Homebirthers deserve good care at hospitals.

(another reply to the homebirth debacle.)

Dr Amy, still looking for a reply about backup OBs. Do you accpet homebirthers? Will you provide backup care?

It might have been nice to be able to keep my sOB, when I fled to a lay midwife in my eighth month of pregnancy. After taking the hospital tour, I was horrified by the attitudes and facilities.

They only had a level one neonatal intensive care unit, which means not even enough to stabilize. Immediate transport by helicopter to another facility, without mom or dad. Mom wouldn't be released for at least twenty four hours to follow, and dad couldn't fly with the baby.

They made a big deal that you could drink water during labor, if your doc approves.

They did not have a tub, and said the shower would do the same.

By choosing to birth at the midwife's office, in her tub. I was safer. Her office was 7 minutes from deciding to go, to getting a C section at a facility with a level 4 neonatal intensive care unit. They would prep the room, with a phone call from her, and be ready on arrival.

How does your hospital treat a call from a midwife having trouble? Or do they not even call your facility?

Homebirth is much safer with good relations at a hospital. For the 5% who choose to transfer, they should recieve immediate good care, not a stern lecture on the evils of homebirth.

I've read stories where the hospital is so hostile, they don't act on the midwife's concerns, and start over, with intake questions and tests, letting the baby die.