas

[meow]

I can't really help you sorry fruit tingles but I wanted to subscribe as I find the topic interesting. I considered a freebirth this time around as I'm having a homebirth and it's pretty pricey, but I've decided to pay for midwife support.

I can't imagine any decent independent midwife 'bullying' a woman in labour- maybe hospital midwives as I've heard of so many who don't seem to "get" birth even though they work around birthing women all day.

Good luck with your decision and let us know how you get on

[Little Chicken]

If you are going to freebirth why not homebirth with a good IM you can trust and get along with? If things go wrong they go wrong quickly and it can be good to have someone there who wont have the adrenaline flowing and with a level head and who knows what to do. Is it really fair to put that pressure on your partner? Mind you a true freebirth is birthing completely by yourself with no-one else there. By all means learn infant resuscitation, but the resuscitation techniques on a newborn are slightly different (as in different breathing rates and heart rates) but any resuscitation is better then none. Just factor in how long it would take for an ambulance to reach you if something went wrong, sometimes you only have 2 -3 minutes.

[alioops]

Fruit Tingles, From what I understand of your posts you are saying that you are booked in to a hospital? Most hospitals tell you to labour at home for as long as you feel comfortable. If you feel things are moving faster than you would like, call an ambulance and follow their instructions. But don't force yourself to stay home when you are no longer comfortable.

[Fruit Tingles]

Fruit Tingles, From what I understand of your posts you are saying that you are booked in to a hospital? Most hospitals tell you to labour at home for as long as you feel comfortable. If you feel things are moving faster than you would like, call an ambulance and follow their instructions. But don't force yourself to stay home when you are no longer comfortable.

Yes, I am booked into a hospital and plan on labouring at home for as long as I am comfortable before going to hospital. I would definately either call an ambulance or go to hospital if I felt I was not able to cope with the speed at what labour is progressing or the pain.

I just wanted to know what I would need to know should the situation of a unassisted birth were to occur and if I would need to call an ambulance and if I would then have to stay in hospital after the birth or if I would be discharged after being checked over or would that be up to me etc.

[Lolli]

Hi Fruit tingles,
I had an unplanned free birth- there's a link in my siggy if you want to read my birth story. I did call an ambulance and was transferred to the hospital, but released about 5 hours later at my own request. I had no problems with paperwork but I did get a call from Births Deaths and Marriages, who in turn contacted my midwife (a public mw, but through a caseload program, so different to your situation) to confirm the baby was a live birth. I was admitted straight to the maternity ward, bypassing emergency (although the ambos did warn i may go there, depending on hospital protocol). I had the choice of whether we wanted the cord cut or not by the ambos, but they discouraged me from delivering the placenta until we reached the hospital.

I hope that's useful info for you There is a lot of good info on 'emergency birthing' if you have a Google

[Little Chicken]

Fruit Tingles does the hospital have an early discharge plan? No-one can force you to stay in hospital if you don't want to. No-body can force you to do anything you don't want to. The only time it gets complicated is if they think something is wrong with the baby then a whole different set of rules apply. I have seen women who have delivered in the hallway of the hospital be discharged less then 12 hours later and the same for those who have arrived having already delivered. They may want you to stay for a few hours just to watch for bleeding but again, it is entirely up to you.

[Kazbah]

Yes, I am booked into a hospital and plan on labouring at home for as long as I am comfortable before going to hospital. I would definately either call an ambulance or go to hospital if I felt I was not able to cope with the speed at what labour is progressing or the pain.

I just wanted to know what I would need to know should the situation of a unassisted birth were to occur and if I would need to call an ambulance and if I would then have to stay in hospital after the birth or if I would be discharged after being checked over or would that be up to me etc.

From looking at the other posts, it may make things easier if you do go to hospital / call an ambulance to register the birth etc. Plus getting the all-clear from doctors etc may take some of the heat off you from well-meaning family & friends who don't have the same rust in your body that you and your DP do.

No matter what you decide, it's so important to be well-educated about your choice, and well-done to you for demonstrating this.

