Why Are Homebirths Illegal in Alabama?

[Silence]

My best friend's daughter wants to be a midwife.
To my knowledge, she's never had any medical training. One hopes that would be addressed at some point, lol.

One would hope so

I have no problem with midwives. I had one who took care of me throughout my pregnancy. She did all my check ups and monitored my progress. I saw the doctor 2 or 3 times throughout my pregnancy because it was so uneventful. She was also there with me when I delivered but the doctor was there too.

 

[AllieBaba]

I had natural child birth and when I tell people that to thinks I'm insane...not insane..just afraid of needles in my back..

I don't remember any of it due to the massive blood loss and sedatives they had to pump in me because I kept trying to get off the table to get to my daughter because she wasn't crying.

THis is getting weird...I wouldn't let them touch my back with a needle, either. I had a traumatic experience with a darning needle in my back as a child (I was sewing clothes for Raggedy Ann, put the needle in the back of my little kid's upholstered rocker, then sat back on it...) and spent 3 1/2 hours on my stomach in ER with a doctor chasing that thing around my spine through two different incisions.

No needles in my back, thanks.

I did natural with the first two (I wasn't given the option of drugs...it was the 80s) and then was completely doped for my daughter (miserable, painful pregnancy...) and for the last one I said just give me the pain killers, lay off whatever that crap is that knocks you out. But these were IV drugs...NOT the meds to the spine. Shudder.

 

[Silence]

THis is getting weird...I wouldn't let them touch my back with a needle, either. I had a traumatic experience with a darning needle in my back as a child (I was sewing clothes for Raggedy Ann, put the needle in the back of my little kid's upholstered rocker, then sat back on it...) and spent 3 1/2 hours on my stomach in ER with a doctor chasing that thing around my spine through two different incisions.

No needles in my back, thanks.

I did natural with the first two (I wasn't given the option of drugs...it was the 80s) and then was completely doped for my daughter (miserable, painful pregnancy...) and for the last one I said just give me the pain killers, lay off whatever that crap is that knocks you out. But these were IV drugs...NOT the meds to the spine. Shudder.

yeah, I had IV drugs...I believe it was seconal or staydal (spelling?) which is a non narcatic that doesn't pass through to the baby. It was important to me that she not come out high

I've heard so many horror stories from friends who had epidurals and they STILL have back pain years later. My daughter was induced and they told me I'd be in a LOT of pain...like full on labor right from the start and I made them put it in my chart that no matter how much I begged for it they better not stick me with a needle in my back.

 

[jillian]

why shouldnt a woman give birth at home..that is where it has been done for centuries..childbirth is a natural human condition. It is not an illness why should one be in a hospital to do it? Why do we now have the vast majority of births receiving some type of medical intervention? How high is the ceasarian rate in the US as compared to other modern countries?

women gave birth at home in days of hugely high infant mortality and hugely high rates of women dying in childbirth. they gave birth at home in days when there were either no hospitals nearby or they couldn't afford hospitals.

Natural, my butt... we take novocaine to have a tooth drilled. I've never understood why women think there's some type of extra honor in being in excrutiating pain.

Me? I loved my c-section and I LOVED my epidural.

 

[Luissa]

I had natural child birth and when I tell people that they think I'm insane...not insane..just afraid of needles in my back..

I don't remember any of it due to the massive blood loss and sedatives they had to pump in me because I kept trying to get off the table to get to my daughter because she wasn't crying.

I am glad I saw exactly what they do after I had one. The best part is you have to very still when they do and you are having painful contractions. And I give you much props for having it natural, I hear it goes faster!

 

[jillian]

yeah, I had IV drugs...I believe it was seconal or staydal (spelling?) which is a non narcatic that doesn't pass through to the baby. It was important to me that she not come out high

I've heard so many horror stories from friends who had epidurals and they STILL have back pain years later. My daughter was induced and they told me I'd be in a LOT of pain...like full on labor right from the start and I made them put it in my chart that no matter how much I begged for it they better not stick me with a needle in my back.

when I met my ob, I asked him his philosophy of pain management. He told me he'd do whatever his patients want.

That's when I told him we could work together.

 

[AllieBaba]

I was in labor for three days with one of my natural births. Is that faster? Lol...

 

[random3434]

yeah, I had IV drugs...I believe it was seconal or staydal (spelling?) which is a non narcatic that doesn't pass through to the baby. It was important to me that she not come out high

I've heard so many horror stories from friends who had epidurals and they STILL have back pain years later. My daughter was induced and they told me I'd be in a LOT of pain...like full on labor right from the start and I made them put it in my chart that no matter how much I begged for it they better not stick me with a needle in my back.

Sadly, you are right on the things that can go wrong in childbirth.

I had one friend become paralyzed after her epidural, and another die in childbirth of an aneurysm.

It's scary the things women go through in childbirth, I would say a hospital is the way to go.

 

[Silence]

I am glad I saw exactly what they do after I had one. The best part is you have to very still when they do and you are having painful contractions. And I give you much props for having it natural, I hear it goes faster!

