Interview with my aunt about her home birth versus her birth at the hospital
Question 1: What made you decide to get a home birth in the first place?
Response: The main reason why i decided to have a home birth is because it is a tradition in my family that has been done for many years. Another aspect that help me decide on having a home birth than a hospital birth is that when my mother had me it was through a home birth. I really wanted to have a natural birth I really wanted to feel connected to my body and my newborn child. I feel that "technological intervention should not be apart of any birth.
Question 2: Did you have a Mid wife and what was that experience like?
Response: Lucky enough for me one of my closest friends worked at a birthing center and was a midwife there so when I finally made my decision on having a home birth I knew exactly who i was going to ask to assist me through the process. What made the experience for me such a good one is because i knew who i was dealing with and the personality of the person and that they were going to do their best to make sure my birth was a good one. The feeling of having someone watching 24 hours made me feel more safe because any time I had a question and wasn't sure of something I could always go to her and she always had a answer for me which made me feel better and better as the birth went on.
Question 3: Even though you were having a home birth were there any times you felt like you should go to the hospital?
Response: There was actually one time during my pregnancy where I was having extremely painful contractions and I remember telling my mid wife and my husband that I need pain medication and I want to go to the hospital, but as the day went on the contractions went down and i came back to my senses and decided that I wasn't going to the hospital no matter what and I fully trust Janet(mid wife) and what she is doing.
Question 4: Did any of your family or friends criticize your decision to have a mid wife?
Response: There was a big difference between my family and my friends opinions. Mostly everyone in my family supported me in my decision especially my mother, since she had a home birth with me she felt that it was only right for me follow in her footsteps. The contrast with my friends was that they felt the hospital was the normal thing to do and that I was crazy for even considering having a home birth.
Question 5: Even though for your first child you had a home birth for your second child what made you decide to have the birth in the hospital?
Response: I wanted to be able to experience both sides of the birth, so that I wouldn't be bias towards one side. I feel that having a home birth and the hospital birth was one of the most powerful moments in my life I was able to compare and contrast the two and really analyze the process of Birth.
Question 5: How was it when you had the hospital birth?
Response: To me it seemed very fast the way the doctors and nurses moved and how they rushed me to the ER. I feel that with the home birth things are slow and calm while on the hand the hospital was fast and frantic. Since I was so use to being in the comfort of my home when I gave birth when I had my child in the hospital I didn't feel that sense of comfort and relaxation. I realized that my mid wife took it really slow and ask me how what i was thinking about and what was going through my head and how I felt about the process, but in the hospital to me it seemed like they didn't care about my feelings they just wanted to get the baby out and call it a day.
Question 6: Did anything happen in the hospital that you where against?
Response: There was actually a time were the doctors were talking about an emergency C-Section, but once they said that automatically refused to have that and their response was that it wasn't a guarantee it was just in case.
Question 7: How did they deal with the contractions and pain and how was that different from your home birth?
Response: They gave me an epidural which cut the pain in half and it made me feel way better then when I came in. What was different was that you felt way more pain in the home birth and there nothing you can do about but deal with it and push that baby out.
Question 8 : Did you feel that same connection with your baby at the hospital that you felt when you gave birth at home?
Response: I feel that your always going to have that connection with your baby because it yours and it was inside of you for 9 months, it's just the surroundings that changed I was use to being at home with my mid wife and husband not tons of doctors and nurses.
Overall thoughts and opinions?
Response: Deep in my heart I feel that all women should have home births because it's definitely a once in life time experiance, that changed my life. but i also feel that there is nothing wrong with a hospital Birth and if you feel more comfortable at the hospital instead of home then you should have your birth at the hospital.