[Mildez]

Meow I did not say my friend didn't have complications. She had a massive PPH of over 2000mls and ended up in ICU for 3days after her unintentional home birth. Her baby was fine. She woke up at 3am needing to poo, stood up and literally out flew her son by 301am. The placenta tore before the ambulance arrived hence why she has such a big bleed. I did not mention that part as I know of many stories where free birthing has been completely natural and have the expected outcome. I could write a novel of all the stories I know of free birthing both good and bad. Some I am sure you would all be very interested in hearing.

Like you Muminalice I also have worked in a large maternity hospital for a number of years as a midwife however I can not recall any instances where a term birth has gone so catastrophically wrong where the baby has died or suffered major disability because of lack of care during labour or from intervention. Certainly birth trauma and unneccessary intervention but no cases where it has meant the death or longterm health problems of the baby. Long term mental health for mum yes, birth rape and genital mutilation yes but not SB's or extremely poor neonatal outcomes that could be prevented. Obviously I have seen many, some unknown, some known but couldn't be prevented etc but none caused by birthing in hospitals. Yes I have heard of them occurring at other places but none where I work where the outcome would have been different if bub was born at home.

Be back later to reply to some of the repies to my previous posts.

[Little Chicken]

Mildez I was more talking about shoulder dystocia, cord prolapse, massive APH that kind of thing...unexpected complications that can happen anywhere. The one I saw in hospital was caused by the refusal of a c-section so the outcome would have been the same reagrdless, the other at home was the lack of diagnosis of pre-eclampsia and subsequently eclampsia, again caused by refusal to be tested so again I doubt thr outcome would have been different.

[Nelle]

Hiya FT,

I think that to labour at home as long as you can is a great idea. If you do accidentally (or deliberately) give birth at home there are things to consider though. What will you do if your new baby needs assistance or resuscitation? Are you trained in that or will someone who is trained be there? What about yourself? Can you identify something like a haemorrhage and make the call about calling an ambulance? Have you someone to clean up? Can you identify a tear and make the call on if you want to leave it to heal naturally or get it seen to? How will your partner manage being the main support person for a labouring wife, then a recovering wife and a new baby?

I'm not actively trying to scare you away from anything. I do think these are realistic questions that you would do well to answer so you can decide the risks versus benefits fairly.

(On another note, with moving - as you get closer to the time of moving, will it become apparent where you're moving to? And when it does maybe you can really proactively seek out a doula/IM in the area?)

All the best. xo

[studentmum]

Wow, a lot of this thread is muddled up with repliers arguging with each other - this is NOT helpful for people who actually are interested in the answers to Fruit Tingles questions. I think some members need to chill out, apparent from her posts Fruit Tingles is a big girl capable of taking care of herself and doesn't need others "sticking up for her" - I know this is a bit of a rant but believe me, if you read through this thread you would be annoyed having to read petty arguing posts in between the 'answering the question' posts.

So what I actually wanted to say was, I am in a very similar situation to you FT, I am 500km from a major city and 100km from a major hospital. I have had 2 cs and a vba2c, I cannot fathom driving 100km in labour, also possibly with 3 kids at any time of day or night. I want this one's big sisters and brother to be there when he/she arrives, not an hour away. So far a mw for a hb is not an option and I so wanted that, now I am considering my lay birth assistant options, no go so far.

I have let dh know I am not happy, he thinks a 1 hr drive will be fine (he forgets all the cursing from the last drive, which was still a 40 min peak hr traffic drive in the city WITH a doula holding my hips all the way there! And NO kids) I do know a lady who had an unplanned hb and dh was the one who kept it all okay. I just don't think I could get my head around dh being the one 'in charge'???

Given the long drive option we have a baby kit, bulb suction, clamps, sharp scissors and fresh linen etc, also some large garbage bags and a comfy blanket to line the back of the 4wd where I will be on hands and knees if this damn drive is the only option left.

The just in case kit and car protection are the only items we have so far, in terms of baby knowledge dh knows noiught and I am a nurse although I will need to brush up on the new baby side of things.

I would recommend watching births where interventions were needed for sticky shoulders, cords around neck etc. You can't get dh to be a mw overnight but being aware and mentally prepared would have to be better than nothing right?

I can't think of anything else we've talked about yet, I still have ages to go, I do hope things go smoothly for you and I look forward to reading your birth story!

Good luck
Sarah