Is Home Birth Dangerous? | ObGyn Compares Hospital to Homebirth

Im so confused. Mothers have been giving birth in their own houses for centuries. How is it more risky? Is the data skewed because we dont account for those births? In my home country, home birth is the first option, and usually successful as long as the person is healthy.

I would love a video titled “how men ruined obstetrics: paternalistic care” detailing what you meant by that term. What are examples of paternalistic care?

It was hard to trust the "medical community" as my pregnant wife was constantly told to "get vaccinated for covid" at so many visits. Glad we skipped that one!

A big missing favor is race…

I just want a home birth so i can squat, I do not want to lay down while giving birth. Gravity help me.

I would like to see information on malpractice by hospitals that have resulted in babies death. I don’t think this video has all the information. For example the doctor that killed a baby during a hospital delivery by using brute force. And also without explaining the abuse that is possible at the hospital I don’t think this video is unbiased.

I've given birth at home with the same midwife 5 times, and I'll do it again with my 6th in a few months. I trust my midwife implicitly because I know she is extremely well trained and she continues to update her training/education regularly. She's been practicing for nearly 40 years, she's delivered somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 babies, and she has never lost a mother or baby while under her care. She has amazing instincts and she won't hesitate to transfer to the hospital when the situation calls for it, but she is also highly capable of handling the majority of minor complications at home.

Home birth is definitely the safest option for me because my labors are extremely fast. My last two babies came in less than 30 minutes - and I mean from first contraction to baby in my arms! If I were to attempt to get to the hospital, I would be at serious risk of delivering in the car on the side of the road. Once I hit about 37 weeks, I almost never leave the house because I have a serious fear of having my baby at Costco or somewhere like it! (Thank goodness for great husbands and grocery delivery services!)

I believe in the crucial importance of choice when it comes to birth. Moms should never feel pressured or terrorized into having their babies somewhere they don't feel safe/comfortable. I also believe in the crucial importance of choosing the right healthcare provider for your situation. If you want to use a midwife, interview several of them and ask about their experience and training. If you want to use an OB/GYN, look up reviews online from other women who have delivered them. This will really help to weed out the bad eggs and give you the greatest chance of a positive outcome.

So thankful our local birth center has a partnership with the nearest hospital. When I needed an emergency transfer, I think it was handled so well (Wisconsin, USA)

I've had three pregnancies.
1. hospital vaginal birth
2. Intended homebirth, miscarried at 13 weeks. I had to transfer to a hospital for heavy bleeding and the process did not go smoothly.
3. Full term, healthy home birth with midwives.
I agree with you completely that an integrated system and consistent training would massively improve outcomes. Not everyone are good candidates for home birth and that's okay.

My sister was a low-risk baby but coming out she pressed the umbilical cord with her head and needed an emergency c-section. I was told she'd be brain damaged if the c-section was delayed even by a minute. This is the reason why the idea of a home birth scares me.

You are spitting a ton of beautiful facts about experience that OBGYNs have...and yet the maternal mortality rate keeps climbing here in the U.S. Sorry, but that is shameful. You people are failing women and you need to wake up and do better. This is unacceptable.

I'm giving tough love in an attempt to get you people to actually change things and have better patient outcomes, so don't get offended. Get active and busy. Get to work, essentially.

Syracuse NY St. Joe's Hospital as a birth place right next door. Two of my children were born there. It was awesome.

As someone who's been interested in birth work for years and wants to be a midwife, this has been insanely frustrating. I wish there was some website that would lay it all out and tell me what to do step by step, but instead there's about 1,000 and they all say slightly different things. Luckily my state has passed a bill requiring all future midwives to be certified, which is moving in the right step. I'm starting out as a birth doula and I plan on going to a midwifery college so that I have somewhat standardized information to back me up.

Thank you for that helpful video!

there’s a great documentary called the business of being born i encourage everyone to watch!

the fact that hospitals still encourage/ force people to give birth on their back which closes their vaginal canal and is one of the very worst ways to get a baby out…why would anyone trust a hospital with such a thing?

I had 1 birth center birth and 3 homebirths with midwives. All went well. I was thankful I could stay home (and it ended up being less expensive). Do what’s best for you and be prepared for emergencies.

I feel like a good takeaway from this is 2 fold: 1. risks are different in each setting, low risk does not mean NO RISK. 2. Don't cherry pick information to support a decision that you want to be right for you....take your time and REALLy examine which option is truly best and safest for you and your family. And what ever decision that is, have a happy, beautiful delivery and baby! Good luck everyone!!!

We just dont want to be treated like a birthing machine at hospital. Thats how they treat you, like you arent a human. They force pitocin on you ,they dont Follow consent..... tell you to "quiet down" fuck that.