My Summary: I feel that by learning about home births and hospital births and watching the movie and doing interviews really help me understand pregnancy more and what aspect go into the birthing process. Even though I learned a lot about both sides am still not bias towards any of the two because I believe that both have their pros and cons. From my knowledge the birth of a child is life changing and the experiance even though is painful there is so much that you can get and learn from a home birth. I feel that when read Ina May's book The Guide to Child Birth she really help me get a clear understanding on how home births work and how natural births help woman connect to their bodies and baby's. One of the most powerful quotes in the book was on pg. 133 "Western medicine assumes a total separation between mind and body. Thoughts and feelings are considered the irrelevant to physical welfare. When something goes wrong with the body, our culture teaches that pharmaceutical medicines or surgery will be necessary" What makes that quote so powerful and significant to me is because it doesn't just connect to birth it connects to all aspects of the body that any time our bodies are sick or not functioning right doctors are quick to through unnecessary medication towards instead of letting our bodies heal natural and it's all just a way to keep money running though our country and another way to make something that is pure an industrial nightmarish atrocity. Even though home births to me seems like the right thing to do there is evidence and statistics that back up hospitals as well. "Approximately 1 in 200 us women deliver at home, accounting for approximately 25,000 deliveries annually. An estimated 75% of low risk singleton home births appear to be planned home deliveries. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist does not support home birth, citing safety concerns and the lack of rigorous scientific study"(Joseph R. Wax MD;F Lee Lucas, PhD, Maternal and newborn outcomes in planned home birth vs planned hospital births: a metanalysis) i also feel that there are very important things that can be done at a hospital that a doctor can do that a mid wife can't and certain procedures that the doctors have planned out for certain problems that go on during a birth. Even though I have learned so much from the whole birth unit i feel that there is more information that could be discovered to deepen my knowledge of pregnancy and birth.
Allwyn says:
ReplyDeleteChris,
In your project, you focused on your mothers opinions and thoughts and reasonings on why she chose home birth and hospital birth, YOu focused on both types of birth, the questions you asked were very interesting, and you introduced her reasons in the beginning by giving some background about your families traditions, which i found fascinating and allowed me to really grasp some more insight on your project and really understand your moms point of view more.
I liked how you asked questions about both types of birth and gave her questions to compare and contrast both types of birth, and birth experiences, but you not only interviewed your mom, you also gave us insight on your thought and feeling of this subject, and introduced some facts and quotes which improved/and greatly deepened your project profoundly.
Just something you could have done a little would be to talk more about how the hospital choice for your mom effected or how her friends and family reacted to this, but in an overall summary i really liked your project it not only gave personality but facts as well, great job and it was really insightful, thank you
What made your project unique was that it wasn't an essay throughout out the whole thing, but an interview. Which to me is more interactive, especially after reading 3 other blogs, which don't get me wrong, were good. But it was nice to see something a bit different. To start off I think you had a really lucky interviewee, to have both home and hospital birth is pretty unique, i'm surprised she even did a home birth with the lack of knowledge of home births. Based on what we've learn in class and my knowledge from research, I can see why the mother wanted to have a feel of both births. Which also doesn't surprise me that she liked the home birth more. I never wrote or said this on neither my blog or in class, but I believe that the reason many women who have hospital births don't feel automatically connected to the baby as soon as it's born is because hospital births are made to tire the mothers out. It only makes sense, because they're on the spot and are constantly being sub textually rushed. But in a home birth since it's in the comfortable familiar environment of their home, and they're not rushed, it gives the mothers more time to focus on herself and the baby than other people, and after the baby is born they're more connected, because of the focus and will power she had to deliver it. Besides that you had a superb blog, and congratulations.
ReplyDeleteChris: I enjoyed reading your post. The main point of your post was the difference between home births and hospital births. I valued the part of your post when you asked the question; How was it when you had hospital birth? I valued this because the clear and the amount of depth that was used to answer it. This gave a clear understanding on why woman choose home births. This project matters to me because both hospital births and home births are important to the baby’s health. Which choice is actually the best choice?
ReplyDeleteI overall thought your post was good but there is a way you might be able to make it better. If you get different point of views besides one point of view you and your readers would have more evidence behind your theory.
Chris M
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that you studied a topic that was specif to yourself because it gives the post a little more meaning. One reason why I wanted to read your blog is because it connected to mine, and it was cool to see how someone else looked at the same topic. Also, the way in which your post was formatted kept it interesting. Because it was an interview format along with a summary it made it more unique because most of the other blogs were in the normal format , I'm not saying that other post were bad, its just that it made yours stand out a bit more. Your post seemed a little stronger than your speech but both your speech and post were interesting. A very good project overall!