As for now we are planning a "Hausgeburt" (homebirth) for our 5th child in March. In Switzerland (and abroad) not common. But after experiencing my last birth at home, I would love to deliver again at home. I found a midwive, had the pro's en con's explained by both the "Hausarzt" (GP) and the "Hebamme" (midwive). and decided it is worthwhile to take the risk (hospital is about 20mins, had no complications with the previous children). So when no complications occur, our 5th child wil be born at home as well.

Are there any women with homebirth experience here? (the other postings were from 2008&2009, so I am looking for some recent experience.)
I also like to share my own experience with anybody considering a homebirth.

Regards,

PS: love to meet or get in touch with Dutch or English speaking moms with their children in local schools in the Schaffhausen/West-Thurgau/North-Zürich area, eather also pregnant but not a must! :-)

I believe babies are still using the same "exit route" as they were in 2008/09, unless I missed something in the last couple of years..?

The stork drops them in from the chimney right? Or if no chimney he just leaves them on the front door

No the stork dropped mine in my bath at home ... but that was in 2007 so am I time expired?

But for what it is worth it was my second home birth but first in CH and all went as wonderfully as I could have wished for. Used an experienced home birth midwife from a nearby Gerburthaus. Glad it was planned for home because (unlike my first) baby was in a real hurry and I wouldn't have fancied the drive to the hospital.

Best bits - having my older child next door and popping over when baby was a few minutes old to take his first peep. Bacon sandwiches just after delivery, and all 4 of us going to sleep together a couple of hours later in our own bed.

Oh and actually the really priceless bit going to answer the door with the baby in my arms next morning to find a neighbour who had seen me at lunchtime the day before still pregnant and trying to get her to understand that yes, this was my baby and yes, it had been born at home. I had to bring her in for a sit down and restorative cup of tea!

Thank you ecb, how far was your hospital away? Did you experience many "critisism" on your decision?
My first homebirth was just like you described and having the older ones around was great.

NB: The reason for asking for more recent postings is 1. the reasons for having this homebirth in these older postings were different, 2. I would like to get in touch with other people in this "situation"

Have you also asked your neighbors whether they would like to hear you scream all night?

Not all women feel the need to scream continuously in order to manage the labour of childbirth.

I went to a birthhouse which was a wonderful halfway house between a hospital and a homebirth. You obviously know what to expect from a homebirth, but if you do want to get away from the other kids to focus on the new one a birthhouse might be worth considering.

Well it can't be worse than a crying baby.

I have no experience of homebirth here (uk and France) but wanted to wish you all the best. There'll probably be a bunch of people who'll think you're either insane or just one step away from the animals to have a homebirth, but they're probably best ignored...

Go for it, you'll do perfectly well! The only reason I didn't have a homebirth with my 2nd child was that the walls are very thin at our place and I didn't feel free with moving around and screaming... But being a local and also a doula, I encourage you to trust your feelings and rely on your body. Surround yourself with supportive people (hubbie, midwife, doula, ...) and organise an extra person that's gonna look after the older kid(s).

And look at this, isn't she wonderful? Sheila Kitzinger tells her birth story Link and this is the title of one of her books: "Birth Your Way: Choosing Birth at Home or in a Birth Centre"

Wishing you all the best!

If I hadn't had to have c-secs I certainly would have opted for home birth. I think you are more in control and many interventions performed in a hospital are only necessary because you're in a hospital or the staff is not patient enough and wants to get over with it.

Good luck with your home birth, I planned for a home birth but went to hospital last minute. Was still a great experience though and don't have any regrets.

ECB great experience there! I love the whole simplicity of homebirth - as long as everything does fine, so much more peaceful and homely.

Aab74, I hope you have a great homebirth and find someone who can share their experiences with you.

Things went tremendously wrong while I was giving birth to my first child, and if I hadn't been in a top-notch university hospital neither me nor my son would be here today.

Only a tiny tiny percentage of births turn that wrong. But are you ready to take the risk, when the life of an unborn baby might be in danger?

I had two hospital births and one home birth. Homebirth is a rare thing these days in Australia, but mine was even rarer - a homebirth supported by my local hospital... and my third one was 4.7kg born...had a little trouble wriggling out in the final stage, but that also happened with my first birth, so I knew what I needed to do...