Autonomy and choice yes but you're totally wrong about the people choosing Homebirth don't generally care about the data. They care about not leaving their own space more often. They care about being fully respected. They care about having less interference. They care about it being a family affair with siblings. Or intimate the way sex is. They was to feel unhindered and relaxed and not on guard having to constantly advocate for themselves. And, while there are some urgent situations that can be problematic at home, most are detectable with enough time to get to a hospital. And no one gets to decide if I'm the best candidate for Homebirth... Except me.

Why does she keep saying "people" instead of women? Only women can give birth.

Had amazing homebirths with both of my children. Would be absolutely terrified if i ever had to go to a hospital to give birth.
I used to be terried of labor, once i learned about the physiology of birth and that standard medical care we receive in the U.S, i felt much safer dropping my OBGYN and choosing midwives.
Best decision I've ever made. I even had some complications with my first that i KNOW wouldve made me get a csection at the hospital.
Also i had insurance that wouldve covered both births. I decided to pay out of pocket for midwives instead.

In the UK the NHS were told home births are safer, but what your saying about being approved for safety reasons and the integration of the hospital and home birth units is so true. You have to be having an uncomplicated low risk pregnancy to be considered for a home birth and the midwifes who do the home births also work at the hospital and will take you in at any sign of trouble. The ambulance service also park any free ambulances at the end of a womans road while a home birth is going on.

Healthcare in the States seems either really great if you have money, or horrible. In Canada if you deliver at hospital or want a midewife at home, or birth centre, the wholw process and whichever way you choose yo birth is covered

My mom gave birth to both of my siblings in hospital (Texas), then gave birth to me at home. I was 2 weeks late, 9 lbs, and caused her to require a partial hysterectomy. I hadn't realized until more recently how close she might've come to death back then.

Home birth with a 9 lb baby and I'm 5 ft tall. Pushing stage was 5 hrs (2nd baby). Very glad I stayed home because no hospital is going to "allow" a 2nd time mom to push for 5 hrs. But she was born without tearing! Tiny women can have large babies at home!

I was born in 1982, at home, on purpose. My mom said the only people with her were her midwife and my dad. No issues at all. My younger brother was supposed to be born at home too, but he was 11lbs, and breech, so they had to go to the hospital for a C-section. That was the first time I had been inside of a hospital, 4.5 years old, just to visit my mom. My brother is 4.5 years younger than me, down to the half hour. Me: 02/23/1982 @6:15pm. My brother: 08/23/1986 @5:45pm. So my bday is his half bday and vice versa.

I was born at home in the Netherlands! ☺️ Quite a few of my friends growing up, it’s a thing here (I believe the number is 1 in 3). What also helps I think is that the Netherlands is a really small country and people live on avarage 5km of a hospital in the more populated areas and 9km in the less populated areas (everyone less then 6 miles), so if anything seems to go wrong, help is nearby.

Mama Doctor Jones, thanks for sharing your insight and research into this and for honestly showing both sides of this discussion. I do have a question though regarding hospital births. I’ve heard a lot of women talking about how doctors at the the hospital always try to rush the process of birth and end up taking actions that many times ultimately leads to the patient either needing a c-section, or being talked into one by their doctor who makes them scared. What would you say is the best way to give birth in the hospital while maintaining your autonomy as a patient/mother while also honestly being informed about what’s going on but not being affected by what my friends have called “the scared factor” that it seems a lot of doctors use to push along a birth?
An example would be, I watched a video about how the rate of c-sections has increased because more and more doctors have started pushing pitosin unto a mother who may not be progressing “fast enough”. This then leads to more painful contractions which makes the mother want an epidural, which then often slows down the progress because the mother doesn’t feel the need to push, and ultimately leads to a birth that has gone on so long that a c-section is required because the baby is now struggling. I have a couple of my friends who also describe this exact scenario.
I would feel better having my baby in a hospital incase emergency care is needed but I really want the peace and freedom for my body to do what it was made to do.

The medical system in the US has no intention of preserving the sacredness of birth and assisting birthing moms have the birth they desire. Basic ways to ensure this would be (1) to have education in consent and non-coercion for doctors and midwives and (2) to ensure patients can choose who will attend their birth and have 1:1 care for each birthing mother. If hospitals made an effort to do that, there is no doubt that the relative morbidity and mortality in hospitals would drop by more than the relative difference between home birth and hospital birth. But that is inconsistent with profit incentives and the paternalist mix and coercive norms that exists in the US. The rates of emotional trauma and nonconcentual intervention in hospital birth is obscene. Parents must prioritize their well being during birth. It’s very sad that they have to choose between safety and well being. It’s most certainly on hospitals and not on parents to fix this. The solution can’t be to simply accept the lower morbidity and mortality at hospitals and give up on the quality of birth experience.

