While we await the birth of our latest child, I thought it would be a good time to discuss home birthing as an alternative to the regular hospital birth scene so popular today. Really, this is inspired by 3 main factors;
1. The upcoming new bundle. 2. The current economic situation and, 3. The recent request of Countryside Magazine.
As we discuss this issue, I will share our personal reasons for choosing this method and also, give a few little 'stories' of our experiences.
First, I have to start by acknowleding that it was my wife that originally brought up this idea in our household. At the time I really thought that she had gone too far! I mean, the homeschool thing was already hard enough and now she wanted to return to the 'dark-ages' of high infant mortality rates and 'unscientific', anti-medical zanniness!
I told you in my recent post that she really has been instrumental in changing our family for the better! Seriously though, the decision to have our children in the comfort of our home has been one of the best things that we have ever done. I know that this may not be for everyone, in every situation, and I want to first state that there are some very real circumstances wherein it would be wise to consider a more 'medical' approach. What I mean is, that there can be some medical problems which require a more non-traditional hospital birth and we certainly support and recommend that any person with such a condition obtain the best medical advice that they can.
That being said, we feel strongly that for the most part medical intervention is not needed and sometimes causes undue stress on the Mother and child.
A little historical perspective
Until recent times, pregnancy and birth have been viewed as a normal part of the process of life and death. Throughout history women have gone through the process of birthing and nurturing children in the same way that every other creature has. Naturally. It is a recent trend to look upon child-birth as a medical 'condition' akin to sickness. While we could go on for quite some time in documenting the medical community's reasons for such a clinical view, it is not of great concern to this article. There are many papers out that already do a sufficient job of explaining this rather recent development. For our purposes, we simply want to illustrate that normal child birth is a completely natural biological event that has been taking place since the beginning of mankind and will continue to the end of time. With or without an epideral! Still, this issue of birth being historically viewed as 'natural' is an important point. To the many families that choose home-birthing ,one of the most common reasons that they give is, "Women have always done it this way!" There is just something about certain folk that feel a strong urge to 'connect' with the meaning of such a significant event without the 'clinical' feel of a hospital room. For us, this is exactly how it happened. We had our turn in the 'clinical' setting and just felt that someting was missing from the experience. We couldn't even explain it except to say that we were sure that the whole medical scene was a part of the problem. We wanted to get great prenatal care to make sure that the next one was a normal pregnancy and then we wanted to be left alone! Without the push-pull of the hospital staff and the removal of our child at someone else's whim. That brings up the next point in our thinking process.
Reasons for choosing home-birth
Different strokes for different folks, right? Wrong! Wrong that is, if you are planning on having a hospital birth. You will have very little choice in anything that takes place in most hospitals today. You are a patient after all!
Comfort, care and control
When we read the accounts of people who gave birth at home, we were so shocked that we questioned everything. These folks talked about being relaxed and eating a good meal as mom started labor! In the hospital we weren't even allowed a glass of water because it might create a problem for the Doctor when mom started pushing if her bladder was full! A problem for the doctor?! He wasn't choking from the dry throat of all that breathing and pushing! At home, we ate a good meal of fresh food to help keep our strength up and kept water available at all times. We even kept a pot of my wife's favorite herbal tea steeping for that little extra boost she might need. The music list we chose was steadily streaming the relaxing songs and the other children were quietly going about last minute preparations. When mommy said she wanted to walk, she did. If she wanted to crawl around on her hands and knees and recite scripture she could. She was at home and she was queen. Our job was to have all the 'stuff' ready for her when she needed it. And guess what. Things went fine. They have nearly a dozen times! (We're hopeful people!)
Economics 101
Recently, a friend had a hospital birth experience. He was telling me the particulars that are expected, ( weight, length, etc.,) when he suddenly told me how thankful he was that his insurance was so good. They picked up nearly the whole tab you see. He only had to pay $4,500.00 out of pocket because they 'chose' a private room and an epederal! That was his cost for delivery alone. The prenatal stuff was about $$3,000 and the total with insurance was over $22,000! I didn't have the heart to tell him that our mid-wife, a l20 year veteran RN, came to our house for every prenatal visit from 60 miles away and lugged all that state of the art equiptment, just in case, and helped deliver the baby, wash the dishes, and played with the other children afterwards so my wife and I could sleep, for less than 3 grand for the whole deal! Considering where this country may be headed very soon, home-birth deserves a closer look for the financial reasons alone.
Stay tuned.... Next time will be much more fun as we tell some home-birth stories! We'll even throw in the unassisted water birth. Well, not completely unassisted, one of the boys was home and heard her praying in the tub and heated some towels for her!