It is an awesome luxury to be able to have top-notch midwife care, and be only a short drive in the car to the hospital...and being pre-booked means you can circumvent the 'emergency' scenarios... unlike my cousin, who had an unplanned homebirth and had to convince her husband to catch the baby instead of staring out the window in the hope that the ambulance would arrive

One hospital is about 15 minutes away but a much better one (with baby ICU) is over half an hour away. The big issue for me was that the midwife said that we would have to drive to hospital ..in the UK any transfer to hospital when you are midwife accompanied and in labour would be by ambulance ... and if circumstances necessitated it, by blue light -meaning that hospital really wasn't far away.

The midwife really did not have any goodies at all with her here in CH - in the UK they had brought gas and air (I didn't use it though), organised a birthing pool and brought a sort of makeshift incubator thing (not really quite sure what it was - wasn't really concentrating on it when they were bringing stuff in). Also in the UK I had two midwives the whole time, but here just one (although she had a back up incase of illness etc). In the end none of this mattered but before hand these were the things that had concerned me the most following my previous experience.

No one criticised me (at least not to my face ) and frankly it wouldn't have bothered me if they had - more annoyed me really. It's a personal decision, not one that suits many people but at the end of the day, its really no ones business but you and your partners. If you're going to be responsible enough to bring the baby up, I think you have to be considered responsible enough to weigh up the pros and cons as to where to have the baby and make a safe and sensible decision. I found my midwife first and she referred me to a sympathetic gynaecologist. As it turned out, he lives in our village and was really keen to join in the home birth fun (years since he'd been to one apparently) but it's not really a floor show is it, so I vetoed that. I had no big "talking to" as to the issues surrounding my choice, but perhaps it was because it was a second hme birth? Indeed it was remarkably easy to organise.

I think acquaintances were a little surprised (and even a little shocked) if I told them about the idea but I don't really recall telling many people really. And yes, I did a few astonished comments along the lines of FrankS on this thread, but well, you can't take something like that very seriously can you?

Once you have all the information at your fingertips, trust your instinct. Good luck.

We had a waterbirth at home in the US last year. I was told by my ILs in CH that it was fairly common there, so I'm surprised it seems not to be!!

After having my first in the hospital and my second at home, I would, personally only go to a hospital again if I had issues. Just make sure you have a good, experienced midwife who brings the basic emergency supplies just in case and enjoy.

Its funny, it took 3 months after my son's hospital birth to get excited about birth again. With my daughter, I was excited again within the hour. The environment was so much more positive than the hospital. I felt like I was scared into doing things there that would not have been an issue at home.

Its not for everyone, but I thought it was amazing!

All of my four children were born at home. My now 14 year old was born in our little apartment in Paris. I'm sure our retired neighbors living in the building heard the midwife and my husband coaching me during the birth, but they were delighted to meet our boy and even brought gifts afterwards.

My U.S. doctor was not particularly agreeable to my planning a homebirth for my second child. Afterwards, however, he had to bedgrudgingly admit it was a good thing she was born at home, as we had 25 minutes between realizing I was definitely in labor to the time she arrived in my arms. Living 45 minutes from the nearest hospital, she would have been born in our car somewhere near the bridge across the Connecticut River.

After that, everyone let me pretty much plan the next two homebirths without much interference. Once you have two children and all goes smoothly, people stop giving you so much advice. The next two were born peacefully at home. I walked through our apple orchard while in labour and returned only just in time to get indoors into some nice warm water and there they were.

When you are relaxed and confident babies tend to find their way into the world without as much trouble. For me, the stress of the hospital environment and multiple people messing with me and telling me to lie down would tighten me up at a time you really need to be centered and positive.

Of course, things can and do go wrong. I've heard lots of stories and for some of my friends thank heavens they were in the hospital to have the medical intervention they needed. It's always a good idea to have a back up plan in life, while keeping a positive outlook.

My births were the most beautiful experiences of my life.

I'm quite sure many more women could have similar births if our culture were a bit more enlightened.

Good luck and all of my blessings!

How come a lot of women turn esoteric once they are pregnant or mothers? Does the hormone change impede rational thinking?

Maybe by the same token - being a single male without kids inhibits the ability to make anything but wild generalisations?

At least our responses are based on experience and/or hard fact...

Just sayin'

well, actually, I'm a married father, sentences including the words "a lot" aren't generalisations, and my posting is based on quite a number of observations.