I had a traumatic experience with a hospital midwife who wasn't my doctor and I was high risk she refused to call my doctor and made me deliver my daughter premature at 32-36 weeks in the US my water was ruptured for 36 hours and 30 minutes

What you describe near the end is the Irish / UK system. Every mother has a midwife (qualified nurses who specialised in birth) in the hospital. Doctor will do a few checks but only delivers the baby if there's a serious complication

I am a Traditional Holistic Midwife and I will transfer a woman without question if I think that there is a problem! Also I think that you should talk to Ina May Gaskin ? She has some good data on homebirths in the US

Physiological, undisturbed birth is actually safest for normal low risk ☺️ there is a lot of evidence to back this up. Look at Scandinavian countries where it’s the norm and there mortality rates next to ours with our hundreds of things that are managed and tested and controlled, only to have the outcomes we have, there’s a connection there.

I'm a student midwife in Europe and I love this video, it's very interesting! The way you're describing the ideal hospital setting is basically England! They have a floor dedicated to midwife and lowrisk, more comfy and another floor more highrisk. And the hospital midwifes can also go at home for homebirths, but in the end very few women choose to have homebirth because they can have a more eutocic birth experience at the hospital.

Also Europe has a standard for Midwifery even though the training varies a little depending on the country (full on Midwifery in some countries or Nursing then specialized Midwery in others). You have to deliver a certain number of babies etc and then your diploma is valid across Europe!

In the UK they are now encouraging unassisted homebirths to those who had previously given birth without issues who are interested in home births. They don't have enough community midwives to have assisted/attended home births.

I think half the issue is midwife isn't a legally protected title like it is in the UK. Home births are very successful and safe here because we have properly trained and educated people to help aid that option, who will if nessercary, submit the mother and/or baby to hospital in the case of an emergancy. They obviously evaluate risk factors with a multidisaplinary team, and often discurage first time mothers from birth at home as often they need more data on how the indivisual person is during birth medically. I think there needs to be a huge push for midwifes to be a protected title with proper education and training in the states before home birth can be a safer option overall. Which makes me sad, since I'm moving to the US to be with my fiance, and home birth would be my automatic go to.

There's a midwife led birth centre that you describe in hull, UK called the fatima allam centre. Doesn't matter to americans but wanted to say they exist over here and are growing in popularity 🙂

What if I literally just don't want to give birth on my back😂

So glad you like working with CNMs. In Iowa there are OBs who do not want them in the system, and therefore midwifery care is not an option for moms. This is unfortunate since Iowa does not have enough ob providers AND rural hospitals are closing ob units.

Your ideal birthing situation is like a birth center! I am NOT comfortable with the risks of a home birth, but I also have some mistrust in the hospital setting. I'm almost to my second trimester and have watched your videos for years, but as a first time mom to be, this gave me peace about my birth center decision. Close enough to a hospital just in case, but low intervention with a midwifery model of care. Thank you for the informative video!

I went to a clinic with all certified nurse midwives with PhDs. They were connect to the hospital. They had suite style rooms. I got transferred from the center because my water broke before contractions and their policy was “12 hours after the water breaks”. They wanted me to take Pitocin. I delayed it and didn’t end up needing it. But, I ended up having a vacuum assisted birth which caused third degree tears.

When I was considering homebirth 17 years ago, I found that hospitals didn’t allow things that women wanted to use to make labor & delivery easier like birthing stools, laboring in water, or water birth. Some hospitals, if they allowed laboring in water, would forced mom out for the birth, or wouldn’t allow mom in the water at all if mom’s water had broken.
My baby #2 was born at home, in a tub, unintentionally without the midwife.

I hope that they don’t standardize midwife care.

When things get “standardized” the overseeing boards are often corrupt and it becomes a money game, similar to our healthcare system

Women should have the freedom to pick whatever kind of provider they want and do their due diligence to pick the one that fits what they want

Freedom over standardization of care

You're naming the Netherlands as a good example. I hope we can maintain that quality of natal care, but unfortunately the quality of our overall healthcare system has declined significantly over the last decades. Privatisation, marketisation, cutbacks... In a couple of months we will elect a new national government, maybe they can undo some of the things that were done under prime minister Rutte's governments (he's finally quitting politics, so no matter what the outcome of the elections will be, there will be a new prime minister).

No one delivers a baby besides the mother. The egos of doctors within the indistrial medical complex baffles me.

Just have electives ladies, no sick baby, no days of torture, no ruined pelvic floor and embarrassing life long issues from that. Much more civilised.

Aurora Oshkosh Hospital in Wi has midwives doing cares and delivery. My sister had two with them so far.

I love your idea of having home birth rooms in the hospital! I think a great way to integrate this would be to allow MEAC accredited licensed midwives that are trained in out of hospital birth being in charge of that side of the floor with nurse midwives on the hospital side of the floor. CNMs are absolutely incredible but the majority of the time they are just not trained and out of hospital birth, so it's hard for them to really give that traditional home birth experience. I long to see a day where CNM's and accredited CPMs can work together ❤️