4 comments:
Hello Robert,
Thanks for the neat post on homebirthing! Actually, Lord willing, we're about to have our first homebirth this July! Our previous 4 children were birthed in a birth center which, although it wasn't a hospital, still wasn't the greatest situation for various reasons. We've been interested in homebirth for our last couple of births, but didn't think it was possible because of costs. This time, we looked into insurance costs and it would cost $1,500 with insurance (vs $100 at the birth center). However, the Lord has recently been convicting us of living deliberately separate agrarian lives (Michael Bunker's website has taught us alot in this regard). So, my husband is planning to leave his "worldly" job which means that we wouldn't have health insurance (but we'll have the Lord!). Without insurance, "basic" homebirth costs are $3,900, but we still have to travel to prenatal visits. Still, that's less expensive than a conventional birth would be without insurance. We've recently been realizing that the area we live in is an expensive part of the country (southeastern PA). As an aside, about a week or so ago, we were reading an interesting discussion on Herrick Kimball's(?) site about community where people were writing in about where they lived and the costs of living in their respective areas. We were shocked! I jokingly said to my husband that he should post, "Whatever you do, don't move here!" Our taxes are ASTRONOMICAL compared to others and we didn't realize that PA wasn't a very lenient state in terms of homeschooling (our oldest is 7, so although we're homeschooling him and my daughter now, we don't need to report until he's 8 so we didn't look too much into it except to know that that's what we were going to do). One question we do have about homebirth -- when you didn't have older children in your home, how did you find someone to look after your younger children? We tend to have very long labors, so we know we'll need someone to be "on call". We were cautioned that you need to find someone who's comfortable with homebirth or else the children will "feed" of off their anxiety. Anyway, thanks again for the post. We're looking forward to your next story! Sounds interesting :)
Blessings,
The Pipers
Good post Bob, we just had our 4th homebirth here on Mt Hunger. It costs us about $3000 and we don't have or believe in health insurance so its a real bargain! Even if it did cost more than an industrial birth we would do it at home for many reasons.
Mrs Piper,
We are blessed to live within walking distance of both our parents and my folks watch the kids for us. My wife has really long labors too. A another reason to live close to extended family when possible.
Mrs.Piper,
I can't tell you how thrilled my wife and I were to hear that you will be givng birth yourself soon. We are always blessed to meet other christians that God is blessing in this special calling. We will be praying with your family as the time nears. Our own little girl will be here in June sometime and my lonely 9 year old daughter can't wait to finally have a sister! As to your interest in homebirthing, I would encourage you to read as much as you can. I know that there are a lot of stories both pro and con, but as for us, we will never go back to the hospital unless it is an issue of moral duty, ie; some issue which could affect the life/health of mother/child that cannot be dealt with at home. For us, the homebirth experience is so much better that it would have to rise to this level of need, not just your normal old breech birth kinda stuff because that happens at home or the hospital either way. The only difference is that at the hospital you MUST get a c-section and at home you simply hang upside down for awhile, well, sort of..:) Many women have done this. I encourage you to become knowledgeable about the whole thing and make it the experience that you and your family want it to be.
As to the cost, it is worth every penny. I will be praying for your husband to make the wisest decision concerning his employment. I am assuming that when you say he is in a 'worldly' job, you are indicating that there is some moral issue about his duties which are binding your consciences and might require a soon change. I myself was in this position once when my back was out and I had to take up car sales...not an easy job for a christian, to say the least. I too, had to leave because there was no way to perform the job without violating a clear moral precept. I have a great link to how one can judge these type of matters on my sidebar titled "Our Church Site". When you get there you will see two tabs labeled Conscience and Actions Indifferent. They may be of some help to your husband in building his resolve to prepare for the upcoming days. I know how scary such a decision can be.
On cost of living and homeschooling, you have stated the exact reason that I would never willingly move to PA although it is one of our first choices in terms of sustainability. Mr. Terry's State of NY is in the top 2 for us but we could never afford it either. When we searched out homes we found several that were dirt cheap there but then saw the taxes and knew why! I'm talking 5 bedroom,2 stories on 10 acres for under $50k (our personal maximum when we still had a little money), but the taxes would require a full time job to keep from getting evicted...sad. And we know about your anti-homeschool laws too, so will really be praying. I hesitate to mention it, but there are some who homeschool constitutionally there. I will explain more on that if you care to email my wife and I. I promise I will get an email up soon. HSLDA is a must in your state.
Finally, for the logest part..sorry! Childcare during homebirth. I will be sure to include some about that in my next post on the subject because it is just as important to this subject as anything else. Mr. Terry brings up some great advice if you have christian parents who are supportive. Always the best bet. If not, consider carefully. Without dragging the whole thing on too long, I will say that we have never allowed our children apart from us without a serious interview with who ever it was that was helping us. Basically, it was just a very gentle meeting wherein we poured our hearts out to explain how precious these holy gifts are to us and the great duty that attends caring for them. And that that was only one time out of all of them, with a close church member family who understood our convictions regarding purity and such. With mostly boys, purity is often overlooked by some folk. They should also be at least supportive of your wishes concerning standards and views on child rearing as a blessing and not silly enough to discuss any concerns around your children, but with you during the 'interview'. It is a great way to educate others about the overall blessing that God has for us in conception and the duty that it implies in birth and beyond. I hope this helps and thank you for your comments. They are great.
Sincerely, Bob
Scott, I promise it will be short! Thank you for commenting on my post. We have enjoyed reading your blog since the beginning and have loved getting to know your family and praying with you over so many things. We especially love your writings on your family and the covenantal views that you espouse. We had a little celebration when Leah gave birth this last time. I trust that all is well with you and have been praying for you especially since your mid-december set-back.
Bob
Bob,
I have not read any male blogs that write on this subject.
I hope that if God blesses us with another baby we will be able to homebirth. Only, my husband was not so keen on the idea... then, he found your site. Thanks to you, the idea of homebirthing now has more credibility!
I enjoyed this post!
Bethany
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