Unassisted home birth ?

Question

Ok mamas! Have any of you considered an unassisted (no medical professionals present) home birth? I live in Nebraska where they have made it illegal for any med. professional to assist you at home during the birthing process (yes, midwives included) and no where offers water births aside from one birthing center that i can't afford. 
Just looking for advice! I really think a water birth would be best for me and baby - if everything goes well throughout the whole pregnancy. 
Any thoughts?

Answer

If you can't have assistance, I would not do it.  Giving birth can be dangerous and with no professionals there I think you are putting yourself and your baby in unnecessary danger. I know the hospital isn't your ideal birth plan, but at least everyone gets to come home safe.

Answer

Maybe look into the Bradley Method? From my understanding, it teaches you how to manage birth, pain, etc, and I think I read that 90% of women who use it have vaginal or unmedicated births. If you end up with a hospital birth, maybe this can be a good compromise? I understand how you feel. I am using a midwife at a birth center and am disgusted to hear that Nebraska won't let you have one at home!

Answer

My husband and I are essentially wanting an unassisted delivery. BUT we have hired a midwife to make sure that everything is safe. We will rely on her to catch anything that might make us want to transfer. And this is my 4th baby with no history of funky births in the past. Plus, the prenatal care is really valuable. You're in such a tricky position. I don't blame you for wanting a water birth of of the hospital! If you decide to go the UA route, I would have prenatal care done somewhere, and educate yourselves like crazy about birth and everything surrounding it. Your husband will have a ton of pressure on his shoulders to make sure everything is okay as you will be in crazy birth land. Lol

Is the birth center absolutely not a possibility? Could you potentially make payments or arrange something? If I were you, I would explore that more deeply. Another option might be to travel out of state, depending on how close you are to the border. You could do a hotel birth with a midwife in a neighboring state. Especially since this is your first, you might find that you really want that safety net when the time comes!

Answer

I think not wanting to spend the money is a ridiculous reason to not have a medical professional at the birth of your baby. I'm all about home birth and birthing centers, I've done it, but unassisted just isn't safe. My babies shoulders got stuck, my blood wasn't clotting right, I needed stitches, and I had a million questions even though I had read tons of books and this was my second natural delivery. Would you know what to do in these situations?  Would you know when to call 911. There's also problems that only a professional can detect, like vitamin defficancys, placenta problems that could be deadly without c section, brech position. So on and so on.

Answer

Why not buy a birthing tub and bring it where you intend to give birth?

Answer

I'm having a homebirth with a midwife (in Maine it's not legal, but it's not illegal, either.) with my third. I'm honestly not sure I'd be brave enough to do it without bp and natal heart monitoring, especially with my first. But if you have the baby in position and both of you are completely healthy at your last visit, and you know how to monitor vitals and catch signs of distress at home, I guess? Just know that if something goes wrong, it would all be on you emotionally and legally. Because Nebraska is the worst. I'm sorry you have such jerk senators!

Answer

I don't think that's a good idea. There are a lot of things that are not foreseen before the delivery that can require medical attention. I think you would be putting yourself and your baby at risk by not having medical professionals there.

Answer

I would weigh out the risks vs the benefits here.

Answer

Personally, I would never want to do a home birth. I would so much rather be at the hospital where they clean up after the messiness that is giving birth and stitch you back up if needed and can give you higher strength pain meds if needed. I'm also a wimp and want an epidural. And as annoying as it is to have nurses and doctors coming in your room every couple hours to bother you and baby, it's good to know that everyone is healthy and recovering well. Newborns require a lot of attention and I think I'd be scared trying to deal with all that immediately after giving birth with no outside help or professional opinion. But the decision is totally up to you, this is just my reasoning for hospital birth.

Answer

Could you find a doula? If you feel good about it I say do it!  Have you had other successful vaginal births or is this your first?  How close is the hospital or birth center you'd need to go to in the event of an emergency. Those are the questions id ask myself. But I say more power to you!  If that's what you want and have a healthy pregnancy and no known labor complications going into it I say do it!  Bravo!

Unassisted home birth ?

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