It only took five years for me to submit a video.

*quality comedic hilarity

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by PlayhousePals.

Google-goggle sniper, one of us ︻┳テ=一

The P is gone! So long Probie, howdy new Sifter!

(It took me four years to sift my first.... you have company.)

*promote the loss of @Sniper007 's "P"!

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Saturday, January 25th, 2014 3:39pm PST - promote requested by enoch.

Dude, you're way late. Oh well. Better than nothing.

Why would you go to a hospital?

I dunno, maybe it's because the infant mortality rate triples for home births?

funny bit apart from that.....

Do you have a source for that info?

Different topic: Great. Now all my submissions will look like crap in comparison to this... lol

Excellent... that was exactly what you should have asked.

Journal of Medical Ethics

Historically the maternal mortality rate was 1%. These days it's closer to 0.01%

There's some evidence that suggests that planned home births come close to hospital births for favourable outcomes when the easy access to hospital is available (i.e. if the mother can be transported to a hospital in an emergency), but I just don't see why you'd take the risk, not to mention the added stress on the mother of trying to transport her when things have already gone wrong.

Thank you for the citation.

Do you honestly not know the advantages of home birth versus hospital birth, or do you just disagree with those who advocate home birth?

The advantages I've heard cited are the comfort of familiar surroundings for the mother, the experience is more personal and less "clinical" and various others that all seem to focus on the experience of the birth itself rather than the outcome of a healthy mother and child.

So yeah, I disagree with those who advocate home birth. While I'm open to hearing more arguments in favour of it, and I'm certain there are others that I am unaware of, IMHO the primary concern is the chief advantage of a hospital birth: a better chance of a safe delivery for mother and baby.

That said, I neither have nor plan to have kids, so my opinion on the subject is pretty much moot.

I delivered my five boys at home, and most everyone I know gives birth at home. So I guess I'm coming from the opposite background.

I drafted a response, then realized it was over 1,000 words. There is much to say. I'll just say the most important single element of birth is father and mother preparation. Take a child birth class. Read a minimum of 3 books on the topic. Excercise. Research nutrition.

Don't just hire 'the best doctor' and trust everything will go perfect. The health of mother and child isn't determined at the point of birth, but it is built over a lifetime.

Hospital births CAN be successful, but you are often fighting the staff and hospital policies. Hospitals and doctors don't know much about NORMAL birth. They study, train, and get PAID to handle ABNORMAL births.

Which is exactly when you want medical facilities around. Of course, if everything goes perfect there's no need for doctors and hospitals. Similarly, it would be theoretically easy to have a plane take off, fly to it's destination and land on instruments without a pilot, but the reason we have pilots on board is for when things go wrong.

You can't foresee the future, and you can't be certain that the birth will be normal.

I realise that the health of the mother and child is an ongoing process, but if either die in childbirth it's not going to be a very long process, is it? The fact is that there are plenty of situations that are inconveniences in a hospital, but life-threatening emergencies at home.

Anyway, as I said, my opinion here is entirely academic. I'm glad your kids came into the world safe and sound.

Ya know, you're all complaining about infant mortality when you should be complaining about obvious, inane, laugh tracks.

Here's some more information regarding the relative outcomes of planned home birth versus hospital births (in the US):

http://www.mana.org/blog/home-birth-safety-outcomes

"Of particular note is a cesarean rate of 5.2%, a remarkably low rate when compared to the U.S. national average of 31% for full-term pregnancies. When we consider the well-known health consequences of a cesarean -- not to mention the exponentially higher costs -- this study brings a fresh reminder of the benefits of midwife-led care outside of our overburdened hospital system."

That same study reveals home birth death rate is 450% higher than hospital.

That is the study you want to use to defend home birth?

According to the CDC, the neonatal death rate for low risk white women* at term is 0.38/1000.

According to the Mana Study:
The overall death rate from labor through six weeks was 2.06 per 1000 when higher risk women (i.e., those with breech babies or twins, those attempting VBAC, or those with preeclampsia or gestational diabetes) are included in the sample, and 1.61 per 1000 when only low risk women are included.

I actually got that from "Citizens for Midwifery"

Their own figures show the death rate to be 4 times higher, even for low risk.

It's really quite simple as far as I'm concerned. After everything is else is said and done, you have a better chance of a healthy baby and mother in a hospital. Babies that could be saved at a hospital die because they are at home. Until you can argue the reverse, I'm still in the hospital camp.



* the majority of the participants in the Mana study where low risk wealthy white women, so it's a fair comparison.

Sorry man, the cost vs benefits of digging into the stats just isn't worth it for me in this case. I'd wish you the best at your birth, but it's all academic as you've said. I would certainly engage more if you had something at stake.

You make some fine points!