Well an epidural can stop contractions. my labor was induced because my daughter was 2 weeks late and they feared she'd be a 10 pounder if she stayed in much longer

Nothing was stopping my labor but I still had an irrational fear of them sticking me in the back with a needle. Nothing I'm sure like Allie's...egads, I can't even imagine going through that Allie....

I was still in labor for 13 hours... I started at 0 and had to go to 10... it wasn't fun and I tell people to avoid being induced if they can help it...it makes things difficult to say the least.

 

[AllieBaba]

The philosophy about child birth has changed since the 80s.

In the 80s doctors were very dismissive of the pain of women, particularly if those women happened to be welfare mothers. Welfare mothers were encouraged to do without pain management (though I wasn't offered the option because my doctor, who later taught at OHSU, was a hippie) and race home without spending more than a day (or less, if possible) at the hospital.

They don't do that anymore, when it was realized that they were sending welfare mothers home and they were hemmorhaging and getting sick and getting infections and such.

So now most doctors actually have the pain management conversation with their clients. And moms are encouraged to stay at least a couple of days. I'm older now, I've learned that once you go home there is no rest, so I took advantage of my hospital stays with the last two. The night I went home after the 4th one I had to cook dinner for 5 kids and two adults. Yikes.

 

[Silence]

I was in labor for three days with one of my natural births. Is that faster? Lol...

Good Lord Allie.. you're brave for doing that more than once!

I think that's why men chose women to have babies...if men had to go through what we go through the human race would die out... they are such wimps

The night I went home after the 4th one I had to cook dinner for 5 kids and two adults. Yikes.

Allie, that's what Pizza Hut is for

I stayed in the hosptial for 5 days and then they only let me go home if my sister agreed to stay with me (single mom)... when my sister had her son 11 years before that they tried to make her go home 9 hours after delivery...she was 17 and uninsured. My mother told them she'd sue their asses off if anything happened to my sister or her son.... she stayed in the hospital for 2 days

 

[random3434]

when I met my ob, I asked him his philosophy of pain management. He told me he'd do whatever his patients want.

That's when I told him we could work together.

I hear ya sister!

I wasn't in any pain for 23 hours of labor, thanks to the wonder of drugs.


But,,,,,,,,,,what they forgot to do is give us drugs to take for our children while they are ages 13-17..............................

 

[AllieBaba]

17-21 is even worse.

After 21 it starts getting better.

 

[Luissa]

Well an epidural can stop contractions. my labor was induced because my daughter was 2 weeks late and they feared she'd be a 10 pounder if she stayed in much longer

Nothing was stopping my labor but I still had an irrational fear of them sticking me in the back with a needle. Nothing I'm sure like Allie's...egads, I can't even imagine going through that Allie....

I was still in labor for 13 hours... I started at 0 and had to go to 10... it wasn't fun and I tell people to avoid being induced if they can help it...it makes things difficult to say the least.

Yeah I was enducesd and it lasted 26 hours but no three days! Wow!I don't know how you did Allie. When my doctor told me I would have a c section, I wanted to give him a hug. Being induced also make your contraction more intense.

 

[Luissa]

17-21 is even worse.

After 21 it starts getting better.

And I have to agree about 17 on was hard for me! I sure after 21 you start to get used to it. My problem is I had a migrane the night before I went in and didn't sleep at all, I think it was because I was so nervous. The best part is next time I just get to make an appointment for my c section and go right it in. My doctor talked about a V Bag but there is no way I am doing that.

 

[jillian]

I hear ya sister!

I wasn't in any pain for 23 hours of labor, thanks to the wonder of drugs.


But,,,,,,,,,,what they forgot to do is give us drugs to take for our children while they are ages 13-17..............................

Oh man... I hear that one! They can be truly painful sometimes, though i might move the age to 10. lol...

 

[Gunny]

I heard someone mention this and I just did a small amount of research. I learned that in Alabama, midwives need to be Certified Nurse Midwives and can only participate in births at hospitals. How did this bill get passed in this state? What was the logic?

Tax dollars for the certification.

 

[strollingbones]

i am really wondering if any of you have any experience with midwives etc? I am also amazed at the attitude that childbirth is something one must endure the pain or have an epi or what....maybe it is because midwives are used a great deal in the nc mountains that I cannot see limiting a woman's choice.

anodaotal shit: the only person i know who has died in childbirth...died in a hospital.

Seems to me...today's women are scared of childbirth...that is hardly a good thing.

 

[strollingbones]

Tax dollars for the certification.

and gunny nails the real question.

 

[editec]

Woman dying in childbirth is perfectly natural.

Do come visit me here in Maine, a place loaded with cemetaries which are hundreds of years old.

The number of mothers and newborns buried together in these graveyards will very quickly wake ya'll up the fact that childbirth is one damned dangerous undertaking.

All that being said, I still think it is WRONG AS HELL to FORCE people to have children in a hospital if they choose not to.

I think that is WRONG AS HELL for exactly the same reason I think abortions are nobody's business but the woman's, and for the same reason I still smoke hemp...because our bodies are our own, and the government has absolutely no fucking right WHATEVER to tell us what we can do with them.